Sporadic Boot Kernel Panic

Question

Hi all,
Looking for some advice, as I've tried searching for this specific problem but can only find 'similar' and nothing exactly like what I'm experiencing.
About a week ago, I booted up my Mac, and it gave me the startup sound and the Apple logo came on, then I got the 'You need to restart your computer...' message (which through a later search I learned was a "kernel panic" message). So I did as instructed and the second time it booted fine.
Next day, I had the same issue, only this time it took me about five or six goes before it got to the loading page, but eventually it came on.
Since then, it's been doing this every time on boot, and only ever on boot. Once it loads up, everything is fine, it doesn't crash or anything.
From reading other kernal panic messages, it seems to be suggesting that it is a problem with the RAM? I haven't touched anything to do with the system itself (I know better than to mess around with hardware =p) so before I take this to a repair shop, I was wondering if there is anything else that could be causing this?
Many thanks.

Answer 1

Although it certainly could be a problem with RAM, it could also be a software problem. Unfortunately, startup panics such as yours frequently are caused by corrupted system files required during startup. However, it's possible that it's a corrupted cache file causing the problem. There are some things you can do that may fix it.
First is to do the following:
Delete caches to resolve some startup problems:
Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following commands pressing return at the end of each:
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches
You will be asked to enter your admin password. It will not be echoed.
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS
sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices*
Quit the Terminal application and immediately restart your computer.
Second, download a utility such as TinkerTool System - VersionTracker or MacUpdate - and use it to clean all browser, user, system, and font caches; clear temp and log files. Do an immediate Restart.