System Error - What to do?

Triple_B · 01-23-2006, 11:24 AM

Hey Everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the right spot, but wanted to post this here...

Forewarning here: I'm a Windows guy, and basically don't know much about the mac platform. I've done some basic stuff with it (networking, mainly), and upgraded the memory on her IMAC to 1 gig, but that's about it.

Yesterday my wife and I were entertaining some friends and I heard a loud fan noise coming from our office. When I entered, I quickly realized that the MAC had locked up and it was the mac itself macking the noise. After turning it off, I left it off, as it seemed to be running abnormally hot (which I thought may have been the cause of this).

Well, today my wife was actually working on it, and it locked up on her 3 times in 10 minutes (after about 2 hours of working on it). The third time, the screen displayed a strange error, and then almost immediately after, the fans on the unit kicked into overdrive similar to what happened last night.

This was after I tried finding a utility that would allow me to see what temp the system was operating at. I found the system monitor, which allowed me to see what resources were running, but all of that seemed normal.

We turned off the machine after I took this picture. I have not turned it back on yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My initial thoughts is that something is overheating... but of course I'm posting here for other opinions.

Thanks,

-Nick

--See the screenshot of the error on the attached file.

sinclair_tm · 01-23-2006, 10:53 PM

you are having a panic. looks like something has put the mac into a loop, and it can't get out, so the cpu is going full boar, which is why the fans are soo load. they are trying to keep it cool. why the panic, i don't know. something is messing w/ the system. what are you trying to do when it happens? running any apps? or will it just do it if you turn it on and let it sit there? if so, hold down the shift key the next time you turn it on. this is safe mode. if it does it in safe mode, then the os is hosed, and needs to be reinstalled. if it doesn't do it in safe mode, then there is something else installed that is doing this. think of the last thing you installed before it started, and chances are that is the cause.