iMac woes

Cheryl

Cheryl

Rosie Moderator
Staff member
Mod
I have a friend who has a really strange problem. It's a new flat screen iMac, 800Mhz,
superdrive. Here's what happens:
first attempted to open system preferences--no luck.
I tried opening network preferences--no luck. I was able to open several
applications without any difficulty. I tried to open the cd drawer, and it
was not responsive.

I walked away from the computer, and when I came back, "THE JIBBERISH" was
there!! So being the good mom that I am, I sat down with paper and pencil
and wrote it all down (that was fun). Then I went to my trusty old Mac, and
typed it all in!! So here it is. What do you make of it.

panic (cpu0): Unexpected user state trap (cpu 0): 0X00000008 DSISR =
0X42000000 DAR = 0X0258d000 PC = 0X700003fe4, MSR = 0X0214f030

Latest stack backtrace for CPU 0:
Backtrace:
0X0008b90 0X00080f30 0X000275c8 0x0008a4ec 0x0008e16c
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sx = 0x135e7000)
PC = 0x70003FE4; MSR 0x0214f030; DAR = 0x0258d000; DSISR 0x42000000;
LR = 0x007326c0; R1 = 0x01d8db80; XCP = 0x00000008 (0x200 - Machine check)

Kernel version:
Darwin kernel Version 5.5
Thu. May 30 14:51:26 PDT 2002; root: xnu/xnu-201.42.3.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC

Debugger (panic)

Waiting for remote debugger connection.

Option . . . . . Type
----------------- ----
continue . . . ?c?
reboot . . . . ?r?


And it will not shut down. The only way to turn it off is to unplug it.

Can anyone give any explanation and a fix?
 
ahhh the black screen of death

it's called a kernal panic. what that means (i think) is that there was a failure between the hardware and software don't worrie about it but if it happens again call up Apple ASAP!
 
Don't worry, Kernal Panics are hardly ever that serious, I've had 2 since I bought the LCD iMac about 3 months ago. First of all, when it happens try holding the power button down for around 4 seconds, this'll shut the machine down safely (copared to the plug pulling).

These things can occure (for me) when using a third-party device (in my case a Kodak digital camera, but like I said, I've used it 500 times, and the only time the iMac panicked was when I un/plugged in the usb cable). So, take out all unecessary devices to check to see if they are upsetting the machine (except the keyboard obviously).

As for the system prefs not opening, that sounds more of serious system problem (I say serious, but what I mean is that the worst that could happen is that you will have to reinstall your system from the OSX system CD (take about 1 hour normally)). But again this could be linked to the Kernal panic (kernal being the software heart of the unix system underneath OSX that runs everything), and this could be something to do with devices.

If you have no devices attached, then has anyone been messing with the system?
 
From what I understand, no she did not move or remove any files from the system. No other devices are connected. Just the speakers, mouse and keyboard.

She tried using the power key to shut down, it didn't work. This has happened every time she tries to use the machine. She uses AppleWorks, walks away from the machine for a few minutes, and the jibberish returns.

Should she try a complete initialization and reinstall?
 
And no installed software?

Hmm, well, unless someone here comes up with a better suggestion I woud either:

1. Find someone you know who knows OSX (the answer to this the fact that you are posting here!)

2. Sit your friend down (like an FBI agent) and make her retrace any steps of things she could've done to upset the system.

3. Try running Disk Utility either from the Applications --> Utilities folder on the OSX hard drive, or if it can't open it, run it from the install cd.

4. Update to the very latest of all system software (if she has a fast connection (not 56k modem) then use Software Update in System Prefs (if you can open it!)... otherwise look at apple.com for the updates. She should be upto 10.1.5.

5. Failing all of this, and if nobody here can think of anything that it maybe... backup all her work, and reinstall the system from the CD.
 
You've discovered a bug in Apple's operating system. The most likely cause of the problem was that Aqua was trying to access something in memory that was already released.

When the kernel received a request for a bad memory address it "trapped" it. (Stop and figure out what to really do) then it did a panic (put some debug info on the screen and halt all operations).

This _should_ never happen but all software has bugs. Holding down the power button to restart the system will probably clear things up. If it keeps happening you might have to reinstall the OS or simply wait until the Jaguar upgrade arrives.

Good luck,
Vanguard
 
turn the machine off, start it up and hold down "apple + s" a whole bunch of stuff will show up on the screen when it stops type fsck -y and hit the return key and wait when it is done type exit and everything should be fine
 
They had additional memory installed when they bought the iMac. Norton was not installed. The only thing they did install was a printer, but that worked flawlessly before all this happened.

What they did do was completely zero out the data and start fresh. OS 9 installed beautifully, but OS X failed. A call to Apple resulted in instructions to take the unit in to the service center because of a hardware issue. Since this iMac is only 3 months old, there is no cost.

Thanks for all your help. :)
 
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