HT1338 Mac needs to be shut down by holding the power button.

Question

I got a brand new macbook pro today. Within 3 hours of use I got an error saying I needed  to restart my computer. I did so, then it happened again 10 minutes later. I shut down my mac and its been off ever since. I googled this and its called a kernel error.What do I do? The closest apple store is 1.5 hours away.

Answer 1

Hey,
By loading into Safe Mode; (taken from HT1564)
It forces a directory check of the startup volume. You may see a progress bar on the screen during this check, and the computer may take longer than usual to complete its startup.
It loads only required kernel extensions (some of the items in /System/Library/Extensions).
In Mac OS X v10.3.9 or earlier, Safe Mode runs only Apple-installed startup items (such items may be installed either in /Library/StartupItems or in /System/Library/StartupItems; these are different than user-selected account login items).
It disables all fonts other than those in /System/Library/Fonts (Mac OS X v10.4 or later).
It moves to the Trash all font caches normally stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/(uid)/ , where (uid) is a user ID number such as 501 (Mac OS X v10.4 or later).
It disables all startup items and login items (Mac OS X v10.4 or later).
Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later: A Safe Boot deletes the dynamic loader shared cache at (/var/db/dyld/). A cache with issues may cause a blue screen on startup, particularly after a Software Update. Restarting normally recreates this cache.
Taken together, these changes can help resolve software or directory issues that may exist on the startup volume.