Startup Kernel panic but starts up in safe mode

Question

Startup Kernel panic but starts up in safe mode

My G5 Dual processor 2.5Ghz Powerpc starts up with a kernel panic whether I start up normally or from the start up cd.
It does however start up normally under safe mode.
Any suggestions as to what may be causing this? Could it be a defective device? The hard drives are appearing to be ok and everything appears normal under safe mode including the processors etc.

PMac G5 2.5Ghz Dual + 2 G4 Pbooks + much dust!, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 30Gb iPod Video + 20Gb 1st Generation ipod still working well!

Posted on Aug 28, 2010 12:39 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 28, 2010 12:52 PM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Have you recently installed new software or a widget or anything along those lines? Have you tried starting up normally with only the mouse, keyboard and monitor attached?

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,213 points

Aug 28, 2010 12:57 PM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card or Airport in 10.4 & below.

Since it does it from the Install Disc also, I suspect HW.

Boot off your original G5 Install Disk while holding down Option/alt key to select AHT, then run the extended Apple Hardware Test. Some models have a separate AHT CD.

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Answer 3

Aug 28, 2010 2:12 PM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

How far into startup does it get before the kernel panic? If you get the progress gear, how long does it last?

You may have something lurking in a cache file that is causing the problem, though that's unlikely if you also can't boot from the install disk.

Begging the question, but always important: have you reset PRAM, NVRAM and considered the age of the PRAM battery?

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Answer 4

Aug 29, 2010 5:35 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Thanks for your suggestions. I am typing this fast in case I get another grey screen with the shut down warning appearing again.
I've not installed any new software or widgets for a while.
I have reset the PRAM. Unfortunately I don't have my AHT disk to hand. I shall have to find this and try this.
If the machine requires a new PRAM battery how can I tell? Where can I get them and is there a page to explain the replacement procedure?
I am up and running at the moment but for how long. There is a degree of unpredictability about this. I am going for a straightforward restart just now after this restart from a PRAM reset so I shall see what difference this makes.

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Answer 5

Aug 29, 2010 5:48 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

An observation from looking at Activity Monitor. There is a thread of activity called mdimport which appears to be quite active and is rightly attributed to myself as the user. Not sure what the mdimport is but there is also a thread running which is atributed to a user known as 'nobody' as well as one atrributed to 'unknown'. Is this significant at all?

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Answer 6

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Aug 29, 2010 6:00 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Hi-

mdimport is part of Spotlight. This is a very active process and system resource intensive activity (read "CPU hog").
It may help to kill Spotlight to keep from impacting the system during trouble shooting.

Open System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy, and add your system drive (and others) to the privacy list.
Spotlight will cease and desist.

Nobody and unknown are typical of root and background system activities.

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Answer 7

Nov 2, 2010 4:17 AM in response to japamac

An update on this. I cn start up normally, which is fine. If I try to restart from the MacOs disc to do a repair permissions then I get a kernel panic which begins with the following line:
"panic(cpu 0 caller 0x002DE020): Unable to find driver for this platform: "Powermac 7.3"."
It then goes on to list the Stack backtrace for cpu0
Does this explain anything?
I would like to do a permission repair but can't as I get this kernel panic when I try to use the disc. Is there another way I can perform a Repair permissions without using the disc?

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Answer 8

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Nov 2, 2010 5:29 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Hi-

Typically that error and panic comes from using a disc that is not compatible with the machine.
Gray discs from other machines will cause this error.

To repair Permissions, one does not need to boot to the OS X install disc.
You can repair Permissions directly, using Disk Utility from your Applications/Utilities folder.

Repairing the hard drive (Repair Disk) however, must be done while booted to an OS installer disc or a second bootable volume.

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Answer 9

Nov 2, 2010 6:34 AM in response to japamac

Thanks for that. It is the original MacOs 10.4 install disk which I installed the Os with all those years ago. I have been using it for years to do repairs and maintenance. Its only in the alst few months that it hasn't functioned as before.

Not sure if the software updates would have rendered it unusable at all.

I have always done the permissions repair from this disk. I guess I must have picked up this method from somewhere and always believed it to be the way it should be done. It certainly is more convenient not to have to restart every time you feel need of a permissions repair!

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Nov 2, 2010 7:04 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Apple has been advising to only use the same version of Mac OS as the system you want to repair permissions on.

The trouble with DVD/CD is they can't run much, isn't current, lacks drivers.

For that and other reasons, I strongly recommend installing and update Mac OS on a small 30GB boot volume (lean mean and clean) and then add your 3rd party tools (Disk Warrior, SuperDuper, TechTool Pro, etc) and use that as needed but also for regular maintenance.

For myself, I have never used any CD or DVD other than the one-time to install OS, after that, just clone the system (even clone that emergency system to a Disk Image for safe keeping).

Unless you have something that doesn't work with 10.4.x I'd think it would work, though there were changes in 10.4.4 and 10.4.6 that affected hard drives, partitions, and raid arrays for one.

10.4.0 had so many outstanding issues especially with LANs but was shipped anyway even as 10.4.1 was already being developed, the LAN issue took into 10.4.2 and beyond - 10.4.3 DVD finally came out.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963

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Answer 11

Nov 2, 2010 10:22 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks again.

I am on the verge of upgrading to MacOs 10.5. I have the disk. My only concern is the compatability of some of my software which may require upgrading as well and the additional costs which may have to be incurred. Not sure if there is any way I can pre-empt or know what bits of software will require upgrading so thats why I'm a bit delayed in doing this.

I'll have a read through the support documents anyway.

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Answer 12

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Nov 2, 2010 10:30 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/leopard/index.html

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Answer 13

jcjedi

Level 1

40 points

Nov 3, 2010 6:28 AM in response to Anthony ÓDoibhailein

Just went through several days of mysterious kernel panics myself, and discovered that it was the Airport Extreme card going kaput. I was able to boot in Safe Mode, couldn't get it to boot using apple hardware test (it didn't crash) but was able to do an AHT and everything checked out fine. But after suffering a panic when trying to turn off Airport on my machine, I shut it down, pulled the card and presto!--everything has been fine since. I put the card in another known-good laptop (that had an AE card) and it got kernel panic so that solves it. I swapped out the laptop's AE card, put it in my G5 and it works fine again.
Obviously there are a host of things that can cause issues, but if your hardware and drives are checking out, this is a quick and easy thing to check that might work for you.
Good luck

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