Mac Powerbook Error- Corrupt Stack.

[maureentsullivan]

Hi there-

My name's Maureen... I'm a BU grad student; recently purchased a Mac PowerBook G4. Running OSX Panther; bought it through another student...

I've been loving it but recently, not sure exactly why except that I ran a few security updates on it; have been getting an error message; usually as I'm shutting down the Mac. The desktop screen stays on with white writing layed on top of it... the scary kind of Mac computer writing...!

Here's the gist of what it says:

System Failure: Backtrace

CPU 0

Exception State (SV=0x25027280)

Corrupt Stack

Backtrace Terminated

Frame not mapped or invalid ox11FdFee)

Backtrace terminated- frame not mapped.

So, I'm not sure what to make of it... the computer seems to be running well otherwise. I do have the software install/ restore CD for powerbook.

In addition, the kid I bought it from gave me a disc called Tech Tool Deluxe Pro 4. He had said that I should/ could from time to time, install this disc to clean up the Mac... but I had to turn it off, insert the disc, reboot and hold down the ______ key. I have no idea what key(s) and can't track him down to get an answer.

Any advice to this poor ol' grad student as to how to make her lovely mac be totally functional and powerful would be very welcome.

In addition, though i was told that I wouldn't have to deal with Pop Up ads or too much spy ware installation software, etc... I've recently, since moving out to LA and working through a 2Wire airport connection, started to notice a lot of pop ups. Anything I can do to avoid those, protect my computer from them, install software to fight them, etc?

Thanks sooo much for any brilliance!

Maureen

[isteve]

The scary writing your getting sounds like a Kernel panic. Seeing it happens when your shutting down, it may be something running that doesn't want to shut down. You wouldn't have any software from norton or some other anti-virus software on your system would you?

There are a few things you should do. First download mac janitor, onyX or main menu and run the maintenance scripts. Then repair permissions with one of the app I mentions or use disk utilities. this won't help but I like to do it after any updates or any disk repair. Then put the Tech Tool pro cd in and restart holding down the C key this will probably take a some time but after it loads run the test and do any repairs.

To stop pop-ups in safari go to preferences > security and check "block pop-up windows". And don't worry about spyware.

Edited September 25, 2005 by isteve

[macmarauder]

it also look like a kernal panic to me. both of the programs iSteve suggest i also use and would give a try. if those don't work let us know and we'll dig a little deeper for an answer.

[uberpenguin]

Very impressive; you've witnessed the XNU/Mach kernel dying... That's a pretty noteworthy accomplishment... Not epic, but noteworthy indeed.

-uberpenguin

[maureentsullivan]

Hi there, It's Maureen again, the Mac user with the scary computer language! So, I tried all of your great advice. I made sure I'm not running any other spyware, I installed MacJanitor, but that seems to just breeze through things in about 3 seconds and ding, done... I feel like it wasn't doing its thing. Then I installed Onyx- an older version of it b/c I realize that i have a Mac 10.3.9 version ... like that means anything to me! I ran OnyX and it looks like it worked, though at the end, it says it runs into an error when it does the "maintenance" updates and asks me to restart. So, then I do.

anyways, so, I did all that, then I ran the Tech Tool Deluxe Pro 4 disc and tried to do just about everything it had to offer...

But I am still getting error messages, or have the computer shut down completely when I just leave it on and go away for an hour. It has shut itself down completely twice (plugged into a wall, full power) and twice, in addition, when I have just left the mac on or flipped the screen down to leave the room for an hour or 2... I get the SCARY MAC language! Ahhh! Halloween is coming. It's an error message, still claiming I have a corrupt stack.

this makes me sad, and worried.... what should I do? When I'm on the computer otherwise, it still functions fine, I can get onto the internet, do my email thing, etc... but I can tell it's not right. ...

Thank you so much, by the way, for taking the time to reply to me the first time... if I need to bring it to a pro, or do that whole "mail it away thing" or you think that's a smarter move than my personal self maintenance (whining over the internet) method, by all means, let me know and if you can recommend a great place locally (I'm in LA) or large company (Best Buy, etc? ) please do... thanks for any help!

Yours Truly- Maureen, the girl who should know more about macs before she buys one....

[isteve]

Well there are a few easy things you could do to fix this or any problem.

1. Pay someone to fix it.

2. Reinstall the os.

3. Buy and install Tiger.

1 is a waste of money because all they will do is reinstall the os. 2 should fix it and won't cost you anything. But number 3 would be my choice not only will it fix the problem you then get a better os to use.

[macmarauder]

i think he said that he had the original reinstall disc. he could just use that disc if it's os x 10.3 or higher. there is a disc repair program on the disc, try that to repair the permissions and then if that doesn't work then reinstall using the disc.