Don’t worry. You are at the correct webpage to find out how to fix the problem of regular kernel panics with iBook G4 1.33 ghz laptops. It’s just this is the only computing post I’ve written within a blog that’s otherwise dedicated to political commentary. Feel free to take a look around!
Around a year ago I started having problems with my Mac iBook G4 1.33 ghz 12″. I would get crashes or kernel panics regularly and the laptop would have to be restarted. This was no easy task as it would often crash whilst restarting. After a bit of googling I found lots of similar iBook G4 owners with similar difficulties. The problem was known to be down to the Airport wireless card but the best solution I could find was to buy a separate USB wireless adapter and turn off Airport in the menu bar. I did this but I was still getting kernel panics quite regularly during normal use and every time I tried to restart the laptop. Eventually, I gave up and bought a new netbook as a replacement. Today however, I had an idea how to stop the kernel panics occurring and it’s been successful.
It involves replacing the kext files (equivalent to drivers on a Windows system), which are responsible for controlling the Airport card, with dud files. This appears to stop the Airport card being recognised at all by the laptop as it doesn’t show up in System Profiler. It also seems to stop the regular kernel panics. Here’s how I did it.
1. I installed a fresh install of OS X 10.5 Leopard. This is probably not strictly necessary but I did it anyway.
2. Here’s possibly the trickiest bit. You have to disable Airport in the menu bar quickly before the kernel panic sets it. It might take a couple of tries but once you’ve managed it you can just drag Airport out of the menu bar by holding the cmd key and dragging the icon off.
3. After installing a USB wireless adapter (I used a D-Link DWL-G122), I updated Leopard with Software Update until all the updates were complete. When restarting, I pushed hard on the casing of the laptop to the left of the trackpad. This appears to avoid the kernel panics on restart.
4. When this is finished, I opened TextEdit and saved two blank files to the desktop. The first is called IO80211Family.kext.rtf and the second is AppleAirPort.kext.rtf. Then I went to the Desktop and removed the .rtf extension and approved the change to a kext extension.
Update, 31.03.2010 – According to shlgww in the Comments, in Tiger it is AppleAirport2.kext not AppleAirPort.kext which needs to be replaced.
5. In Finder, I went to System>Library>Extensions, deleted the files AppleAirPort.kext and IO80211Family.kext and authorised the action. Then I dragged in the two ‘dud’ kext files from the Desktop into the Extensions folder and again authorised the action.
6. Finally I restarted and shut down the laptop a few times to check all was in order and suffered no kernel panics at all.
Feel free to follow these steps to avoid the iBook G4 kernel panic problems associated with Airport at your own risk. The steps have worked wonderfully for me though they may not for you. Apologies if anybody else has already found this solution but I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
Please leave a comment if you have any further questions or if these steps have or haven’t worked for you.
I’m also running into this issure with my 12″ iBook G4. I semi-followed your steps with good results so far.
1. I did a clean install of 10.4 – hoping this would solve the problem. I even zero’d the drive!
2. Started in Safe Mode – hold down shift at start up, wait for the spinny thingy.
3. Made the two files in your step 4
4. Made a back up of the files to be replaced and moved it to my desktop…just in case.
5. Followed your step five.
6. So far the results are the same as your step six, only I don’t have an external wireless adapter to test it.
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Thanks for the comment Ben. Any news on you iBook? Are you still free of kernel panics?
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We can learn clearly that this issue is a design mistake and design mistake you can not repair only if you change all the computer for an other type that hopefully designed well.
Even an Apple technician agree with that.
Read here
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=62622
Laszlo
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A very helpful suggestion.
In Tiger, the kexts have different names. Analysis of the panic dump suggests that AppleAirport2.kext is the guilty item in Tiger. Substituting (or removing) this kext from System/Library/Extensions in Tiger seems to fix the kernel panics in an iBook G4 1.33 GHz by making the AirPort card invisible to the system. BlueTooth is still available.
Still testing this solution but so far so good.
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This solution sounds great! I’ve been letting my ibook sit there for six months now after spending several hours at a time for at least 3 months or so trying to resolve the issue. i even purchased tech tools which said everything was fine. My biggest problem is a lot of times after the initial airport kernel panic (getting it from the system logs) i have trouble getting into safe mode, open firmware or even anything after the bell sound. I thought I’ve had airport turned off since it started, but maybe it turns itself back on. ? Anyway, my question, make it two is besides the airport2.kext file, do i need to replace the other one previously mentioned in the g5′s post since mine is the problematic g4? Also, do i need to drag Airport out of the Apple menu as i had read somewhere? Thanks for the info! This is something I might actually be able to do.
I had seen a site back months ago where there is a video even where they took apart the ibook enough to place a folded piece of paper inside to put pressure on the card, but it seemed a little daunting & possibly dangerous (paper could catch fire) so i had been just letting it sit there.
Thanks for the advice & input!
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Hi,
Please advise this to Apple. They asked from me 900 USD to repair my ibook. All started after 14 months of simple use.
From that time decided not buy anymore Apple products and will not buy until I not get a cheap repair. I had to buy other computer
for 250 USD each an Asus and Acer and all the wireless work with camera….without problem. So easy to repair and they ask so much money. Not nice from such a company. They had to admit that it is a design mistake as more technician told it.
Sorry fellow. But do not see that Apple care about their clients.
The former letter shows exactly that that private people find solution but Apple did not.
Best regards,
Laszlo
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It worked perfectly! Thanks for posting this!
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…If for you worked why offered me the Apple service a repair for 900 USD for a 14 months old (young) computer? (when the price was 1400 USD. I still waiting an apologize from Apple for the mistake they made in design. Meanwhile I have to buy other type of computer because that. Highly disappointed that such a company not stand behind his products and behind the mistake they made.
Laszlo
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Hey Laszlo. I don’t think Apple would want to give people official advice to do this but I may be wrong. They are welcome to do so if they wish!
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Great Article, great suggestions.
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How do I make a backup of the files to be replaced… Just incase I need them again?
Thanks.
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Hey Graham. You can just copy and paste them anyway you want.
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Another approach to the same problem would be to re-flow the solder on one of the chips from the logic board:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Fixing-a-broken-iBook-G4-with-Airport-kernel-panic/
I’m considering asking a friend to do this.
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Hi Joel,
Thanks for the link. In my case and that is the majority has the design mistake that Apple made that the connector’s contacts loose the strength from the worm that they were nearly permanently. The connector sit near to the processor cooler and to the HD. Not only that. The plastic that kept the connector was closed to the cooler channel of the processor. Even it is plastic and not pass the warm so much it is quite bad. If I was make such a final project in the school was not pass the exam. So it is not a soldier problem. Sure that any other soldering problem in the processor or in the BUS can make kernel panic. Anyway after 14 months of use I can not use the computer. Not it is 4 years and not bought any Apple products more.
Best regards,
Laszlo
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Hey- this is awesome. I think I’ve been having the same kernel panic problems due to the shoddy workmanship on the Airport cards in this model. I found myself that disabling airport definitely stabilised things somewhat but I needed something to get rid of the sporadic kernel panics that still occur, especially on restart. Your solution is a hell of a lot less Byzantine than opening up the case and leaving a scrap of paper in there so thank you very much for posting!
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Hi Andrew,
The best take off the airport card and work without.
To repair cost more than 900 USD. If the paper was help they could repair it also cheaply but the paper do not do nothing just to say that you have a solution. This is a design problem that they used on a wrong place (very warm) not the correct connector what lost the connection after a time. >> read ealier comment. If Apple were admit this mistake I was continue buy their products.
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Hi Ed,
Many thanks, great fix, my daughters ibook now working without airport.
Very best regards,
Andy.
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I can’t seem to find the IO80211family.kext file in the extensions folder
I’m running Mac OSX 10.5 and can’t update because of the Kernel panic
Any idea? If so please email me at Baigzad@gmail.com thanks so much
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Hi Sean,
I’m trying to fix same KP issue on ibook G4 1.33 Mhz from a friend of mine. I can’t also locate in SystemExtension the IO80211family.kext file. I’m wondering if you got an answer for it.
after deleting the the above mentioned airport2 file it’s working somehow.
But not really, after restarting the machine I get an grey screen with
… illegal instruction at ….
Welcome to Open Firmware and it takes me around ten restart to be able to start up again.. No clue if it’s related to the fact that I don’t have deleted this IO8021family.kext file since it’s not within the above mentioned folder.
Well I have to mentioned that I don’t have anymore this Kernal Panic issue but know I have the problem that restart it’s not working, at least I have to try 10 times before the OS is starting. The machine is running with OS X 10.4.3
any idea anyone ?
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I noticed that the AppleAirport2.kext file which I have exchanged with an empty one did not show the extension, so I check out the option to hide the file extension and now I have tried a couple of restarts and seems to work, strange can not belive that this was the reason.
Will keep testing..
br,
Desmond
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Works like a charm under os 10.5 to 10.5.8! Just created the files, renamed them, authenticated. dropped them, authenticated. Bingo done..
Grabbed a small USB – Ralink Chipset – and installed the app and kext. All good for $6.99!!
Nice hack!!
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Hi there, here you are another positive feedback for you, and an epithet to the assistance of a macstore in Rome [IT] – their advice was to throw the computer… Tnks.
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How do I even get past the Kernel panic street? It’s not allowing me to Start up even after holding down D or Command+S. Any help?
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Hi, Had this same problem with my iBook G4 12in 1.33 GHz recently, and thanks to the advice here all diagnosed. The only point to add is you don’t need the dud files. Just drag the offending files out of the extensions folder. You don’t need to replace them with anything at all. I made a new folder named “disabled extensions” and dumped them in there which means they’re still there if needed in the future. The thing is the system only looks in the extensions folder on start up it doesn’t look elsewhere for the files. In fact anyone who had an older Mac from the 1990′s will remember there actually used to be a disabled extensions folder in the systems folder already and that was how you turned things on and off at start up…… That was in the days when you could rummage around in the system folder and understand what it all was there for!
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Thanks for that David. Really good to know. I assume my logic was that I didn’t want it looking for the files and panicking about why they weren’t there.
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I have arrived here after a painful journey including the unnecessary expense of replacing the inbuilt airport card. I achieved the same result by dragging the .kext file to the trash. No Kernel Panics but no access to wireless. Is the the best outcome one can get?
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