First time blue screen....

Hello, I am a new macbook user who had my first OS X blue screen. So I installed a new canon printer today, updated ilife 08 to ilife 09(I discovered that the ilife that preinstalled was 08 and the disk that came with macbook was ilife 09, suprise ), and was about to do some software update.

After the software update program checked that there were 6 new updates, it then freeze, and result in slowing other softwares. Then I figured out there is a force quit in apple menu, so I used it and restarted the system. But after the screen turned into blue, it wouldn't respond any more. So I stared at the blue screen for about a minute, and realized that Mac does crash and has blue screen

After anther one minute of waiting, I pushed down the power button and forced the computer to shut down( something I learned from my old Fujitsu laptop, it is one tough laptop, and it lasts for over 8 years already,and still running).

After the computer was restarted, I launched upgrade again, and this time nothing happened. Then I figured out there is something called disk utility that I can use to check the disk, and after the disk permission check, it came back with many permission changes for the canon printer program and some other programs, so I repaired them.

My question is, anyone else had similar problem before? Or I am the only one who had a leopard blue screen?
And also what else I can do to prevent such problem happen again in the future?

 

Incompatibilities / crashes happen. OS X these days is just as unreliable - or reliable - as Vista if you use current and compatible drivers for your devices, but it is still possible for new devices to crash the OS. The Apple 'doesn't crash' hype has always been a load of BS. Leopard is however noticeably more reliable than Tiger.

 

If you are still having problems with your printer, try the HPIJS drivers: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/hpijs

Some manufacturer drivers aren't very good and will do more harm than good.

 

i've had only a single crash since i bought my mac last november. Leopard is the most reliable operating system i've used till date.

 

Really, I haven't had a crash yet, I got my MBP in October.

 

never saw a BSOD on my mac..
didnt even know it could happen

 

Been nearly two years, using two macs, never saw any so-called BSOD on OS-X.

 

I have never heard of a BSOD on a mac... maybe a grey screen or frozen laptop... but never an actual blue screen.
To prevent this in the future I would say slow down a bit and try installing/upgrading one thing at a time, with a reboot in between for critical things.
a

 

leopard by itself is a VERY stable operating system.

but if you use third party drivers, then the stability of your machine depends on the stability of those drivers. they could be high quality and stable, or not. it totally depends on the manufacturer of the driver at that point.

 

Well, it was not really a BSOD, but just that blue screen in between the machine start up.
I have not gotten any frozen screen or program since then, hopefully that was only an accident, but I will keep my eye on it when using the printer next time. What should I do if the problem really is caused by the printer?

 

Although its quite rare that Vista BSOD's these days it definitely happens more than a Mac. It wouldn't be farfetched to say that at least 90% of Vista users have seen a BSOD. While there were BSOD problems when Leopard first came out I think its pretty safe to say that 20% or fewer Mac users have seen a BSOD on their computer.

Don't even start counting the freezes in Vista that dont result in a BSOD and require a hard reset. The amount of these freezes is ridiculous.