Repeated kernel panic on iMac late 2009

Dear all,

A couple of weeks ago, my iMac 27" late 2009 started repeatedly crashing with a kernel panic.

Thinking this might be hard-drive related, I brought my iMac for repair under the hard drive replacement programme. Which means I have a virtually empty hard drive with only Mountain Lion 10.8.2 installed and a couple of third-party software packages, the only one installing extensions being (AFAIK) TechTool Pro, DropBox and perhaps Chrome.

Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem.

I then tested the RAM with TechTool Pro, which didn't find any issue. I also tried and removing all RAM modules but one and progressively adding all the other modules back in, but could not figure out whether one of the modules was faulty: the Mac worked fine for at least 20 minutes after each restart, at which point I added another module. Once all the modules were added back and after an hour of use, though, kernel panics reappeared.

I then thought about a temperature problem. Indeed, I have just moved to Singapore, where temperature and humidity is quite high all year long. Below is what is reported by Temperature Monitor - from what I have read elsewhere, this does not seem outside of the ordinary:

* Ambient air: 30°C

* CPU A Heatseak: 44°C

* CPU Core 1: 47°C

* CPU Core 2: 40°C

* Display Screen Proximity: 39°C

* Graphics Processor Heatsink 1: 54°C

* Graphic Processor Temperature D: 54°C

* Main Logic Board: 56°C

* Northbridge Heat Sink: 69°C

Kernel packages are quite hard to reproduce: they can come in very close succession and then the Mac can work fine for a few hours... For instance, I've just restarted from a series of 3 kernel panics but can now safely post this message.

Any idea what this could be related to?

I've copied below the error log - maybe you can find some useful information in it:

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 34 sec

Panics Since Last Report: 3

Anonymous UUID: BEF69F2A-EDD8-33E3-C447-5617E022D910

Sat Jan 19 13:28:35 2013

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff800ccb7bd5): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f8e27b9d1, type 14=page fault, registers:

CR0: 0x0000000080010033, CR2: 0x0000000000fffffe, CR3: 0x0000000027210000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660

RAX: 0x0000000000000000, RBX: 0x0000000000000000, RCX: 0x0000000000000000, RDX: 0x0000000000000008

RSP: 0xffffff81dd4cbab0, RBP: 0xffffff81dd4cbae0, RSI: 0x000000000000ffff, RDI: 0xffffff81ad29f000

R8: 0xffffff81dd4cbb64, R9: 0xffffff81dd4cbb68, R10: 0xffffff7f8e275d44, R11: 0x0000000000000206

R12: 0x0000000000000000, R13: 0x0000000000000000, R14: 0xffffff81ad29f000, R15: 0x0000000000000002

RFL: 0x0000000000010202, RIP: 0xffffff7f8e27b9d1, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010

Fault CR2: 0x0000000000fffffe, Error code: 0x0000000000000002, Fault CPU: 0x1

Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff81dd4cb750 : 0xffffff800cc1d626

0xffffff81dd4cb7c0 : 0xffffff800ccb7bd5

0xffffff81dd4cb990 : 0xffffff800ccce4ed

0xffffff81dd4cb9b0 : 0xffffff7f8e27b9d1

0xffffff81dd4cbae0 : 0xffffff7f8e277ff0

0xffffff81dd4cbb10 : 0xffffff7f8e275e59

0xffffff81dd4cbb40 : 0xffffff800d0650c3

0xffffff81dd4cbbc0 : 0xffffff800d067153

0xffffff81dd4cbc20 : 0xffffff800d064b8f

0xffffff81dd4cbd70 : 0xffffff800cc981e1

0xffffff81dd4cbe80 : 0xffffff800cc20aed

0xffffff81dd4cbeb0 : 0xffffff800cc10448

0xffffff81dd4cbf00 : 0xffffff800cc1961b

0xffffff81dd4cbf70 : 0xffffff800cca5b16

0xffffff81dd4cbfb0 : 0xffffff800ccced53

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000(8.0)[14A6AB07-A70C-3FB2-99D0-FCFBD4C90244]@0xffffff7f8 e261000->0xffffff7f8e52cfff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7.2)[B1B77B26-7984-302F-BA8E-544DD3D75E73]@0xffff ff7f8d250000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.5)[86DDB71C-A73A-3EBE-AC44-0BC9A38B9A44]@0xff ffff7f8d799000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.5)[803496D0-ADAD-3ADB-B071-8A0A197DA53D]@0 xffffff7f8d756000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

Mac OS version:

12C60

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 12.2.0: Sat Aug 25 00:48:52 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.18.24~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 69A5853F-375A-3EF4-9247-478FD0247333

Kernel slide: 0x000000000ca00000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff800cc00000

System model name: iMac10,1 (Mac-F2268DC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 76717339831

last loaded kext at 32853742399: com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 75.15 (addr 0xffffff7f8eb1e000, size 77824)

loaded kexts:

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 75.15

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.60

com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.12.69

com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.2d2

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.0.9f33

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 122

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver 2.3.1f2

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.3.1f2

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 2.3.1f2

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl 3.2.11

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.10

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.6.0

com.apple.driver.AppleMuxControl 3.2.11

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.2.3

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.0.33

com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer 8.0.0

com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000 8.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothUSBDFU 4.0.9f33

com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport 4.0.9f33

com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 3.0.1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1

com.apple.BootCache 34

com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 320.15

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCardReader 3.1.0

com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.5.1

com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.2.2

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 5.2.5

com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.9.6

com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros40 600.70.23

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.4.1

com.apple.nvenet 2.0.19

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 5.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI 5.2.5

com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.6.1

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.9

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 196.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 4.0.39

com.apple.security.quarantine 2

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 196.0.0

com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 4.0.9f33

com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 235.28

com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.6

com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 2.3.1f2

com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.8.9fc10

com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.6

com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 86.0.3

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.10d0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.0.9f33

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 2.3.1f2

com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 2.3.1f2

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 5.2.0d16

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.4d2

com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl 3.2.11

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.0.4

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.10d0

com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.3.5

com.apple.kext.AMD4600Controller 8.0.0

com.apple.kext.AMDSupport 8.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.3.5

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.2.5

com.apple.iokit.AppleBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport 4.0.9f33

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard 165.5

com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 165.5

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 5.2.5

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 3.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 3.5.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 5.2.5

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 5.2.5

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7

com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 2.5.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 5.2.5

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.5.5

com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 500.15

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.2.1

com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.0

com.apple.driver.NVSMU 2.2.9

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 5.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.6.1

com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.8.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1

com.apple.security.sandbox 220

com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1

com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 7

com.apple.driver.DiskImages 344

com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 28.21

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.6

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.7.2

com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4

com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jonathan