OS X keeps crashing/kernel panics

Question

In the last week I have noticed a sudden increase (from like 'never' to daily/every other day) in kernel panics/OS X crashes. The only things I have done in that time frame has been updating iTunes and Safari. I'm usually using one or the other when everything will just freeze on me and force me to do a hard reboot with the power button. Last night I started back up in verbose mode and had another kernel panic during that process. When I finally do get back in to OS X, the error reporter is called up and lets me know that "OS X was restarted after it quit, etc...". Here is the latest error report:
Wed Nov 26 07:50:16 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x0019419E): "pmappageprotect"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.7.58/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:2327
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x54f87b38 : 0x12b0fa (0x459234 0x54f87b6c 0x133243 0x0)
0x54f87b88 : 0x19419e (0x45f7bc 0x66f3d98 0x17447 0x2f4b000)
0x54f87c28 : 0x177309 (0x17447 0x5 0x54f87c48 0x1a236f)
0x54f87c88 : 0x177867 (0x6ab77a8 0x0 0x0 0x2000000)
0x54f87ce8 : 0x16bcce (0x6ab77a8 0x0 0x0 0x2000000)
0x54f87dc8 : 0x16c846 (0x16ff960 0x1000000 0x0 0x2000000)
0x54f87e68 : 0x13a574 (0x16ff960 0x216 0x54f87e98 0x37313a)
0x54f87ea8 : 0x372f58 (0x66f26a8 0x1 0x0 0x54f87ec8)
0x54f87ed8 : 0x373093 (0x66f26a8 0x69d8310 0x1 0x0)
0x54f87f08 : 0x373c28 (0x69d8560 0x69d8310 0x54f87f38 0x0)
0x54f87f38 : 0x373d51 (0x69d8560 0x1 0x54f87f58 0x1a236f)
0x54f87f78 : 0x3ddd6e (0x69d8560 0x67eba40 0x67eba84 0x0)
0x54f87fc8 : 0x19f3b3 (0x66fd5a0 0x0 0x1a20b5 0x66fd5a0)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffffcc8
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: fsck_hfs
Mac OS version:
9F33
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.5.0: Wed Sep 3 11:29:43 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.7.58~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBook3,1 (Mac-F22788C8)
This is driving me nuts. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Hi Justin Mack;
I think I see something in your kernel panic dump. At the bottom it says, "BSD process name corresponding to current thread: fsck_hfs" which would seem to indicate that OS X was attempting to check you hard drive. Then a couple lines before that it says, " No mapping for frame pointer" and "Backtrace terminated - invalid frame pointer 0xbffffcc8". What I think this is trying to say is that you have some serious problems with the directory structure on that disk. I would suggest trying DiskWarrior to see if it can repair the damage for you.
Allan