Your computer has been restarted because of a problem

Squidgy Black

Picked up a 2010 macbook pro earlier this afternoon, and it's restarted itself twice with the warning above, saying it was a kernel panic. I was running Steam and a couple of other applications.

I've since removed Steam, but is this more than a problem with Steam on OSX? If so I need to know ASAP so I can bring it back to who I bought it off.

Sad Professor

May indicate a hardware problem or a serious system software problem. Disconnect any peripherals for a start.

Have you installed any other software? Anything that runs in the background or modifies in the OS in some way could be the culprit. Are you playing games when this happens? Could be the graphics settings.

Squidgy Black

All I've installed was Flash Player and Steam. I was running a few programs simultaneously and downloading games on Steam, not playing them. I've removed Steam and it didn't crash last night in the space of an hour and a half so it might be sorted now, I'll try it out later and see if it happens again.

It also has 6gb RAM instead of 4gb, could it be the 4gb stick that is the offending culprit? I might have a 2gb stick to replace it from a laptop.

Sad Professor

Bad RAM can cause kernel panics yes. But unless the chip was installed recently I wouldn't suspect it yet. The machine shouldn't have an issue with 6GB.

Squidgy Black

Sad Professor wrote: »

Bad RAM can cause kernel panics yes. But unless the chip was installed recently I wouldn't suspect it yet. The machine shouldn't have an issue with 6GB.

Seller told me he had installed the RAM right before he sold it to me, and it had been running perfectly with the 4gb RAM.

Question now is to just bring it back to him and see if it works with just the 4gb RAM, or try and get my money back and wash my hands of it.

Sad Professor

In that case it probably is the RAM. You could try re-inserting it (check the brand/type while you are at it). You'd be surprised how often people don't install RAM fully. If the problems continue it may just be a bad chip. Run Rember/Memtest to confirm.

Squidgy Black

Removing the offending 4gb stick seems to have solved it, everything's running smoothly on 2gb. Before programs were crashing etc, now they're not. At the start I swapped the 4gb and the 2gb stick's positions but then it wouldn't boot properly.

dirtyghettokid

i have a 2010 mbp. i started having constant kernel panics since i updated to the lastest build of mountain lion, back in july.

having read tons of info on the web, my logs & talking to apple tech -- it's a graphics card failure.

it's a known issue on the apple site. mid-2010 mbp suffer from this on mountain lion. they say it can be fixed with a new logic board, but my mac is out of warranty by a few months :rolleyes::mad:

i am about to roll back to 10.6 now (which is what i had prior to upgrading to 10.8 last november) to see if that helps (as per apple tech on phone's instructions)

when you get the error, and your mac restarts, a report dialog box will pop up. click report, and you will then see a log. if you see GPU in the first line or two of that, then you know it's that issue. has nothing to do with RAM, or anything else. it's a failing graphics card. there is so much documentation on the web regarding this issue. just google macbook pro mid 2010 gpu kernel panic.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

*sigh* i hate this. i can't afford a new mac, or a logic board replacement.

if you bought your mac from a shop, i would be looking for a refund!

whiterebel

dirtyghettokid wrote: »

i have a 2010 mbp. i started having constant kernel panics since i updated to the lastest build of mountain lion, back in july.

having read tons of info on the web, my logs & talking to apple tech -- it's a graphics card failure.

it's a known issue on the apple site. mid-2010 mbp suffer from this on mountain lion. they say it can be fixed with a new logic board, but my mac is out of warranty by a few months :rolleyes::mad:

i am about to roll back to 10.6 now (which is what i had prior to upgrading to 10.8 last november) to see if that helps (as per apple tech on phone's instructions)

when you get the error, and your mac restarts, a report dialog box will pop up. click report, and you will then see a log. if you see GPU in the first line or two of that, then you know it's that issue. has nothing to do with RAM, or anything else. it's a failing graphics card. there is so much documentation on the web regarding this issue. just google macbook pro mid 2010 gpu kernel panic.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

*sigh* i hate this. i can't afford a new mac, or a logic board replacement.

if you bought your mac from a shop, i would be looking for a refund!

Seeing as its a relatively new machine, I would be taking a case to the Small Claims Court against the retailer.

Squidgy Black

I got it sorted in the end, it turned out that the 4gb stick was a different speed (10600) than the ones required for the MacBook (8500). It's been running perfectly fine under heavy loads for long periods for the last two days, so I'm going to hold on to it.

I bought it used of adverts, but in fairness to the seller he was very helpful and genuine.

dirtyghettokid

whiterebel wrote: »

Seeing as its a relatively new machine, I would be taking a case to the Small Claims Court against the retailer.

is 3.5 years old still considered relatively new? apple won't do anything if it's out of warranty. even though it seems to be software induced somehow

stetyrrell wrote: »

I got it sorted in the end, it turned out that the 4gb stick was a different speed (10600) than the ones required for the MacBook (8500). It's been running perfectly fine under heavy loads for long periods for the last two days, so I'm going to hold on to it.

I bought it used of adverts, but in fairness to the seller he was very helpful and genuine.

glad you got it sorted! just when i saw a 2010 mbp, i thought it was gonna be yet another GPU failure!

whiterebel

dirtyghettokid wrote: »

is 3.5 years old still considered relatively new? apple won't do anything if it's out of warranty. even though it seems to be software induced somehow

Depends on how long a judge thinks you should get. If you brought it from new, you should ask the retailer to fix it, preferably in writing, sending it registered post. If they refuse after a specified time i.e. 2 weeks, start Small Claims Court proceedings for €25, under The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980. Read up, and become conversant on this. Gather any examples you can find of the part failing to show to the judge.
First things first, though, i would do a clean install of the previous OS to see if it is caused by software. if it is, ignore all the above......:D