What is a Kernel Panic?

Hopefully you have never experienced a Kernel Panic, but if you do...

What is a kernel panic:

A kernel panic is an error that occurs you guessed it, in the kernel
of the system. For those not familiar with UNIX based operating
system the kernel is the core of the system and such errors tend to
be rather severe and will interrupt that game of solitaire that you
were playing. When an unexpected instruction to the processor is
received it sends you a message in a black (or grey) box telling you
to restart your computer. It also includes other languages just to
keep you in practice with the german you learned in grade 12. Some
times it gives you strings of white text with a black background
across the top of your screen.

What to do when you get one:

Unlike the name, you should not be the one panicking. Whenever a
kernel panic happens it generates a log that includes the error
message to help in diagnosing the problem. It is called Panic.log
and is found in /library/logs/ The one real benefit of this log is
it date stamps every time it happens so you can see the frequency of
it. Frequent kernel panics is a sign of a hardware issue that should
be resolved. I have had a random kernel panic in my processing of
ipods but not every kernel panic is a sign of the apocalypse as there
are many causes for a kernel panic. Simply restart and see if it
happens again.

How can you fix a kernel panic:

As I mentioned there is many causes for that pesky black box of death
(System crashes: Not just for Windows anymore). The most common (and
easiest to fix) is caused by bad ram. One of the first steps in
isolating the problem is to take out any 3rd party ram and swap for
good ram. Also, disconnect peripherals such as that used ipod you
bought on ebay. A kernel panic at startup could be a sign that there
are bad sectors on your hard drive. If the system can boot off a CD
or an external drive you isolated it to the hard drive. If ram,
peripherals, and the hard drive are all ruled out the logic board is
the culprit and that is a pesky repair in your future.

Thanks to Todd@smalldog.com for this information
Posted by Cyndi