You need to restart your computer

Question

You need to restart your computer

I have been getting a Black with white text dialog saying: "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off. Then press the power button again."

This message is displayed in 5 languages and just appeared when I was not doing anything.

Anybody seen this and what could be going wrong to get this message?

iMac Core 2 Duo, iPhone, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 16, 2010 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 16, 2010 10:37 AM in response to William Luckie1

Yes, if the screen looks like this it is a kernel panic.

Disconnect all peripherals, only Apple keyboard and mouse and test. Often connected peripherals cause kernel panics. See isolating issues in Mac OS X. for troubleshooting steps.

-mj

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Apr 16, 2010 10:37 AM in response to William Luckie1

That's a kernel panic, and unfortunately, there are many possible causes. Try reading [resolving kernel panics|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html].

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Apr 16, 2010 10:40 AM in response to William Luckie1

As other have stated, a KP. Note when this is happening. Always with the same application, or truly randomly? It can be either hardware or software (e.g., incompatible or outdated third party components), though I believe they tend to be more in the direction of hardware issues.

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Answer 4

Apr 16, 2010 11:07 AM in response to Limnos

The difficulty of course is that this has occurred without any particular activity being involved. The last time is saw it was when returning to my computer after several minutes of no activity. The only apps that were open was Mail and Safari.

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Apr 16, 2010 11:16 AM in response to William Luckie1

There's probably a utility called Apple Hardware test on the disc that came with the computer.

[X-Lab: The Apple Hardware Test|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/aht.html]

[Apple's AHT support|http://www.info.apple.com/support/aht.html]

[Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test |http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509]

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Answer 6

Apr 16, 2010 12:12 PM in response to Limnos

I have run the Apple hardware test. No problems found.

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Answer 7

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Apr 16, 2010 12:18 PM in response to William Luckie1

Use console to check crash logs. Sometimes that will give hints as to what may be causing the problem. Post parts of the logs here (full logs may be very, very long), especially the most recent parts and anything referring to threads that crashed.

AHT not finding something isn't an indicator that no problem exists with hardware. It may just mean AHT didn't detect it (especially if it is a sporadic issue such as a loose component).

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