Two problems I'm currently trying to deal with:
1) I'm getting numerous kernal panics per day for the last week. I haven't seen one of these for years. I've tried the usual fixes (fsck and disk repair from the installation CD) without success. I'm using an old Macbook 2.4 C2D with 4GB RAM and a 240GB SSD running 10.6.8. No peripherals are connected.

2) Unusual notices are constantly popping up when I'm online. The first is a notice that Flash Player is out of date and needs to be updated. A .dmg automatically downloads to my desktop. System Preferences shows that Flash Player is up to date. I immediately trash it, but it keeps recurring numerous times per day. The source is from the following url: ready4newsoft.checkupgrade24freshandforfree.site © 2016
The second notice is that my Mcafee virus protection software is about to expire. But I don't use virus protection software on this machine.

Could the two problems of the kernal panics and the notices be related? How can I stop the kernal panics and eliminate the strange and troublesome notices?

Maybe RAM going bad? Check "About This Mac", click on System Report >Hardware >Memory for the status of your sticks.

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DP: memory shows OK status. Any other possibilities?

Well, there is that popup with the Flash player notification. I'm suspect of it since it's not from Adobe and you may gotten some malware. Activate McAfee while you still have it and see what it says. Download Malwarebytes (sp?). Others on this forum have a link for it. Could be time for a nuke and pave also. Everything backed up?

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It's possibly some hardware issue too with that old of a machine.
C'mon Doc, Ona, somebody! I'm certainly not the pro here. I'm mentioning stuff that I've learned on this phorum!

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DP: Malwarebytes for Mac doesn't work with 10.6.8. And I don't have Mcafee, but they keep telling me I'm about to expire. What's with that?

How full is the SSD, how old is it?

Never click on a pop up that tells you to update your flash player. Always go to adobe.com and click on Downloads for the relevant product.
Malwarebytes for Mac isn't perfect but it is one of the better Mac cleaners to start with.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2016 06:23PM by Filliam H. Muffman.

Thx for the link, Fill!

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[www.thesafemac.com]

The SSD is about 18 months old and is only 30% full. I also ran the hardware test and it showed the SSD as OK.

It will take a while to go through all the steps to remove adware. Will keep everyone updated.

Still getting the kernal panics. Had one about 5 minutes ago.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Have you tried reseating the ram?

Steve

1. Wrong approach.

You start by looking at the panic logs in the Console. You can often figure out what the problem is by one of several elements, the "BSD process"; or the "Kernel Extensions in backtrace"; or the "last loaded kext" are good clues. If the same thing shows up in one of those fields across multiple panics then it's your likely culprit.

2. One or both of two things are occurring: Either you're visiting grossly malicious websites that you should not be visiting or you've got malware/adware screwing up your browsing sessions. Since you can't run the Malwarebytes tool under 10.6.8, run a scan with Etrecheck and do a full drive scan with Avast.

...Uninstall Avast afterwards. It's one of the better antivirus products out there in terms of its ability to identify malware on your Mac, but the people who distribute it aren't particularly ethical in the way that they try to monetize it and you may find that it installs one or more cr@pware products on your Mac behind the scenes if you leave it running on your Mac for awhile.

...And make sure that the home page in each of your web browsers has not been set to some malicious site. Change it to [google.com] if it doesn't look right.

3. Yes, there's a good chance that malware is causing the panics.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2016 10:44PM by Onamuji.

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...Uninstall Avast afterwards. It's one of the better antivirus products out there in terms of its ability to identify malware on your Mac, but the people who distribute it aren't particularly ethical in the way that they try to monetize it and you may find that it installs one or more cr@pware products on your Mac behind the scenes if you leave it running on your Mac for awhile.

Onamuji, can you post a link or two to back up this claim? PCMag editors gave Avast an excellent rating. Avast still runs on OSX 10.6.8 and they are still updating the virus database on a regular basis.

kernel

This why I love the forum. Learn something new every day...

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Forrest
Onamuji, can you post a link or two to back up this claim? PCMag editors gave Avast an excellent rating. Avast still runs on OSX 10.6.8 and they are still updating the virus database on a regular basis.

[forum.avast.com]

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How difficult would it be for you to get to an Apple Store? They can run thorough diagnostic tests is a short period of time.

Onamuji,
Thanks for the info on Avast. Apparently Avast installed their add-on VPN without notification on some machines in mid 2015. I would not consider Avast's VPN cr@pware. I have found the free Avast regularly detects malware installation attempts from well known news sites every few weeks - so I'm leaving it installed on my machines until I investigate further. I'm fairly certain the VPN was not installed on any of my machines, because I see regular pop-ups from Avast asking me to upgrade to the pay version - which will install the VPN.

If I find anything - I'll continue this discussion in a new thread.

Bad news, "ready4newsoft..." has invaded your system.
more info here

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One last post. Looks like Etrecheck and Avast did the trick. Both found both Malware and Adware. Also no panics since the removal.

Thanks to all for all the great suggestions.