Should I bring my 11" Air back for repairs? Kernel panics when connected to 27" ACD.

[zinka]

My 11" MacBook Air usually works great, but when connected to my 27" Apple LED Cinema Display, it sometimes kernel panics. I've started saving the crash logs, and it has happened four times so far in March, and it's only March 13th now, so that's an average of once every three days.

The panics usually happen when doing somewhat visually intensive work, e.g. playing QuickTime, scrolling Google Maps, etc. None of it is super intensive (gaming, etc).

They tend to take this form:

panic(cpu 1 caller 0x2348a3): "zalloc: zone \"kernel map entries\" empty."@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:948

But the stack traces are different: some mention GeForce, others USB Audio.

This is a 2GB/128GB 1.4GHz 11" Air.

Is this level of kernel panics normal? Am I likely to get any improvement if I get a replacement from the Genius Bar?

 

[PeterKG]

My 11" MacBook Air usually works great, but when connected to my 27" Apple LED Cinema Display, it sometimes kernel panics. I've started saving the crash logs, and it has happened four times so far in March, and it's only March 13th now, so that's an average of once every three days.

The panics usually happen when doing somewhat visually intensive work, e.g. playing QuickTime, scrolling Google Maps, etc. None of it is super intensive (gaming, etc).

They tend to take this form:

panic(cpu 1 caller 0x2348a3): "zalloc: zone \"kernel map entries\" empty."@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.9.26/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:948

But the stack traces are different: some mention GeForce, others USB Audio.

This is a 2GB/128GB 1.4GHz 11" Air.

Is this level of kernel panics normal? Am I likely to get any improvement if I get a replacement from the Genius Bar?

No kernel panics are normal and are usually associated with a hardware problem, but not all. Did you run the hardware test that comes on the USB drive? My first troubleshooting step would be to back up, and then do a re-install, and then run software update as many times as needed to bring you MBA up to date. I would give that a try first. Then if you have to go to a genius bar, they will know you have tried to troubleshoot in all ways you can. YOu might want to bring the ACD in too as it could be the cause of the kernel panics on your MBA. Good luck!

 

[zinka]

No kernel panics are normal and are usually associated with a hardware problem, but not all. Did you run the hardware test that comes on the USB drive? My first troubleshooting step would be to back up, and then do a re-install, and then run software update as many times as needed to bring you MBA up to date. I would give that a try first. Then if you have to go to a genius bar, they will know you have tried to troubleshoot in all ways you can. YOu might want to bring the ACD in too as it could be the cause of the kernel panics on your MBA. Good luck!

Hardware test is a good idea. I'll try that.

All my software is up to date.

I'm not going to take the big heavy ACD to the Apple Store. Do you really think that's a realistic suggestion?

 

[PeterKG]

Hardware test is a good idea. I'll try that.

All my software is up to date.

I'm not going to take the big heavy ACD to the Apple Store. Do you really think that's a realistic suggestion?

Realistic, yes, A pain yes. Troubleshoot the MBA first. But do a reinstall. Many times they come from the factory with a bad install.

 

[zinka]

Realistic, yes, A pain yes. Troubleshoot the MBA first. But do a reinstall. Many times they come from the factory with a bad install.

Hardware test found no problems.

I'm not going to lug a 27" monitor on the subway on a hunch.

(And I'm probably not going to do a reinstall on a hunch, either.)

 

[SR71]

Hardware test found no problems.

I'm not going to lug a 27" monitor on the subway on a hunch.

(And I'm probably not going to do a reinstall on a hunch, either.)

You asked for help with your problem, and he answered your question and told you what to bring to the Apple Store so that the Genius's can help you and diagnose where the problem lies.

It may be a pain in the ass to lug your ACD and your MBA to the Apple Store, but if you don't bring both, you'll never know which one of the two is causing the kernel panics.

Sorry if I come off as an asshole, but you asked for help/suggestions on how to fix/address your problem and that's exactly what he gave you, and your response is that you're not going to go with what he suggested because the monitor is to big and heavy to lug around (I'm not saying it's not, of course its heavy)? What's the point of asking for help if you're not going to listen to what others suggest to do?

Again, sorry if I come off as an asshole, but when I saw your responses to his suggestions, it just seemed pointless to even ask your question if you weren't going to listen to what others tell you to do to fix your problem.

 

[Serenity64]

You asked for help with your problem, and he answered your question and told you what to bring to the Apple Store so that the Genius's can help you and diagnose where the problem lies.

It may be a pain in the ass to lug your ACD and your MBA to the Apple Store, but if you don't bring both, you'll never know which one of the two is causing the kernel panics.

Sorry if I come off as an asshole, but you asked for help/suggestions on how to fix/address your problem and that's exactly what he gave you, and your response is that you're not going to go with what he suggested because the monitor is to big and heavy to lug around (I'm not saying it's not, of course its heavy)? What's the point of asking for help if you're not going to listen to what others suggest to do?

Again, sorry if I come off as an asshole, but when I saw your responses to his suggestions, it just seemed pointless to even ask your question if you weren't going to listen to what others tell you to do to fix your problem.

What he said.

 

[J&JPolangin]

Hardware test found no problems.

I'm not going to lug a 27" monitor on the subway on a hunch.

(And I'm probably not going to do a reinstall on a hunch, either.)

...if you can save/print the logs and bring in your MBA they may be able to tell you what's wrong with it... otherwise you've wasted a trip and need to bring the monitor in as well.

Does it do the KP with any other monitor?

Try something else if a friend of family has one to see if its your MDP on the MBA or "the" monitor causing the issue.

Good luck getting it fixed.

 

[ZipZap]

You might just take the MBA to the apple store let them hook it up to a 27" display there and see if the problem can be recreated. Of course, this may mean multiple trips.

Otherwise, you'll have to lug both in to get the proper diagnosis.

 

[zinka]

It may be a pain in the ass to lug your ACD and your MBA to the Apple Store, but if you don't bring both, you'll never know which one of the two is causing the kernel panics.

Except for the fact that it doesn't even make sense to talk about an ACD causing kernel panics on a Mac it's attached to. There's no DMA. There's just a one-way bus. Someone is giving bad advice here, and needed to be called on it.

 

[PeterKG]

Except for the fact that it doesn't even make sense to talk about an ACD causing kernel panics on a Mac it's attached to. There's no DMA. There's just a one-way bus. Someone is giving bad advice here, and needed to be called on it.

I "needed to be called out on giving bad advise"? If you are such an expert than why did you even post your issues here? Another possible cause of the kernel panic, user error or software glitches. Your hardware test found no problems. Instead of doing a simple re-install that would take 30 minutes, you would rather run to a "genius" at an Apple store. Have fun with that. Don't ***** on me because another poster decided rightly to call you out on coming here to ask for advise, and then dismissing it.

 

[ZipZap]

Amen!

 

[2IS]

I can certainly understand where the OP is coming from though he could probably be a bit more tactful in his responses. I would not take an ACD in unless it was a last resort. Start by taking the MBA in and connecting it to one of their ACD's first. If you determine that the ONLY time you get kernel panics is when it's connected to YOUR ACD, then you may be left with little choice.

 

[PeterKG]

I can certainly understand where the OP is coming from though he could probably be a bit more tactful in his responses. I would not take an ACD in unless it was a last resort. Start by taking the MBA in and connecting it to one of their ACD's first. If you determine that the ONLY time you get kernel panics is when it's connected to YOUR ACD, then you may be left with little choice.

If you read my second reply to the OP it was:

"Realistic, yes, A pain yes. Troubleshoot the MBA first. But do a reinstall. Many times they come from the factory with a bad install.

 

[2IS]

I've read all the replies. I'm simply supplementing what you said with a bit more details than you provided by suggesting using the in-store ACDs first.

 

[zinka]

If you read my second reply to the OP it was:

"Realistic, yes, A pain yes. Troubleshoot the MBA first. But do a reinstall. Many times they come from the factory with a bad install.

Which is also not especially plausible. The factory puts exactly the same image on every machine. Reimaging sounds like a cargo-cult hail mary rather than anything based on logic or experience.

The point of posting here was really to get a sense of whether many other people are also experiencing regular kernel panics. Sounds like the answer to that is no?

 

[SR71]

Which is also not especially plausible. The factory puts exactly the same image on every machine. Reimaging sounds like a cargo-cult hail mary rather than anything based on logic or experience.

The point of posting here was really to get a sense of whether many other people are also experiencing regular kernel panics. Sounds like the answer to that is no?

Well, that's not what you asked in your first post.

 

[zinka]

Well, that's not what you asked in your first post.

Yeah, that's fair.

 

[alan111]

I would take it for repair. Especially since youre still in your first year, maybe they;ll just replace it for you. I too have been getting random freezes and kernel panics, but have not had the chance to take it in yet as I use mine as my main computer at home.