MAC PRO LAPTOP FRIED AFTER INSTALLING SNOW LEOPARD U/G

Question

I am REALLY REALLY upset.  I bought my daughter a top-of-the-line Mac Pro laptop in 2007.  All together, with a 3-year extended warranty, it cost me $3,000!!
Because she kept getting messages that she needed to upgrade her operating system, she purchased the Snow Leopard upgrade two weeks ago and installed it.
Well, her laptop is now fried - just a week or so after installing the Snow Leopard 10.6.3 upgrade!!!!!
She took it to the Apple Store in Seattle, WA, who have told her that her graphics card is completely fried and needs to be replaced, and that she can't just replace the graphics card, because it's soldered onto the logic board - so she'd have to replace the "whole thing", which would be really expensive, around $1,000, and she "may as well buy a new computer"!!!!!!
I am REALLY REALLY upset about this - that a computer manufacturer (Apple) would sell laptops and just expect that people would have this huge outlay ready every 3 - 5 years to replace fried computers.
Has anyone else had major problems with their computers - laptops or otherwise - after installing the Snow Leopard CD upgrade???  I have read on several online forums that many people have had many different problems with their computers after installing this upgrade.
Apologies that I am not a computer-system-literate person - I'm just a mother who spent a LOT of money on a laptop for her daughter, and I truly believe that the Snow Leopard upgrade fried her computer.  She doesn't have the money to get a replacement and will probably have to drop out of college courses she's taking online because of this.
Please can someone give me some advice - in the simplest of layman terms possible???

Answer 1

Once a machine reaches 4 years old, its PRAM battery can likely get low fairly quickly, and that can jeapordize the success of upgrades.  Make sure your PRAM battery is new, if you have never changed it.  This is not the battery that is easily accessible through the bottom of the unit.  Bring it in to service if you can't find it through do-it-yourself repair instructions on http://www.ifixit.com/ and http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/  Keep that PRAM battery checked every 4 years or so when the machine starts to misbehave.
Edit: Scratch that.  I now see they diagnosed a bad graphics card.  This is something that could have been diagnosed during the first year or three years of ownership with the hardware test that came with the computer.  After that three years, age and wear and tear can damage a graphics card.  Your best bet if you want to avoid this happening in the future, don't travel with the machine asleep (only travel with it turned off), run the hardware test every six months, and buy AppleCare for any notebook computer you buy, even if you wait till the machine is 11 months old.  After 12 months, you are paying out of pocket for every single repair, even manufacturer issues that don't make an exchange/repair program.  With AppleCare manufacturer issues are typically covered.  User caused damage typically is not.