What's this grey screen of death

[simeezee]

I have been a PC user for years and finally got my 11inch MBA as my first Mac.

I had my MBA with lid closed for overnight. When I opened it up, there's this grey screen with a error message popped up saying something wrong with my laptop, I must hold down the power button for a few seconds then press it again to restart. It's sort of like the blue screen of death in Windows.

This happened today for the first time. I'm not sure what it is. What's wrong with my MBA and how do I fix it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ECUpirate44]

Kernel Panic
It happens sometimes. Usually it's software based and a restart fixes the issue, but it can also be a sign of a hardware failure. Run the hardware test to be sure. Dont sweat over it, it could never happen again.

 

[TheRealDamager]

Are you running Coolbook by any chance? I first saw these Kernel Panics on my 13" Air when I undervolted too much.

 

[KPOM]

That's a kernel panic. I thought I was rid of them when I switched to Macs (in fact my first two Macs over nearly 3 years had none). My late-2010 MacBook Air has been another story. I'm not sure if it's a bug in the logic board, or if it's software causing the issues, but I've had close to 10 kernel panics since buying my Rev D in November.

Some of the early panics were caused by the MacBook Air itself. I returned my first one after 2 days because it just didn't wake up from sleep at times. The second one has been fine in that regard (and Apple subsequently put out new firmware that addressed the issue), but the kernel panics have happened fairly regularly.

Parallels Desktop 6.0 has been known to cause kernel panics (look on their forums for further evidence), in particular 2 recent builds. I just downloaded their new build (released today), so hopefully that addresses it.

Overall, I'm happy with the Mac, but the last 4 months sort of remind me of the Windows 95 and XP days.

 

[simeezee]

Are you running Coolbook by any chance? I first saw these Kernel Panics on my 13" Air when I undervolted too much.

I'm not running Coolbook. Is that something you suggest me to do in order to solve the kernal panic problem?

 

[simeezee]

Kernel Panic
It happens sometimes. Usually it's software based and a restart fixes the issue, but it can also be a sign of a hardware failure. Run the hardware test to be sure. Dont sweat over it, it could never happen again.

What kind of hardware test do I need to run?

 

[rkaufmann87]

I'm not running Coolbook. Is that something you suggest me to do in order to solve the kernal panic problem?

Kernel (not kernal) Panics are tricky and can be caused by a variety of different problems. If it KP's just once there is nothing to really worry about however if it continues to KP then you have a serious problem so don't freak out until there is something to freak about.

Here are some articles on KP's how to diagnose and track down the cause. Also you asked about how to test hardware, the last link is a link to an Apple Advice Page on Apple Hardware Test and how to run it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8965.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10344626-263.html?tag=mfiredir
http://www.index-site.com/kernelpanic.html

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

 

[TheRealDamager]

I'm not running Coolbook. Is that something you suggest me to do in order to solve the kernal panic problem?

No - Coolbook isn't the fix for that.

 

[iNotion]

Thank you for the useful info. Although I have not occurred any kernel panic on my MBA but I got quite a few of that after I upgraded my leopard to snow leopard on my iMac last week. Should be doing a clean erase and install end of the week and hope it doesn't kp on my iMac again.

Kernel (not kernal) Panics are tricky and can be caused by a variety of different problems. If it KP's just once there is nothing to really worry about however if it continues to KP then you have a serious problem so don't freak out until there is something to freak about.

Here are some articles on KP's how to diagnose and track down the cause. Also you asked about how to test hardware, the last link is a link to an Apple Advice Page on Apple Hardware Test and how to run it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8965.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10344626-263.html?tag=mfiredir
http://www.index-site.com/kernelpanic.html

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509