Aaron Feng

In less than two months I managed to get a kernel panic on my Mac. Generally kernel panic occurs on UNIX like operating systems when it encounters an error it cannot recover from. It is similar to the blue screen of death on Windows. My MacBook has been intermittently shutting it's self off when I tilt it. It was annoying, but it turned right back on when I pressed the power button. However, last week kernel panic happened when I tried to turn it back on. No matter how many times I tried to reboot the machine, I received the same kernel panic screen. I contacted Apple, and they could not diagnose the problem over the phone, so they told me to drop the laptop off at an Apple service center.

I left my Mac at the Apple service center for two days, and they could not find any hardware related problems. They basically told me I had to pay them money to reinstall the OS in order to fix it. I decided to get the MaBbook back because I can handle the reinstall myself. Since no hardware problems were found, I had to pay 48 bucks to the Apple service center for a diagnose fee. Apparently this is standard at an Apple service center, but not at an Apple retail store, I later found out.

After I got home, I decided to boot up my MacBook. To my surprise, the kernel panic went away. At this point, I was still not convinced it was a software related issue because the laptop still shuts it's self off if I tilt it the wrong way. I called Apple back, and complained about the 48 bucks that I wasted. As reimbursement, they sent me an Airport Express. Since my MacBook is still shutting off on its own, I will have to take it back soon. Next time I will tale it to an Apple store, not a service center.