[Cube] What Causes Kernel Panics?

[Riba]

> First, my Cube has ben freaking out with increasing frequency  
> lately.  The "Decending Gray Curtain of Death".  I'm thinking I  
> have a bad memory chip or something.  Used to be under OS 10.0 it  
> would panic about once a year, under OS 10.1 about every nine  
> months, 10.2 every three, and now it loses it once every few days.   
> I lost a blog post I had worked on for about three hours last night  
> and nearly slit my wrists ( http://hucbald.blogspot.com/ ).  So,  
> it's become bad enough that I'm ready to tear into the core and  
> suss out the issue.  Do I remember correctly?  Is a bad memory chip  
> the usual suspect?  I have 1x64 chip the Cube came with, and  
> additional 128, and a 256.

Kernel Panics usually point to a hardware problem.It could be the ram  
(that is at least the easiest to test), and quite often the causes  
may be the external USB peripherals.

> Second thing is, I just noticed the fan died on my GF3.  How much  
> of a PITA is that to fix, and where can I get a replacement fan?  I  
> have a GF2 sitting around, but I don't think it has the firmware  
> update to run my 23" Cinema HD display, and I don't have my old 15"  
> Studio TFT anymore, so I don't think there's even any way for me to  
> update it even if I install it (I KNEW I should have kept that  
> display!). Grrrr.

Don't know how to solve the GF2 on 23" dilemma, maybe you can put it  
in another Mac and upgrade the firmware before putting it in the Cube?
But now that you mention that the GF3 fan has gone, it may be related  
to the kernel panics you have been experiencing.
In any case you GF3 will nit last long without a fan, so don't push  
your luck here.
The replacement fans can be found without much trouble if you search  
around...Titan has some nice models last time I checked. However the  
stock heatsink is glued to the chip (at least it was on my card), and  
it is a b*tch to remove. I used the standard freezer and credit card  
trick, and it worked.