I've had 3 kernel panics now, and every time i see this in console: com.apple.launchd: (PenCommService[29613]) getpwnam("_pencomm") failed
Can anyone help me?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on diagnosing kernel panics. Also see, OS X- How to log a kernel panic.
Ok so now it won't even boot up. It keeps saying in Disk Utility in Recovery HD that the disk "Mac HD" cannot be verified. then i hit repair disk, and it says "the disk cannot be repaired. Backup as many files......" This is the second time this happened. Is it a bad hard drive? or malware affecting my mac?
It means the drive is corrupted badly, but it does not necessarily mean the drive is bad (although it may be.) Do as suggested. Backup as many of your files as possible, then erase the drive.
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
the Security button and set the ZeroData option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
This is the second time this has happened with the same drive. This Exact same thing happened before and I had to bring it to the apple store to fix it.
Then you may have a bad drive or a motherboard problem.
How would the motherboard be corrupted? And is there any way to fix it?
The motherboard is where all the electronics are. If it's a problem with the disk controller, that is on the motherboard. It's fixed by replacing the motherboard. If it's just the drive, then replace the drive. But you would have to take it in for service to find that out. Or you can wipe the drive and reinstall OS X to see if that solves the problem.
When I went to the apple store before with this problem they just reinstalled lion. But then this happened again. I bought a new hard drive, and I'm hoping thats the problem. Otherwise I'll be spending quite a bit of money to fix it and I don't want to do that.
I understand. But I can't really deal with hardware this way if it is a hardware problem. Someone has to have the equipment to fully diagnose the hardware beyond the Apple Hardware Test. You could have bad memory installed but there is no freely available memory test that works reliably.
Ok thanks so much.
kernel panic
