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 →