It tends to be when I'm uploading a sketch to the Arduino via the programming port. The laptop just cuts out and then pops up the grey screen of death then restarts. It doesn't happen 100% of the time, but does happen quite a lot.
Has anybody experienced this since upgrading to OSx Mavericks?
Having the same problems here, with Mac OSX Mavericks, Arduino UNO and the 1.0.5 IDE.
My MacBook also crashed during compilation (without uploading), so I doubt that the compiler causes the trouble, not the uploader. Anyway, the error-report, which is shown after restart, is not very helpful at all…
By the look of it, the error doesn’t seem to be reproducible. I’m trying to narrow down the problem, perhaps I can figure out something.
Did you get anywhere with this? I am also getting occasional crashes using IDE 1.5.5, Due and running on a 2009 iMac recently updated to Mavericks.
I'm afraid not, was still having the issue the last time I used it. Can't seem to see any pattern either, so I've just started pressing the upload button gently.
@armless Unfortunatelly, no: I also work around by „carefully“ comiling/uploading and restarting the IDE from time to time as a precaution. Not satisfying at all, though…
@blah44: Since you asked via PM: The crash-reports doesn’t seem to be helpful. Are there any Arduino-IDE-specific logs available?
This is now fixed for me, since moving to IDE 1.5.6-r2.
Stable world again 
After upgrading to IDE IDE 1.5.6-r2. I did get an additional crash unplugging the USB cable :~