OSX kernel panics, $800 repair bill
 

Getting the restart screen at startup, out of the blue. It sits under my desk and hasn't been touched in 2 years. They tell me its a kernel panic, but who knows. I didn't touch anything, didn't add hardware or software.
Apple store wants $850 for a new motherboard and install.
Do I really need a new mobo...pc boards are $75, and I can install them myself. halp!

Welcome to Mac world...Its always expensive and even their professional support sucks.

That aside:

Usually Kernel panics are hardware related. You could try to troubleshoot it yourself by removing all hardware that is extraneous and then rebooting with one new component at a time.

You can boot off the discs they give you and run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it sees anything wrong.

Can you give any specs on your hardware?

If you have a spare hard drive, try re-installing the OS on that and see if the problem is still there.

OSX 10.4.8.

I disconnected everything but video...hard drives, optical drives, re-seated the cards, ram. Tried starting from cd with everything else disconnected, kernel panic. Come to think of it, right before it happened my keyboard started acting funny, keys would stick and type out the same letter over and over, and windows would scroll down without touching the mouse wheel.

It's definitely your mobo. The same thing happened to my mom's eMac.

Still, it should only run about $500-600 for hardware and install.

Good freakin lord.

Open the case and see if the caps are bad. They'll bulge or have fluid leaking out from under them. It's not different on a PC vs a mac in that case, kernel panic, blue screen, programs just disappear while running. Same ol' song and dance every time.

Is this a home computer? If so it's easy to fix. If it's a business machine, spend the cash.

All of this depends on the caps being the only issue. Hell if it IS the caps, I can probably fix it for you for pocket change. See if it's the caps first though, through visual inspection.

Not sure I understand...the computer was having KP in the Apple Store on the genius' keyboard too. Its fucked. I picked it up today, bought a $22 chinese sata hd enclosure and hooked it up to an ancient mac I dug out of cobwebs in the basement to get some vitals off the old drive (ie., porn). So I need $800 to reclaim my sanity...maybe Ill sell my car.

I don't mean to rub it in, but this makes an excellent PC ad........

$850? That is just absurd.

I'm saying for that price I can build a whole computer. It's outrageous.

I'm also saying that the leading cause of motherboard death is capacitor failure, which is obvious (bulging/leaking capacitors) and can be fixed with a simple soldering iron and a new batch of low-ESR capacitors. They cost a buck a piece in most cases, and most motherboards have about 8 or 12 that need replacing at once. I've fixed many motherboards this way, and many still run now. However if it a machine used for business, I never hack those up. That is when you use that business budget and fix the rig professionally.

There are other causes of death though, such as heat issues over time on something like a chipset without a heatsink, or a mosfet overheating due to too much current being pulled through it.

There is a slim chance that the solution is cheaper than that. If the machine has been sitting unconnected for a long time then the MB or BIOS battery might be dead or flat. Depending on MB it could either be replaced or charged.

Yours
Zweiblumen

Have you tired taking out some memory/RAM? or if you have two RAM modules, only use one at a time to see if there are some bad locations on that causing problems.

I don't think it is your motherboard to be honest, because your computer wouldn't even turn on to give you a kernel panic screen if there were anything major wrong with it.

Look on eBay to see what it costs on there, you may be able to find it cheaper.

Memory is worth testing, I agree. If it's an intel-based CPU, you can try memtest to see if the memory passes or fails. I wouldn't bother before visually checking the caps though, because you could get false errors if they are failing.

Motherboards will turn on all day with bad caps, they just won't run right.

If you go on ebay looking for a motherboard, make sure you find a *new* motherboard, not just any match.

Maybe use a different machine to burn a Ubuntu LiveCD and see if that works? If it does then the problem is the HDD.

I have tried removing RAM and installing it in different configurations. It also checked out fine in System Hardware Test. I removed all the hard drives and tried booting from the OSX Tiger CD, installed new keyboard and mouse, still kernel panic at startup. Can't think of much more to do. I've looked on ebay and couldn't find any Mac Pro motherboards, found a website that sells them for $700. I suppose I will try selling one of my organs to science and buy a new motherboard, along with looking into what AppleCare offers by way of peace of mind and wallet. Thanks everyone.

2 things to possibly try.

Reset the P-Ram by doing the following:

Press Option-Command-P-R at start-up until you hear two beeps.

Other thing is before you do that, unplug, remove the battery, and then push down the power button for 5-10 seconds. (Reset's something that helps.)

So have you looked inside the case to see if there is a physical problem? Just because it's a mac doesn't mean you can't look at it.

Yeah I reset the pram a few days ago, it made the startup chime about 2,000x louder vibrating the foundations of the building - kernel panic at startup, right after the apple. I didn't realize what a mighty sound that startup chime can be at 150+ decibels - the military could be able to weaponize it somehow, it is not a peaceful experience. Tried removing the battery, kernel panic. Oh yes Ive looked around inside, not much there besides the ram risers, fans, hd, video card and mboard. Very orderly inside a Mac Pro, although I'd sacrifice the zen garden arrangement for a working Finder at this time. I looked for broken resistors (that what you call them?) and stuff, and things otherwise dangling or unconnected on the motherboard. Nothing seems amiss to a layman's eye.

Ok nevermind haha, work a shot :)

Macs sure aint cheap. Wife mentioned getting one one time and I told her about the prices. We have a PC house because of that.

For those that say they are cheaper etc, I'm just saying, not trying to start a debate. For the performance you get, it is much more economical for me to build her a PC.

I would be interested in seeing what a Linux Live CD would tell you during start-up. Or if there are any log files that could shed some light on this. Try both the graphical desktop and the command line boot up states. If you can't get to the log files, take a digital picture of the screen before it crashes.

If you are going to spend that much, I would look into getting a used laptop that is working, or even a new one. There are also cheaper ways to get MacOSX, but there are some issues with it.

Yeah, try running an OS off a disc/usb/etc. to verify it's actually the hardware causing the problem.

If it is the hardware, both of your options are very unfortunate. A new computer can be had for less than $850, and you can even run OSX on it if you'd like. As for the cost of a motherboard from that website, keep in mind that's incredibly expensive. You can get a fantastic enterprise level, has everything, supports so much RAM a new car would be cheaper motherboard for about two thirds that much money.