Kernel panic at startup

rarrieta,

You wrote: "can't even boot off a disk because it kernel panics so fast".

Do you mean that you cannot boot from the install DVD?
If yes, then you have a hardware failure and need to take in to be repaired.

,dave

If you interrupted the application of an OS or security update, you may need to reinstall your operating system using your original DVD install disks and the archive and install option.

It is very unlikely that you are seeing a kernel panic as a result of what you describe. Can you be more specific about exactly how your machine crashes: for example, what appears on the screen when your boot process halts? Kernel panics are indicated typically by the display of a multilingual crash message, or the display of a specific kernel message and the creation of a crash log entry.

rarrieta,

Have you found a solution to this yet? I'm having the same issue. Can't boot from the iMac restore disc, and when I boot from the hard drive I get to the desktop for a few seconds then KP. Happens slower when the machine has been shut down for a few minutes. That suggests to me that it's a hardware issue. Though I'm trying to remain optimistic.

Have you guys tried booting up with the SHIFT key pressed? Maybe there is startup process that is causing this. If it does boot up with the shift key pressed go into system preferences, accounts, login items and turn off all those startups (write down what they are). That is for the person that actually gets to the desktop.

For the person who is getting kernel panic within seconds something must have gone wrong with an update that was interrupted. The system does not seem to recognize the installed OS version (it says not set). Insert your MacOS X DVD in the drive and boot up with the "C" key pressed until you see the Apple logo. Reinstall the oeprating system.

Tried that and got the KP when at the grey apple screen with the spinning icon. It powers on with the chime, I hold the shift key, grey apple shows up, spinning timer signal comes up below the apple, it spins for several minutes then KP.

Message was edited by: Sleestak

As of yesterday I am experiencing the EXACT same problems as Sleestak.

Cannot do SAFE boot, cannot boot from install DVD, etc.

This is a Macbook, approx 1 yr old. Machine was working fine, closed the lid to put it to sleep. Opened the lid, screen was black and it would not restore from sleep. It has had this problem since.

Update -
I tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM via the command-option-P-R trick.

No luck. However, I failed to mention that the startup sound was extremely quiet, but after resetting this, the startup sound went back to normal volume.

I still cannot do SAFE boot or boot from DVD.

Additionally, if I try to boot my BOOT CAMP Windows XP install, same problem, I get the blue screen of death.

So this seems like a physical issue rather than a software problem.

Another update.
After downloading and running the Ultimate Boot CD (which I CAN boot from), I used the memory diagnostics to verify that Memory tests fail (and fail very badly at that). So I suspect either bad RAM or bad memory controller. Note that I have not done any upgrades to this Macbook since purchase.

Further testing coming soon.

Final update.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

This issue was caused by failed RAM.

I discovered this via memory diagnostics on The Ultimate Boot CD (which is free for those who do not know). That CD would boot when others would not.

Memory tests were failing, so I popped in some spare RAM laying around and all was good. Since then I replaced the RAM with new sticks, and my Macbook lives again.

I'm not sure WHY the RAM failed in the first place, but am just happy it was a relatively inexpensive fix.

I'm having the exact same problem as jeff with my Macbook Pro.

- Kernel panic at startup; can't get beyond the Apple logo
- Can't reboot from DVDs (the computer will eject them as if they're unreadable)
- Can't boot in safe mode
- Reset the PRAM and NVRAM (prior to this, I'd get the "You must restart..." message before the gear under the logo could make one full rotation but afterwards, the gear spins for 3 minutes or so before I get the message.)

It was suggested that there might be something wrong with my optical drive but I'll give the Ultimate Boot CD a try, too.

Belated update on my problem:

I ran the fsck -fy, it repaired something (I'm sorry, I didn't write down what it was) and then told me everything was OK, so I rebooted and... success! I was able to log in normally. I immediately reboot from the DVD to use disk utility and after that was done, I was able to log in normally again. I then tried to get the panic log but while I was trying to make a copy of it, the computer froze. Less than 5 minutes elapsed between logging in and the computer freezing. I shut down, waited a few minutes before powering it on again, got the kernel panic at startup again, did the fsck but this time it told me everything was OK on the first try, so I rebooted. Was able to log in normally... 1 or 2 minutes later, it freezes again.

Now I'm back to square one. I get a kernel panic after the Apple logo, I cannot start up in safe mode, I can't start up from the DVD, fsck -fy tells me everything is OK, although I do get this message (I don't know if it's related or not but it was there from the very first time I used fsck -fy):

----
Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyEventDriver" has no kernel dependency.
Dec 30 12:03:32 launchd: Bug: launchd.c:1990:17: ioctl(s6, SIOCAIFADDR_IN6, &ifra6) != -1
Singleuser boot -- fsck not done
Root device is mounted read-only
----

I used the tail /var/log/system.log command and I got these lines (each being preceded by a timestamp):

----
My-Computer lookupd[63]: lookupd (version 369.8) starting - Dec 30 12:23:32
My-Computer /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
My-Computer loginwindow[65]: Login Window Started Security Agent
My-Computer mDNSResponder: Addling browse domain local.
My-Computer launchd[118]: com.veoh.webplayer.startup: execve(): No such file or directory
My-Computer launchd [128]: com.veoh.webplayer.startup: execv("/Applications/Veoh Web Player.app/Contents/MacOS/VeohWebClient", ...): No such file or directory
localhost kernel[0]: hi mem tramps at 0xffe00000
localhost kernel[0]: PAE enabled
localhost kernel[0]: 64 bit mode enabled
----

I'm guessing the veoh thing is causing the problem... is there anything else I can do from fsck? I'm not familiar with Unix commands, etc.

Thanks