General Advice Needed

Hello all,
I have a 15" Macbook Pro (Version 10.6.3) running Snow Leopard purchased in September 2008. I has so many issues and I would like to know what my prognosis is.
First of all, I have one of the Macbook Pro's with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT that I've read so much about. I believe (or rather, hope) that it is this causing at least some of my issues.
I won't detail every problem because I don't want to waste your time. I'm am not looking for 'fix' details as I'e tried everything. I seek advice as to what to do next.
Firstly: Only a few days after purchase, my laptop would continually crash and shut itself down, refusing to restart for 24 hours+. I didn't understand what the problem was so I took it to an Apple Genius who simply told me what programs were running what it crashed. Deleting them all (including BootCamp) my laptop worked again, for over a year when the issue started happening again. My computer would shut down randomly and not restart for a long time.
Is this due to the NVIDIA issue? My nearest Apple store is a long drive away and having been let down before, I don't want to go all of that way for nothing. If I'm honest, I don't trust them, either. I've heard stories of people being told there's nothing wrong with their computer multiple times before a Genius would finally admit fault. I'm also afraid that the tech will take my laptop, find an 'unrelated issue' and charge for £200+ for a fix that I didn't specifically ask for (Apple have promised free warranty for those with the NVIDIA issue.)
I've tried my level best to find out exactly what the problem is, but I'm not very technical minded. I hear that the NVIDIA chip causes mis-shaping of the Macbook case? (which mine has, on its right hand side, near the firewire etc ports.) Does it affect iSight, because that, too, has inexplicably stopped working over the last few days, as well as a number of other things.
Basically, does it sound to you like I'm owed a repair or not? This issue has been troubling me for such a long time and I've had such a hard time trying to get it fixed that I'm sapped of all of my spirit. After nearly two nears of ownership, my laptop DOES have some general wear and tear which is my fault and I don't have a problem with, but considering my issues first started DAYS after I made my purchase and I TRIED to get it fixed then, surely, it must be an inbuilt problem?
Please help me make sense of my next step. Is NVIDIA my problem? Am I entitled to a free fix?
Thank you for your time and advice. I await response with eager ears.
Nick

Hello. I ran the hardware test that you recommended and came back with the follow error.
With only a small amount of research, I have discovered that this is a graphics card issue: specifically, the NVIDIA one as highlighted in the original post.
Now I know for certain I have a faulty NVIDIA card, I'm sure Apple will do the repair for me (although I still hear stories).
I was just wondering if there are any other symptoms to this issue? Is this why my laptop has overheated and mis-shapen? Is this why my iSight won't work? Please arm me with as much information as you can give, so I know what to expect/ask from them.
Thank you once again for your time and thank you a brody for your extremely helpful tip - you've made me a content man.

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Is there any sites anyone could recommend that cover
the coding of a java game from scratch ......and also
uses the functionality of java by immplementing
interfaces , classes and explaining there purpose as
they go?I belive there is a nice tutorial on here, and several if you google, but there is a very good listing in the Java Games Developement forum--this subject comes up there often. There are also listing of 3rd party packages that will help with vaious tasks, such as, graphics.
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.......you see I am used to being able to click on an
error and get a whole wealth of information about
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jbuilder.....I want good instant error documentation
like this). for netbeans you need to install the Java Docs seperate.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.......also
bearing in mind that I want to be able to use my own
code without having to understand an ide inside
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