Computer Problems

I'm traveling and having random rebooting problems with my MacBook, which is really disappointing since they just replaced the first one for overheating. I've owned 4 Powerbooks over the years, and this is the first time I've been disappointed with a computer from Apple.

In addition to the random rebooting, they do crash (despite the commercial).

Comments

[stephenjames716]

have you recently added any hardware to the macbook? I had this same issue when I put in a wireless card incorrectly. I inserted the card, but not all the way, so it was "half" connected, and was causing the same error message to happen over and over.

[bbv_employee]

Not to scare you, but that is a VERY rare crash warning that only comes up when things are bad. Usually it's one of two things: The OS has become completely corrupted, or more than likely, there is a huge hardware issue. Since most Macs aren't really things you add hardware to, there's a possibility something beyond your control is afoot.

Obviously, the first thing I would do is back up everything immediately. Then go into Utilities - Console - Preferences and turn on your crash reporter. If it crashes again, you now have the reasons why and can post it on Apple Support. Once you do that, try to run Disk Utility. If it won't let you, boot from the OS X disk and run Disk Utility. It will fix what it can. That screen seems to pop up when your permissions are conflicting so badly that the OS just gives up. Also, your PRAM battery could be dying, or the logic board could be shot. Those tend to be the cause especially if there was a power surge or a brownout.

Hope that helps!

[scotty321]

That is a kernel panic, and that RARELY happens. It indicates something really bad. You have to check for bad RAM or other hardware issues. Software that interacts with the system, like Parallels Desktop, might also cause kernel panics. Do some research on Apple's Discussion Boards & support forums about kernel panics, and you'll find lots of help. You can start by running Apple's Hardware Test (on the CD that came with your machine) to see if it can spot any obvious hardware issues right off-the-bat, but that program only spots the most obvious problems. You'll have to do some research on this one, and it may have to go into the shop. We haven't had to restart our machine in over 5 years, so this is NOT common at all for Macs.