G4 kernal panic, need help.

Admant · Mar 4th, 2008, 10:18 PM

Ok so my G4 1.25ghz with 2 gigs of ram is constantly giving me a kernal panic. I'm running Leopard 10.5.2, the ram is new (problem was there before the new ram).

I have erased and installed the OS several times, nothing changes. I have ran tech tool 3 or 4 times and no hardware issues have been found. Hard drive checks out ok, no bad sectors, the kernal panics come at different times, sometimes working, other times when doing nothing.

This is my office machine and as a Production Manager in a small creative shop this thing is driving me insane. I'm just wondering if there is anything else I can try before I tell my boss I need a new machine. All of my designers are using mac pro's with leopard and none are exhibiting this behavior.

Are there any other methods to check the hardware, perhaps tech tool is missing something?

Adam

johnb1 · Mar 4th, 2008, 10:25 PM

Oh boy....just what you need...problems !
apart from running Onyx or getting a can of compressed air, opening 'er up and dusting like mad (those rascals do get quite dusty), I dunno. I can't really suggest much for free, you may have to break down and get Disk Warrior, which I know is $$
so....

your mileage may vary

John b

mr.flow3r · Mar 4th, 2008, 10:26 PM

It's likely a hardware failure. I had a 1st gen MacBook and after giving me all sorts of hardware troubles (LCD flickering, cracked bazel/case) in its last days it started to give me kernal panics. It drove me nuts and at one point I thought of buying a PC (which I think, looking back now, was worse than commiting a suicide). I talked to Apple and sent in for a replacement unit.

Admant · Mar 4th, 2008, 10:28 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by johnb1
	Oh boy....just what you need...problems ! apart from running Onyx or getting a can of compressed air, opening 'er up and dusting like mad (those rascals do get quite dusty), I dunno. I can't really suggest much for free, you may have to break down and get Disk Warrior, which I know is $$ so.... your mileage may vary John b

Ya I'm going to try Onyx tomorrow. I already cleaned her out with the compressed air. I will try zapping the pram as well and cross my fingers.

monokitty · Mar 4th, 2008, 11:44 PM

There is absolutely no purpose is running Onyx or Diskwarrior if you've already erased and installed a new OS several times over. At this point, it's clearly not a software or directory-related issue. Try swapping your RAM modules to get a good start on further troubleshooting this issue.

Formatting your hard drive is the single most effective and secure way of getting rid of related software and directory problems, so why would DW and Onyx do a better job? (Rhetorical question.)

Zapping the PRAM is also not known to ever resolve Kernel Panics.

krs · Mar 5th, 2008, 01:06 AM

Is this a tower?

I would say disconnect all USB and FW peripherals other than keyboard and mouse.
Take out all the RAM modules except for one (at least 512 MB).
See if you still get kernel panics.
If so, swap the RAM
If the kernel panics stop, add one peripheral at a time to see if you can find the culprit.

My understanding is that kernel panics are caused mostly by hardware problems with RAM on top of the list.

I assume your G4 didn't get a CPU upgrade - that's what caused the kernel panics on mine.