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Bus error: 10

What is the meaning of: "Bus error: 10"


I installed update 10.10.4 and my MacBook Pro 15 inch (early 2011) which has been running Yosemite has nearly impossible to use.

Virtually any mouse click resulted in a couple minutes of the spinning beach ball before responding to requests.

Ran disk utilities and fixed permissions. Ran slightly faster. Still unusable beach ball on each mouse click.

I booted to safe boot mode to attempt to run a backup. It gave me an error message "can't write to drive"

I verified this new 2Tb external drive had no issues. Tried again. Same error.

Them I rebooted to normal boot. Backup hung at approx 50Gb.

Tried to retry safe boot mode, computer hung at point of loading desktop image. Gave it 2 hours to get past this point.

Booted back in normal, attempted time machine again and based on a you-tube video, I went to console, searched for wdworker to search for errors...

in on the system.log I find: (shortened for readability)

...com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.32bit.02000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 [6813]): Service exited due to signal: Bus error 10


note 1: [6813] is incrementing for each entry.

note 2: I tried to give full account of steps. A few iterations left out.

note 3: I can give more detail as necessary.


Anyone in Apple Land have a clue?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10), batt charge erratic since Yosemite

Posted on Jul 25, 2015 2:29 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2017 12:45 AM

To anyone who finds this after getting "Bus Error: 10" (as I did) don't panic – unless you're experiencing all the other issues outlined in the OP it (probably) isn't a hardware issue.

The error just means there was an issue with memory allocation internally. This doesn't necessarily mean hardware error. A few other potential causes:


  • Error in a Safari Extension
  • Error in a System Extension
  • Error handling a webpage (javascript)


All of these actually have a common solution: try opening Safari in Safe Mode.

To do this, Restart your Mac, then hold Shift after the Boot Chime / when the screen is lit.

This loads the OS without extensions. From here, try opening Safari.

If this works, Restart and boot as usual. Try opening Safari.

If not, boot back into Safe Mode.

Open Safari and uninstall any extensions.

Restart and boot as usual. Try opening Safari.

If none of this works, Contact Apple Support.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 18, 2017 12:45 AM in response to NuTachyon

To anyone who finds this after getting "Bus Error: 10" (as I did) don't panic – unless you're experiencing all the other issues outlined in the OP it (probably) isn't a hardware issue.

The error just means there was an issue with memory allocation internally. This doesn't necessarily mean hardware error. A few other potential causes:


  • Error in a Safari Extension
  • Error in a System Extension
  • Error handling a webpage (javascript)


All of these actually have a common solution: try opening Safari in Safe Mode.

To do this, Restart your Mac, then hold Shift after the Boot Chime / when the screen is lit.

This loads the OS without extensions. From here, try opening Safari.

If this works, Restart and boot as usual. Try opening Safari.

If not, boot back into Safe Mode.

Open Safari and uninstall any extensions.

Restart and boot as usual. Try opening Safari.

If none of this works, Contact Apple Support.

Jul 25, 2015 10:46 AM in response to NuTachyon

Almost certainly the startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.

Back up all data on the drive immediately if you don't already have a current backup. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional—ask if you need guidance.

Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.

Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair

Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.

*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Sep 26, 2016 7:34 AM in response to NuTachyon

Generally speaking a "Bus Error" is a hardware error of some sort.

A "bus error 10" appears to be related to a USB device.


The first step in trouble shooting such an error is to remove any external devices connected to the CPU.

If you have no external devices (including mice) follow Linc's advice above.


Run Entrecheck and clean up any issues it finds. http://etrecheck.com/#download

Bus error: 10

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