Kernel Panic Followed by Selective Application Crashes

Question

I recently encountered a problem with my 15-inch MacBook Pro that I have not been able to solve. I was attempting to log-in to a university wireless network as a guest (University of Virginia) with the help of local staff. I turned on Aiport, located the network, and connected briefly (4-5 seconds). This was followed by a rapid disconnect/connect fluttering that produced the following series of messages on the system.log:
Mar 3 15:58:00 david-gants-computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:0217:F2FF:FE44:0F44); delaying packets by 5 seconds
Mar 3 15:58:00 david-gants-computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (169.254.42.220); delaying packets by 5 seconds
Mar 3 15:58:20 david-gants-computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:0217:F2FF:FE44:0F44); delaying packets by 5 seconds
Mar 3 15:58:20 david-gants-computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (169.254.42.220); delaying packets by 5 seconds
Mar 3 15:58:42 david-gants-computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:0217:F2FF:FE44:0F44); delaying packets by 5 seconds
etc.....
We tried turning Aiport off, then on, but the same phenomenon occured. At this point I experienced a kernel panic:
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A3135): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 0, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x00000008, CR3: 0x00da6000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x02d9f540, ECX: 0x02be2da4, EDX: 0x02be2dac
CR2: 0x00000008, EBP: 0x1403bcc8, ESI: 0x02be2da8, EDI: 0x00000001
EFL: 0x00010006, EIP: 0x0013ee1e, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x14030010
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x1403baf8 : 0x128d1f (0x3c9540 0x1403bb1c 0x131df4 0x0)
0x1403bb38 : 0x1a3135 (0x3cf1f4 0x0 0xe 0x3cea24)
0x1403bc48 : 0x19a8d4 (0x1403bc58 0x0 0xe 0x48)
0x1403bcc8 : 0x1267a4 (0x2be2da4 0x2d9f540 0x1403bcf8 0x121ae3)
0x1403bcf8 : 0x1268f4 (0x2d9f528 0x2be2d68 0x400 0x1344c000)
0x1403bd78 : 0x14a189 (0x24ccf78 0x4f03 0x3aa27b4 0x3aa27c8)
0x1403bdb8 : 0x12b4da (0x25ceda8 0x3aa2798 0x0 0x0)
0x1403bdf8 : 0x124b2b (0x25ced00 0x0 0x24 0x1403bedc)
0x1403bf08 : 0x1955a1 (0x1403bf44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x1403bfc8 : 0x19ad4e (0x2512654 0x0 0x8 0x2512654) No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xb009dcd8
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.8.1: Mon Sep 25 19:42:00 PDT 2006; root:xnu-792.13.8.obj~1/RELEASE_I386
When this happened, I was also running MS Word and two small utilities (Space, for multiple desktops, and smcFanControl). None of these apps had caused problems before.
When I rebooted, things appeared to run smoothly. The OS loads without a hiccup and I can't see any error messages in the system log. However, from this point on I have not been able to load any MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Entourage, etc.), Internet Explorer, or Mozilla/Firefox. They initiate for a few seconds, but then crash. Other apps still load smoothly, including fairly cpu-intensive ones such as Acrobat Professional 6.0 and the oXygen XML editor, as well as the Safari browser. Cold reboots don't make any difference at all.
I suspected Airport might be the problem, but it works fine on all other networks I to which I subsequently connected--only the UVa net continued producing the repeated transition phenonenon.
I also ran memtest with no problems detected.
Has anyone seen a similar problem or have thoughts on how to un-lobotomize my machine?
Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 15-inch   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  
MacBook Pro 15-inch   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

First off, here is my kernel panic FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html
Good books including Mac OS X Tiger: The Missing Manual and The Little Mac Book: Tiger Edition by Robin Williams (not the actor!). Both these authors have great books regarding Mac OS X and other parts of Mac OS X.
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.