Kernel panics in OS X occur primarily because your Mac has faulty or incompatible hardware, or because you are using incompatible or poorly written kernel extension drivers. With either of these situations, the core system software component called the “kernel” may run into a fault from which it cannot recover, which will bring down the entire system. Kernel panics are relatively rare in OS X, but may occur if a piece of hardware has gone bad, or you introduce a bug by updating system software or third-party kernel extensions. If this happens, there are usually a couple of quick approaches you can take to overcome the issue. Continue reading
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How to determine what woke your Mac from sleep
Sleep modes in OS X, as with other operating systems, allow you to quickly lock your Mac, and use less energy when not in use while being ready to resume operation almost instantly. However, unlike a full shutdown, this readiness to resume means that one of a number of events might result in your Mac being woken from sleep. These can be purposeful interactions, but at other times the system might wake for unknown reasons, which can be a bit of a problem. Continue reading
Determine the reason why your Mac wakes up
When your Mac wakes form sleep, the OS X Kernel will output a message to the system console, containing a code that identifies the reason for the system having been woken up. This can be anything from a lid being opened, to a key being pressed.
Since you can access these logs using the System Console utility, if your system is regularly waking unexpectedly up Continue reading