Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

New to Mac, not to comps

Sep 18, 2011 2:19AM PDT

Curious about Kernel panics, any suggestions on how to resolve them?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Kernel panics
Sep 18, 2011 2:24AM PDT

Kernel panics are like the BSOD on Windows, and like with Windows usually means either A) that you have a buggy driver (or kext), or B) you have some bad hardware.

So take the thing to someone who has access to Apple's diagnostic tools. Odds are AHT isn't going to cut it, and Tech Tools seems to have a real talent for providing false positives. With so little to go on as to what's causing the kernel panics, that's about the best advice I can give.

- Collapse -
Answer
Usually by knowing the entire machine and story.
Sep 18, 2011 2:28AM PDT

For example I was lucky to be near such a failure and found the 3 year old laptop had never been taken to the shop as well as nothing done to clean the vents. It was the simple old get the canned air out and the machine seems to be working.

But that's just one story. There are dozens more.
Bob