While using FCP got a popup window saying to SHUT DOWN the computer.

HELP. I've got a G5 dual 2G tower (with FCP 6.5 on it, and 2.5 gig of memory). While I was editing some video today, I suddenly had a warning window to "SHUT DOWN my computer immediately." I could also hear that either the hard-drives or fans were spinning full blast. I'm fairly new to the editing biz, so I'm not sure if I was over-taxing my mac on the render (it was only a 2 layers of HD on a minute long clip), or if it was simply a Mac problem.

Any ideas? Is my harddrive going? My memory bad? The whole screen seems to darken, and a gray POP UP WINDOW appears telling me the above (shut down immediately).

If the screen dimmed slightly when this happened, this is a kernel panic, and is almost always a hardware problem. If it happens again there is most likely a problem with the RAM or the motherboard. The computer should be taken to a service technician. This is not an FCP problem.

A Kernal Panic also usually includes the error screen that says "You're f$#@!ed" translated into 4 languages along with a power button icon (which is the only way you can shut down at that point...is to push & hold the power button).

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Did the grey layer descend from the top? It usually descends from the top down, like a curtain of death, and as Joey said, You're f&&%@d."

Even our crashes are more stylish.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Cycle Image to Image & Wireframe to Wireframe with W !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Hmmm....

It could be several different things, but one culprit could be the power supply.

I had a machine that was similar if not identical to your machine and I remember there was a power supply recall on it. The power supply was making the fan(s) very erratic.

The other reason it may be power related is because it happens when you are rendering. I had an issue one time where FCP rendering or After Effects rendering set off my APC alarm, because I had a messy configuration.

Could also be the outlet you are going into, try a different setup and/or outlet.

Check also to see if your RAM is "OK" in your system profiler.

The other thing that will make your fans go crazy is if your video card is plugged up with dust.

I had this happen a few years ago. It happened several times a day for a few days. Lots of trouble shooting and head scratching. It dawned on me it was always happening when I used my mouse although obviously not every time. Suspect a mouse USB issue. Replace mouse. Problem solved!

As noted it's usually a hardware issue but it may not be a catastrophic issue. Try removing attachments (USB, Firewire, etc) in addition to the things suggested by others.

A mouse caused a kernel panic? That's the first I've heard of it.

The others are right -- usually a kernel panic signifies something much more worrying.

Your first priority is to protect the data on your system drive and any other internal drives. A dead motherboard doesn't usually mean loss of data as long as your internal drives are alive -- you may just have to repair your computer. However, if it's a damaged system drive causing the problem, it could be a matter of hours (or days, or weeks, or months -- no way to tell) before the system drive fries. So backing it up now might be a smart thing, and then take the computer in for servicing.


www.derekmok.com

Mouse probably made the system think it was a bad USB port. Absolutely 100% confirmed it was the mouse though. One can analyze a crash which can point to where the failure might be.

One might run Apple's as well as Tech Tool hardware check utilities.

I have an original G5 Dual 2.0 still in service as a sound mixing station.
When I first got it, there were frequent kernel panics. At least once a week, sometimes more.

They were solved with an OSX revision about 6 months later. So kernel panics can certainly
be caused by software issues. My G5 also shipped with a video card that had intermittent
issues from the start and eventually had to be replaced, but the card wasn't replaced until a good 3 years after the purchase.

So although this could very well be a hardware problem, it might also be a corrupt bit of software even in the operating system. If you can't narrow it down to hardware, then you might try
reinstalling the OS and all the other software.

many thanks to all your answers. Will try the new mouse and other suggestions.
THANKS!

Well, let's get a little clarity going here.

A kernel panic is, obviously, directly caused by software. It's right there in the name: the kernel encounters an unrecoverable error and panics. It's a safety thing, actually. When the operating system gets into a state where it doesn't know what's going on, it tries its best to save your data by killing off every running process all at once, including itself. Of course, anything in memory is lost, but your data on your disks is as safe as it can be under the circumstances.

How is this different from a normal program crash? On Mac OS X, programs don't actually crash. Ever. Rather, they get into an unrecoverable state and are forcibly killed by the operating system. Well, usually; sometimes they shut themselves down instead, but that's not really a crash so much as it is just a very poorly handled exception state leading to termination. Whatever. Point being, the Mac OS X operating system is kind of the godfather of your computer. If a process does something bad, it's like Sonny at the toll booth.

This extends even to the operating system itself, which is where kernel panics come in. They're the result of the operating system being so possessed by shame that it commits ritual suicide, leaving nothing but you and a computer with no running programs that you might as well turn off.

I bring this up because it's both wrong to say that a kernel panic can't be caused by software and that a kernel panic can be caused by software. To the extent that a panic is the result of the operating system shutting itself down abruptly to save your data, then sure, panics are caused by software ? the operating system software itself. But when people say "software" what they normally mean is application software, and that can never cause a kernel panic. Because if something goes wrong with an application, the operating system shuts that application down. It doesn't cause a panic ? either literally, in computer jargon, or figuratively.

Can a bug in the operating system itself result in a kernel panic? Sure, obviously. But you wouldn't believe how rare that is. It's so rare that I'm just gonna go ahead and say here that you are not experiencing an operating-system bug.

As others have said, by far it's most likely that you've got a hardware problem. Computers, like people, are notoriously bad at self-diagnosis. If something goes wrong with a computer's memory, say, it doesn't identify and isolate the problem and carry on. No, it just says "Woah, something weird is going on, I'm outta here," and panics. Again, to save your data.

But there's another possibility. If we assume your hardware is fine ? this is not a safe assumption, by the way ? then the next most likely culprit is a third-party driver. Drivers, unlike application software, sometimes run as part of the operating system itself, and are thus subject to the same level of paranoia as the rest of Mac OS X. If something weird goes on with a kernel-mode driver, the operating system will panic.

My edit system panics infrequently but regularly, because of the software that talks to my Tascam control surface. I've learned to live with it until a new driver version is available.

So the most likely answer is that you have a hardware problem, and you should contact Apple. But the next-most-likely answer is that you've got a misbehaving third-party driver. It's a lot easier to rule that option out than the hardware thing, so I'd start there.

On an old system where I used to work, I encountered repeated Kernal Panics when my old Digital Voodoo board blew out. I pulled out the board - Kernal Panics were gone. I attributed THAT to the hardware.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

That's EXACTLY what happened after my dog pee'd on the front of my computer, which fried two ram slots.

If you can get the install disc into your computer, do a hardware test and find out where the culprit is.

Good luck!

Cameron Young

A "kernel panic" Unix's way of announcing a catastrophic software problem. This exact message has been around since almost the inception of Unix System 7...and now you are talking about the "way back machine".

This from Wikipedia regarding kernel panics.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Many thanks again to all who replied to this question. Amazingly, when I plugged in a new mouse, it "appears" to have solved the kernal panic problem. It's been working now for several days without an attack... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ha! And the rest of you folks didn't believe me huh? (crosses fingers)

> And the rest of you folks didn't believe me huh?

Not believe Craig Seeman? Nah, just that mice are a rare, rare cause for this problem.

Still, it's a painless thing to rule out, so it should go onto our "to check" list.


www.derekmok.com