How to Resolve Kernel Panic Situation on Mac OS X

tompatrick 2:51 am on October 17, 2011 | Answers: 1    
Tags: kernel (4), kernel panic, mac data recovery (17), mac os (11), panic, resolve (20), situation, solve kernel panics

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• tompatrick 2:51 am on October 17, 2011
  

  Kernel Panic many a times you might have heard of the term, as I did, but recently, I got chance to rectify a kernel panic situation. One of my friend encountered this problem, he was charging his iPhone and as he was in hurry he just unplugged the USB cable, didn’t bother to safely remove the cable from the system.

  Next Morning when he turned his Mac On, he heard beeping sound and then the black screen appeared. After trying for around 3 to 4 times the system turned on and what he saw the kernel panic message. He narrated me the whole story and then I reached his place to resolve the error, I started to trouble shoot the problem and found that by removing the KEXT I got Mac working. But it took me long time to figure out the problem. Let’s see what all steps I followed in detail.

  Whenever you are trying to troubleshoot a problem, you should check that is the problem reoccurring after every step.
  
  Try one method
  Wait and see if the problem is reoccurring
  If the problem persist
  Move on to the next step

  Run Disk Utility:
  This step is really important and really useful to correct the superficial disk error and repair permissions. If it the kernel panic still reoccurs then in that case you will be sure that the kernel panic is not due to this. To access the disk utility go to
  Applications >> Utilities >> Disk Utility

  Run Hardware Test:
  You might have noticed the Apple ships a DVD containing a bootable hardware test. You need to load the DVD and boot your system while holding the D key, once you are done with this you will come to the hardware test utility. Using this Utility you can test your RAM and Memory. You need to run this for few loops.

  Updating your Mac OS X and applications
  Many a times the kernel panic occurs due to the application and Mac OS X conflict. To make sure that this doesn’t happen you need to regularly update your OS as well as the applications to make sure that these are compatible with the latest version. To do this click the Icon on the top left corner of the screen and then click “Software Update”, update your system if the updates are available.

  Uninstall Applications
  This step should only be performed when you are sure enough that the hardware is not at fault and the problem is due to the application, drivers or Mac OS X. Now you have to take a close look on the application installed on the system and then decide which application are those which might be causing problems to you. Some of the potential applications which usually cause problems are keyboard drivers, applications that modify your kernel’s run-time, mouse drivers, web cam drivers and power management.

  Uninstall Any KEXTs
  This was the step that helped me resolve the issue; you need to check for the KEXTs running on your system.
  To check this you need to type a command in the terminal that is Applications >> Terminal
  sudo kextstat
  Now look for any suspicious kexstats, if you have any third party KEXTs installed you need to remove them.
  
  Reinstalling Mac OS:
  Such kernel panics can be due to the corrupted Mac OS installation, the chances of error increase after up-gradation to the latest version, if this being the probability re-install Mac using the Mac OS DVD, and choose install again. It won’t affect your data on the system but it’s always better to have a back up ready.

  Format and install Mac OS X:
  As by now you know that neither the hardware nor the software is at fault, so it’s better to install a fresh copy of Mac OSX. You need to make sure before you fresh install your system that you have the backup ready. You need to make sure that you back up only the data file from the hard drive, so that when you copy restore data from the backup the buggy system data or any corrupted files are not copied to the hard drive. My friend did the same mistake and he didn’t have the proper back up of the data. I had to take help of the Mac data recovery software to recover the data. If you don’t want to spend extra bucks always BACKUP your data.