Frequent Kernel Panics

Question

Frequent Kernel Panics

Ever since I updated to 10.5.3 I've been getting kernel panics at least every other day. I had only had one before the update and I haven't really made any other major changes so I'm assuming the update did something? Is anyone else having this problem?

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jun 23, 2008 10:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Jun 23, 2008 11:14 AM in response to xsweetwilliamx

Run Apple Hardware Test (it's on the discs that shipped with your Mac) and check your RAM. Bad RAM is a frequent cause of KPs.

Why didn't you get the panics with Tiger? Leopard stresses RAM much more that Tiger did. So it's possible that Tiger never accessed the bad parts of your RAM and so you didn't experience the panics before.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 23, 2008 7:45 PM in response to Király

Tried that and it said everything was working properly. Thanks for your help though!

Reply

Answer 3

RodneyW

Level 4

3,041 points

Jun 23, 2008 8:32 PM in response to xsweetwilliamx

It is possible that you are using an application that is not happy with OS X 10.5.3 (there are some new features and some new bugs).

For example, the only kernel panics that I get are when I am using Skype (that was also on 10.5.2 though).

Aside from that 10.5.3 has been more stable (lower memory usage) than 10.5.2 for me.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 23, 2008 8:41 PM in response to xsweetwilliamx

The first source of kernel panics is, I have read, usually RAM. After that, it's software conflicts. I had kernel panics with an earlier upgrade. After much discussion with Apple Support, they had me do an archive and install of the OS, which fixed the problem. I believe it was stray files left by a Norton product that caused the problem.

Try an archive and install of the OS and see if that doesn't fix your problem.

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 23, 2008 9:06 PM in response to xsweetwilliamx

As others have stated, RAM is a common cause. I had "upgraded" to 2GB in my early MacBook and had frequent kernel panics when I installed 10.4.11. I ran TECHTOOL DELUXE that came with AppleCare, and it never found a problem. I finally decided to remove / swap the RAM in various combinations to see if that improved things. I removed one RAM stick and haven't had a kernel panic since. Not sure if the problem was the RAM stick, socket or something else: just running with the one remaining (1GB) stick.

Wondering if you had installed different RAM?

Reply

Answer 6

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Jun 24, 2008 12:11 AM in response to xsweetwilliamx

I'd run it a few more times. Sometimes the Apple memory test returns false positives.

memtest run in single user mode works better that Apple Hardware Test for diagnosing bad memory. Give it a try. Let it run overnight.

Reply

Answer 7

Aug 10, 2008 9:36 PM in response to Craig Michelson

I tried the test several times and it said my RAM was fine. For awhile the kernel panics stopped but they're back again. My latest crash report said this, hope it helps:

Sun Aug 10 11:08:20 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001431A9): "zalloc: \"kalloc.8192\" (25 elements) retry fail 3"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.5.20/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:770
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x34087c88 : 0x12b0fa (0x4592a4 0x34087cbc 0x133243 0x0)
0x34087cd8 : 0x1431a9 (0x45aef0 0x459b38 0x19 0x3)
0x34087d38 : 0x12fa53 (0x19a52d8 0x1 0x78 0x1a236f)
0x34087d68 : 0x12fa72 (0x1690 0x1 0xbfe00000 0x0)
0x34087d88 : 0x11d99f (0x1690 0x46d74f0 0x34087df8 0x125e60)
0x34087db8 : 0x12d0f6 (0x10f0 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x34087df8 : 0x126257 (0x5c36200 0x0 0x78 0x34087ee4)
0x34087f08 : 0x1973dd (0x34087f44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x34087fc8 : 0x19f3b3 (0x43e20e0 0x0 0x1a20b5 0x4ffe2e8)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffedc18

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

Mac OS version:
9E17

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBook2,1 (Mac-F4208CAA)

Reply