[G4] How to get actual kernel panic data?

[Eric Smith]

Eric,

Trying different RAM would be very difficult (or not possible)
because my iBook is one of these, with 512MB soldered to the board:
<http://lowendmac.com/ibooks/14in-ibook-g4-1.42-ghz.html>

As far as cooling, I suppose it's possible but it has sometimes
panicked during boot from a cold start, so something would have
to be overheating awfully quickly. (And other times it runs for
20 minutes.)

I suspect that some part on the motherboard is failing, and there's
not much that can be done about it anyway. Darn. Oh well, maybe I'll
look for a used 12" Powerbook, since that seems to have such a good
reputation.

Thanks for the link on the kernel panic. I'll check it out.

Eric S.

Eric Wood wrote:
> Man, that's a rotten thing to have start up. Did the shop you took it to 
> try different RAM? Certainly it's either there or on the board some 
> place, considering it happens from a different drive with a different 
> system installation. One other thought is some failure in the cooling? I 
> could imagine a kernel panic coming up if something overheats. Maybe a 
> thorogh cleaning with canned air would do the trick.
> 
> As for kernel panic data, the lead I've found is at 
> http://www.index-site.com/kernelpanic.html
> "I would also look at the Panic.log file with the Console program on 
> your machine to see what may have caused the kernel panic if you get one. "
> 
> Eric W.
> 
> Am 09.04.2009 um 16:16 schrieb Eric Smith:
> 
>> My iBook G4 has started experiencing regular kernel panics.
>> My immediate question is how can I get the actual kernel
>> panic message to display, rather than the generic message
>> ("You must restart your computer ...") ?
>> It's a long shot but maybe there's some clue in there
>> I could decipher.
>>
>> Background: this started happening out of the blue.
>> Once it started, it would either happen during the boot,
>> or if it did boot all the way up it would happen as soon
>> as I tried to log in. I was able to boot from the install
>> CD without any problems and run Disk Utility, repair the
>> filesystem and repair permissions (but no significant
>> problems were seen). After doing this it would run for
>> a longer period of time after booting, but after about
>> 15-20 minutes of operation it would panic again, and
>> then start panicking on every boot again.
>>
>> I took it to my authorized Apple repair shop (and they're
>> good; I've used them for years on different systems).
>> They ran all their HW diagnostics and found nothing
>> (I have never opened it and added RAM or anything else),
>> and wiped the disk clean and reinstalled. They also tried
>> different kb/mouse, running off an external drive, etc.
>> The result: still random panics, although they claim the
>> panics are less frequent now. At that point they gave up.
>>
>> So I'm not sure what to do next. Live with a system that
>> panics at random intervals and hope it doesn't get worse,
>> or declare it a total loss? I don't expect that taking it
>> to Apple will be of any use because they will probably just
>> want to replace the logic board at a prohibitive cost.
>> All I'm thinking is that if I can gather some more data on
>> the actual panics there might be some hope.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Eric S.
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