Please Help —*Kernel Panics on MBP 3,1

[tshafer]

Long story shortened a bit. I have a 2-yr old MBP 3,1 (the first Santa Rosa line) which has recently hit a slew of problems (bad fan, new display, new hdd, new logic board) over the last 3 months. I thought all was fixed then yesterday it suddenly dies, starts kernel panicking on boot, and I can't even boot from an installer disk. I took it in to the Genius Bar today and the guy puts a stick of their RAM in and it seems to work +/- ok. He won't do any more until I put the original RAM back in (upgraded to 4 gigs a year ago).

I take the laptop home, and it magically starts working. I grab a couple backups and it starts kernel panicking again so I grab my original RAM and put it in. Now it's still kernel panicking and I'm effectively completely locked out of my MacBook Pro (the RAM worked fine in my wife's 3-year-old MacBook which takes memory of the same specs). Any ideas or am I just screwed? I'm scheduled to take it back in tomorrow, but at this point I don't know if I can afford more repair time (been without the laptop for probably 3 weeks out the last 3 months and I am a PhD student... integral to my work).

 

[Sneakz]

Can you post the panic log?

 

[jav6454]

Can you post the panic log?

Agreed, a Panic log will be much useful.

Huge tip, call AppleCare directly and explain to them your problem. Believe me, Apple Care over the phone handles this type o situation much much better.

 

[tshafer]

Unfortunately, no. I had a backup up of critical data so I was in the process of erasing/installing when the panics started again. I have a half-installed os now which i can't erase or re-install. Maybe I can get it to the install screen before it panics again and take a photo or something.

Part of the frustration here is that I received this laptop in replacement of my dead PowerBook two years ago (which died in the course of 5 replaced logic boards over it's warranty). Either I have terrible luck or these are terribly-made notebooks now.