Question: Over the last week or so, I have been getting messages out of the blue that say “You need to restart your computer.” This leaves me no choice but to restart. Upon restart there is an error message that is to be reported to Apple. indicating a Panic state of some sort.
Answer: When this problem occurs, you definitely are seeing a screen that looks like the following screenshot.
If you are seeing this, your problem is what we call a kernel panic.
There generally are two possible situations.
1- A software issue
If you see a kernel panic very rarely, you should not worry. A software crash has occured and the report sent to Apple will help the company to find a fix.
2- A hardware issue
If kernel panics are suddenly happening on a regular basis, this points to a potential hardware problem.
This can be caused by bad random access memory (RAM), for instance. Whether you installed it a few days ago of whether it has been in your computer from the beginning, bad RAM causes computer crashes. Even some memory tests can fail to identify the issue. The only way to be sure is to remove the RAM and use the computer for a while. If crashes stop happening, you know you need to replace the RAM chip.
If RAM does not seem to be the issue, any recently installed hardware may need to be removed, for the same reasons.
If you are unsure about all of this, we strongly suggest that you use the Apple Hardware Test disc that shipped with your Mac to run some tests. Some commercial tools such as TechTool Pro can also run tests.
