Mac on SBS - The iMac was unhappy today ... again :(

Okay, these kernel trap errors are no longer hitting after a point where the iMac is sitting with iTunes running. While working in InDesign we got hit with the Black Screen of Death!

This is the subsequent report after rebooting:


So, off to find out just what the chicken we have gotten ourselves into.

The best site, by far, for troubleshooting these errors is here: The X Lab: Resolving Kernel Panics.

We did upgrade the existing 512 MB Nanya RAM stick that came with the iMac to a 1 GB stick of Hynix RAM as soon as we got it. The 1 GB upgrade RAM stick came straight out of an Acer laptop that was brand new and was getting an upgrade to 4 GB of RAM. So, the RAM was new too.

We pulled eight (8) 1 GB sticks out of 4 Acer laptops during that Acer laptop upgrade. Out of those 8 sticks, the one that went into the iMac was the only Hynix that came out of the Acers. The rest of them were Nanya. Go figure that the memory brand changed mid way through that particular run.

The original 1 GB RAM stick installed in the iMac was a Crucial stick.

So, we pulled both 1 GB sticks of RAM, the original Crucial and the Hynix we had installed when we got the iMac, and installed two identical 1 GB sticks of Nanya RAM.

According to The X Lab, this is the first step, and hopefully the last, in resolving our iMac's Kernel Trap errors.

If not, we are onto the next steps.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.