Random kernel panics on iPhone 4 GSM: what would you do?

Question

Hello all,
I'm posting here in hopes that someone could help shed some light on the matter before I give up and send my phone in for repair, provided it will be repaired/replaced given how random this issue is.
I've had an iPhone 4 since November 2010, a GSM unit as I'm in Europe. Jailbroke it on a dull day just to see if I'd have any use for that, restored it to stock firmware (using the backup I had created before applying the jb) about 24 hours later. No trace of jb on it at all nowadays, basically. The phone and the system are as vanilla as they can be. The only customization, so to speak, is the provisioning profiles in my name as I'm an iOS developer.
Ever since March, the phone will sometimes randomly reboot. There is no pattern whatsoever: I may be fiddling with it, I may be keeping it in my pocket, it may be charging, it may be placidly sitting on a table undisturbed. Out of the blue, the Apple logo will show up and the thing will reboot, and won't ask for the PIN either. I hadn't thought much of it as it was very rare, but lately it's become more apparent and I decided to look for some logs.
To my horror, I found that ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/Jolliphone/Panics on my Mac was way overpopulated. The weirdest thing is that all the logs look virtually the same, although they all end abruptly in different points (which suggests that they were so brutal that there was no "time" to write the whole thing down.)
Here is an example:
Incident Identifier: [...]
CrashReporter Key:   [...]
Hardware Model:      iPhone3,1
Date/Time:       2011-05-28 10:20:51.833 +0200
OS Version:      iPhone OS 4.3.3 (8J2)
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x8007f3e5): "buf_brelse: bad buffer = 0xd0705fc8\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1735.46/bsd/vfs/vfs_bio.c:2348
Debugger message: panic
OS version: 8J2
Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 11.0.0: Wed Mar 30 18:51:10 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1735.46~10/RELEASE_ARM_S5L8930X
iBoot version: iBoot-1072.61
secure boot?: YES
Paniclog version: 1
Epoch Time:        sec       usec
  Boot    : 0x4de0afb5 0x00000000
  Sleep   : 0x00000000 0x00000000
  Wake    : 0x00000000 0x00000000
  Calendar: 0x4de0b02c 0x0007b411
Task 0x812e7c60: 10957 pages, 100 threads: pid 0: kernel_task
Task 0x812e7a50: 187 pages, 3 threads: pid 1: launchd
Task 0x812e7210: 152 pages, 2 threads: pid 13: usbethernetshari
Task 0x812e7000: 134 pages, 4 threads: pid 14: syslogd
Task 0x839be840: 543 pages, 2 threads: pid 17: lockdownd
Task 0x839be420: 1068 pages, 23 threads: pid 19: mediaserverd
Task 0x839be210: 383 pages, 3 threads: pid 20: mediaremoted
Task 0x839be000: 342 pages, 3 threads: pid 21: mDNSResponder
Task 0x83ad2c60: 1593 pages, 12 threads: pid 22: locationd
Task 0x83ad2a50: 588 pages, 4 threads: pid 23: imagent
Task 0x83ad2840: 586 pages, 1 threads: pid 24: fairplayd.N90
Task 0x83ad2630: 764 pages, 15 threads: pid 25: configd
Task 0x83ad2420: 407 pages, 4 threads: pid 26: awd_ice3
Task 0x83ad2210: 411 pages, 3 threads: pid 27: apsd
Task 0x83ad2000: 225 pages, 2 threads: pid 28: accessoryd
Task 0x83b8ac60: 6689 pages, 18 threads: pid 29: SpringBoard
          thread 0xc0a780d0
                    kernel backtrace: d2663ac8
                      lr: 0x8006de75  fp: 0xd2663af4
                      lr: 0x8006e085  fp: 0xd2663b14
                      lr: 0x8006e19f  fp: 0xd2663b1c
                      lr: 0x80015fed  fp: 0xd2663b34
                      lr: 0x8007f3e5  fp: 0xd2663b74
                      lr: 0x8007fec5  fp: 0xd2663b8c
                      lr: 0x8007fedf  fp: 0xd2663b94
                      lr: 0x800a256f  fp: 0xd2663bd0
                      lr: 0x80132735  fp: 0xd2663bd8
                      lr: 0x80132cd3  fp: 0xd2663c00
                      lr: 0x80158d45  fp: 0xd2663c10
                      lr: 0x80156dab  fp: 0xd2663ce0
                      lr: 0x8013393f  fp: 0xd2663d08
                      lr: 0x8013399f  fp: 0xd2663d18
They are all like that. The only thing that's different is the OS system, which ranges from 4.3 to 4.3.3, and the location that generated the panic:
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x8007f3e5): "buf_brelse: bad buffer = 0xd0704640\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1735.46/bsd/vfs/vfs_bio.c:2348
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x8007f3e5): "buf_brelse: bad buffer = 0xd070aa98\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1735.46/bsd/vfs/vfs_bio.c:2348
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x8007f3e5): "buf_brelse: bad buffer = 0xd06fdf88\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1735.46/bsd/vfs/vfs_bio.c:2348
…and so on. The caller is always 0x8007f3e5, and the buffer location is always in 0x0d6…–0x0d7… range. This is what leads me to think that it may be some memory problem.
As I said there is absolutely no pattern in this. Sometimes it will stay a month without panicking – after a few panics on April 1st, it happened again on May 2nd – yet in other occasions it will panic 4 times within 8 minutes as it happened yesterday morning.
Lately it's been happening more often when I charge it using the wall adapter, but then again it's fairly inconsistent: I have kept it connected since last evening on purpose, and it hasn't panicked once.
I have tried restoring it as a new phone, just to make sure that it wasn't a software problem, and the very same thing happened as soon as I connected to my father's iPad 2 adapter.
If you have read so far, I want to thank you very much for your patience. I'll get to the point: what should I do?
I spent 35 minutes on the phone with AppleCare this morning and was about to give the green light to have it picked up, but the woman told me that I couldn't provide the logs to tech support, and that they'd run some tests on their own and, if they could reproduce the problem, I would get a refurbished phone in place of this one, otherwise they'd send the same unit back. Considering that it's impossible to reproduce it on purpose, I'm afraid that I will just end up being phoneless for two weeks (with the added issue of finding a way to stick this micro-sim into a phone that takes regular-sized sims), and ultimately be sent back the faulty phone.
I told the woman I'd consider going to the Apple Store in Rome, so I could at least speak with a human person and expose the problem in more detail. I do have a repair ID and apparently I can just book a slot at the genius bar and have them access the repair ID data.
The problem is that I live 200 km from Rome, and it would take the better part of a day and it would be more money spent on this issue to get there and back. And I wouldn't even be certain that they'd replace it: even if they agree to replace it, what if they're out of stock on 32 GB units, for instance?
So here is the dilemma: I have a phone that feels very unstable given the 18 (eighteen) panics I've had in the last three days, and I'm facing either wasting time and money to go to an Apple Store, or being without the phone for the better part of two weeks, again without any certainty.
Going to my carrier (Vodafone) is pointless: they referred me to Apple; at most they will ship it for me, but at that point I'd rather do it myself.
As for the local Apple Premium Reseller, they are an authorized support center for Macs, but they don't offer any support for iPhones at all.
What would you do?
Thanks.

Answer 1

DaVBMan wrote:
Not saying you are complaining, I know it isn't what one likes, but just the way it is and quite normal.
You can buy a used one from somewhere and just continue on your same contract (if same type of phone, eg: You didn't have original one before and go buy a used 3G now..then you need to change plans). But if you had 3G before and buy a used 3G now, you can activate it and your contract shouldn't restart.
A used one you buy shouldn't have a SIM card in it but even if it does, you don't want to use it. You need to go to AT&T store and request a new SIM. They will give you one set for your account and you just go home and activate using same account (thus no contract changing). If you try to use another SIM without getting one from AT&T it could mess with your contract so best to deal with them first to get one coded for you. There is nothing wrong with buying a used iPhone and saying you want to put it on your existing account. You can do that with any phone. You already have the data plan etc required so they don't care.
That was useful info, and I'm not complaining (well, I am, but it does no good, so it's a rhetorical complaint)...
What I'm really looking for is opinions about what would be the most sensible/cost effective way to go right now, given the available options.
Thanks,
Lorraine