new iMacs - Kernal Panics
by Rob Grauert
on
Aug 13, 2009 at 1:12:50 am
Has anyone been getting Kernal Panics with the new iMacs?
The facility that I just began working for purchased brand new 24-inch 2.93GHz iMacs. We use them to connect to the server and create the offline edit. So they only edit DV quality footage. And all computers are connected to the network with 3Gbit ethernet.
Today I started using one that no one else had been using. It suddenly kept giving me the "You must restart your computer" kernal panic message. I would restart, open up my project and get myself situated, and literally right as I would begin working again I would get the kernal panic again. Once it happened about 4 times in a 20-minute time span, and it's been happening to some other editors as well.
At first we thought it was the thunder storm that passed by, but then it kept happening well after the storm had passed. Then we thought the circuits were being overloaded, but that didn't make sense because if my computer freaked out, the person I was sharing a circuit with had no problem, and vice versa.
I read that crappy RAM can cause this, but these are brand new and were ordered with 4GB. We didn't get 3rd party RAM.
Has anyone ever experienced this? These new iMacs get real hot...and I mean hot. Almost too hot touch for a few seconds. I'm thinking that may be the problem. So I just shut down and left for the night.
Re: new iMacs - Kernal Panics by Rob Grauert on Aug 13, 2009 at 1:56:38 am
Jeremy,
I'm not sure exactly what a SAN is. I only know that it stands for Storage Area Network. We use a program called EditShare to access what looks like a big box with 40 or so hard drives. It sits below the rack of tape decks. I'm guessing that's the SAN...if it is a SAN.
Dave,
FCS2 and the OS X (Leapard) should be fully updated. I am almost positive, but I will be sure to check that tomorrow.
Re: new iMacs - Kernal Panics by Larry Applegate on Aug 13, 2009 at 2:12:55 am
I've had my iMac 2.93 for almost 3 months, no problems. Mine is hot at top of the screen, the bottom is cool. I keep it up to date with OS X releases, currently 1.5.8. I don't do heavy FCP editing, mostly programming and Blu-ray authoring and testing.
Re: new iMacs - Kernal Panics by Rob Grauert on Aug 13, 2009 at 10:52:49 am
i'm not sure how we'd get any work down without edit share though. The series relies on old archival footage, and there's hundreds of hours worth all being shared between about 20 editors and even more people if you include assistant editors and post production assistants.
I'll see what happens if i don't connect to editshare though. I'm off to work now.
Re: new iMacs - Kernal Panics by Jeremy Garchow on Aug 13, 2009 at 1:09:15 pm
Oh, I understand that completely. This is just a test to rule out certain aspects of your setup. If you get no kernel panics with editshare off, then it might point to editshare. At that point you give them a ring. If it turns out it crashes without editshare then we move on.
Also, is it only iMacs that are crashing?
Sorry, one more, what is 3Gps network and how are you getting that on an iMac?
Re: new iMacs - Kernal Panics by Rob Grauert on Aug 13, 2009 at 4:31:00 pm
Actually, there's one a few editors on Mac Pros I think. There's so many editors, I haven't kept track. But I don't think it's a problem with the iMacs.
I did have to do a software update when I got in this morning, as Dave suggested, and that stopped my system from crashing right when I'd begin working. But then it would still crash later. I noticed it would crash every time i tired to pull a file a from a certain hard drive on the SAN. I told the IT guy and I haven't had a problem since then.
"Sorry, one more, what is 3Gps network and how are you getting that on an iMac?"
I'm not sure what you're asking. You mean when I said that we have all the computers connect to the network with 3GBit ethernet? I don't know how I'm getting it on a iMac. I just plug in an ethernet cord and then my computer can talk to all the other computers.
I haven't had any problems in he past few hours, but I was also ask to work on something else too. We'll see what happens when I pick back up with what I was doing last night.
