My Mac Says I Need to Restart and Has Stopped Working
Authored by:
Support.com Tech Pro Team
This Guided Path® was written and reviewed by Support.com’s Tech Pro team. With decades of experience, our Tech Pros are passionate about making technology work for you. We love feedback! Let us know what you think about this Guided Path® by rating it at the end.
1 Introduction: Mac: Kernel Panics
Most crashes on a Mac computer only affect one application. However, there is a type of system-wide crash that can prevent you from being able to use your Mac altogether: a kernel panic. When this occurs, there’s usually no warning and no way to save your work or do anything else with your machine. A message simply appears that tells you that "You need to restart your computer." Because kernel panics can have many different causes, diagnosing the problem and preventing its recurrence can be difficult.
In this guide, we'll help you reboot your machine and attempt some things that may resolve your issue with kernel panic errors. If your kernel panic errors continuously re-occur or do not go away, your machine will require service.
In this guide, we'll help you reboot your machine and attempt some things that may resolve your issue with kernel panic errors. If your kernel panic errors continuously re-occur or do not go away, your machine will require service.
2 Mac: Force Restart
This works nearly the same on any modern Mac, with the difference being whether the Mac has a physical power button on the back of the machine or if it’s a MacBook, where the power button is a part of or slightly above the keyboard.
- Hold down the Power button on the Mac until it shuts down completely, this may take 5-10 seconds or so.
- Wait a few seconds then press the Power button again to boot the Mac.
? Were you able to reboot without getting another kernel panic error?
Most crashes on a Mac computer only affect one application. However, there is a type of system-wide crash that can prevent you from being able to use your Mac altogether: a kernel panic. When this occurs, there’s usually no warning and no way to save your work or do anything else with your machine. A message simply appears that tells you that "You need to restart your computer." Because kernel panics can have many different causes, diagnosing the problem and preventing its recurrence can be difficult.
In this guide, we'll help you reboot your machine and attempt some things that may resolve your issue with kernel panic errors. If your kernel panic errors continuously re-occur or do not go away, your machine will require service.
In this guide, we'll help you reboot your machine and attempt some things that may resolve your issue with kernel panic errors. If your kernel panic errors continuously re-occur or do not go away, your machine will require service.
This works nearly the same on any modern Mac, with the difference being whether the Mac has a physical power button on the back of the machine or if it’s a MacBook, where the power button is a part of or slightly above the keyboard.
- Hold down the Power button on the Mac until it shuts down completely, this may take 5-10 seconds or so.
- Wait a few seconds then press the Power button again to boot the Mac.
- Click the Apple menu, then click onApp Store.
- Select Updates on the bar at the top.
- Any pending updates for your Mac will be listed here. Select Update All to apply these updates.
MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air must have the power adapter plugged in to automatically download updates.
- Click on the Apple Menu, then click System Preferences.
- Choose Users & Groups.
- Choose Login Items at the top. Then, choose your username on the left. Then, click the Lock icon at the bottom. You may need to type in your Mac password to unlock this screen.
- Look through the list on the right. If you see an item you don't recognize, or an item you don't use frequently, highlight it by clicking its name, then click the Remove – button below to remove it.
- From the menu bar across the top of the screen, select the Apple menu (1), then select Restart... (2).
Any unsaved work will be lost.