[X-Newbies] Re: Kernel crash help.

[Charles Martin]

> From: Philip J Robar <pjrobar at areyoureallythatstupid.org>
> On Nov 11, 2005, at 3:33 PM, Charles Martin wrote:
>
>> At a wild guess, I'd say you left the programs running too long and
>> they overheated your machine (since they don't allow the Mac to
>> sleep).
>
> (Matching Charles' tone.) This is of course nonsense. A properly
> designed computer should be able to run flat out day in and day out
> without problems and I dare say that in general Macs are some of the
> better designed computers that you can buy.

In theory, you are right. But I live in the real world, where people  
block the vents, have shedding housepets, and never EVER dust.

I work in a Mac repair shop. Trust me on this -- a can of compressed  
air and periodic spring cleaning is one of a handful of simple,  
cheap, useful things will add months if not years to your Mac. :)

> I personally run folding at home on numerous Macs and PCs - all with
> sleep disabled. This means that the CPU is pegged at 100% 24 hours a
> day. I've never had a problem doing this.

I completely agree with you that a properly maintained, properly  
ventilated and well-designed computer can do this without the  
consequences he described. It would be a great world if everyone who  
said to themselves "I am going to do something that runs my computer  
at full tilt 24 hours a day" would then also think "I must make sure  
that my environmental factors will facilitate this" as you  
undoubtedly have. But most non-geeks don't think like that, as you  
undoubtedly know -- and this IS a newbies list.

> It's far more likely that Brian just happened to tickle a bug in the
> graphics driver and/or kernel.

I *did* bracket my comment as a "wild guess," but if we assume that  
YOU are correct (and there's every chance that you are), how does  
this change my overall advice of "well then don't do that?"

If you'll recall, he said he was running Mail, Safari and two P2P  
programs at the time, right? Okay, now while I can't claim to know  
what kind of bug reports Apple gets from Mail and Safari, I'm quite  
confident that they don't generally cause kernel panics. So that  
leaves the P2P programs and their associated processes as the primary  
suspects. I advised him to stop using those (inferring that doing so  
would clear up the issue).

You may not like the "tone" of my post (see my caveat WITHIN that  
post about free advice), but I fail to see how you've come up with a  
materially different solution (or indeed, any solution at all) to the  
one I suggested.

My love may be "tough love," but it's still love. :)

Cheers
Chas