BAD TRAP

Cause

A bad trap can indicate faulty hardware or a mismatch between hardware and its configuration information. Data loss is possible if the problem occurs other than at boot time.

Action

If you recently installed new hardware, verify that the software was correctly configured. Check the kernel traceback displayed on the console to see which device generated the trap. If the configuration files are correct, you will probably have to replace the device.

In some cases, the bad trap message indicates a bad or down-rev CPU.

Technical Notes

A hardware processor trap occurred, and the kernel trap handler was unable to restore system state. This is a fatal error that usually precedes a panic, after which the system performs a sync, dump, and reboot. The following conditions can cause a bad trap: a system text or data access fault, a system data alignment error, or certain kinds of user software traps.