Lately I have received a message that states my iMac must restart because it had a problem. The message is written on my screen in about 6 languages. Then my iMac restarts. Is this a legitimate Apple or OS X message and what might be causing the problem that is forcing the restart. I have an iMac that is 6 years old and I am running OS X Yosemite 10.10.3.
iWeb '08, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
That is a kernel panic.
What is a Kernel Panic?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742
and http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1892?viewlocale=en_US
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2063.html
More details here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
Useful articles on how to avoid and eliminate kernel panics here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10344626-263.html?tag=mfiredir
http://www.macworld.com/article/2027201/how-to-troubleshoot-a-kernel-panic.html# tk.nl_mwhelp
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
In the Console window, select
DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.
Restart message
