What is a kernel event?

Question

I haven't yet had a chance to call Apple Support about my restart problems (G5 dual just restarts on its own sometimes, like someone pulled the plug).
It just happened again, when I was watching a video online, and in my system log, I had this:
KernelEventAgent[42]: tid 00000000 received unknown event
anyone know what that means? BTW, I was reading about kernel panics, and I have no kernel panic log anywhere.
Thanks,
Juli

Answer 1

It's possible the power going to your Mac isn't as good as it should be.
You could have to many devices on one "line" coming from your circuit breaker, you could have a lose or wet power wire outside that's giving your Mac little "brownouts". It could be your UPS or your surge protector going out.
I surely hope your not using one of those flimsy extension cords that have no grounding wire.
Then it could also be a short somewhere in the house that current is going into "ground" and the Mac is reacting to that.
What you can do is run a three prong heavy duty extension cord directly from a outlet that's a "dedicated circuit" meaning it's a line directly from your circuit breaker to your Mac without anything in between.
In new home wiring, a dedicated outlet looks like any other with three prongs, but the left top one has a little horizontal notch. Refrigerators, garbage disposals, and air conditioners usually have this dedicated outlet because when they turn on they draw so much current at one time that it can cause a fire it the circuit is overloaded.
So I would do this and see if the problems continue, then I would see if I could take the computer elsewhere, like another newer house or office to eliminate the possibility of bad power source.
If that doesn't resolve the problems, then the next course of action is to clone your boot drive to a external and reinstall Mac OS X Tiger fresh, update and install all apps from fresh sources, files from the clone.
How to clone instructions here
This way you eliminate a software problem.
If the problems continue after that, your looking at a hardware problem which Apple will need to take a look at your machine if it's stock.
If you added RAM yourself Apple doesn't cover it, but you might get it checked out with everything else.
If your Mac is new you might want to try hold option and booting from Tiger Install disk #1, which you'll get a AHT (Apple Hardware Test) to boot from, run the extended tests overnight.
(AHT gets updated with Mac OS X and firmware updates, unfortunately not the one on your disk as it's write protected. So it is possible AHT will report a error when there is not, it's a firmware or OS change responsible. So check the AHT version is compatible with your machine and OS level before dragging it in for repair.)
Write down any errors you see to tell Apple Support.
Make sure you clone your boot drive and backup files often and before sending the machine to Apple then erase the internal drive.
If you remove your hard drive and it's been the cause of the problems, then Apple won't know and won't replace it. So it's best just to give them a empty drive and keep a clone at home. When the Mac and drive is returned you can option boot from the clone and reverse clone to the internal.