Disclaimer: this is about 80% venting.
So back in October, my laptop (macbook pro 2010 model) began experiencing kernel panics a few times a week. For those unaware, kernel panic is (at least for me) the computer randomly restarting with utterly no discernible cause. At the time, I took it to an Apple store, they did a diagnostic test, and everything indicated that, bafflingly, nothing was wrong with my computer. Shortly after, I noticed that they only seemed to happen when I was running Microsoft Word. I switched to an opensource word processor and everything stopped crashing.
Until mid-late February, when they resurfaced with a vengeance. Once a day at best. Come spring break, and I took it to an Apple store again. (I should note that when I'm at campus, the closest apple store is 50 miles away, leaving the only feasible times to go to an actual store as when I'm on break) Same diagnostics, same result.
Yesterday afternoon, it happened two times in five minutes. And a third time while I was talking with a tech support guy on the phone. His idea was to see if it was hardware or software, by creating a fresh user account on the laptop and using it for a day before calling back.
And it crashed twice on that account. When I called his extension, I got voicemailed. Twenty more minutes with tech support later, the latest idea was reset PRAM. Tried that about three hours ago, used normally before a followup call from them. It hadn't crashed in that time, so basically they said "keep the number, if it happens again call back."
Literally a minute after that phone call it crashed again.
I quit. I'm going to walk to radio shack tomorrow, buy a shitty $200 netbook to get me through the rest of the semester, and then I'm throwing this thing into the campus pond. (okay probably not the pond bit, but that's how I feel)
So does anyone have any ideas about kernel panic? I'm this close to asking for a lift to a store fifty fucking miles away just so I can physically throw this laptop at the Genius Bar.