Macbook 2,1 extremely unstable?

Question

Hey, I bought a Macbook 2,1 with 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo & 1 GB RAM about a year and a half ago. I'm using Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger). I've always had random errors with it (kernel panics monthly, crashing weekly), but now it has become absolutely ridiculous.
I recently installed 2 GB of PNY RAM, which could be causing some issues, but I've been having problems for quite a while before then. The DVD drive one day somehow got warped or something; it reads discs fine but there is considerable resistance trying to insert a disc, suggesting heat damage or external stress (however, the computer had just been sitting on the charger the night before I noticed this problem, so I'm guessing heat damage).
Over the course of it's lifetime thus far, this Macbook has probably given me 30-40 kernel panics, hundreds of instances of programs closing due to errors, and numerous GUI issues (dock turning black, taskbar not loading, desktop icons not loading on startup, options having no result, computer not shutting down, etc). I have, within two weeks, zeroed the hard disk and reinstalled the OS three times (once, the installer ran into errors and would never finish, but keep telling me to start over). In less than 24 hours since the last reinstall, I've encountered 2 kernel panics and the dock has once turned black.
I need help. I'm a college student who absolutely needs a stable computer for work and for school, and this Apple has NOT delivered that for the past six months. I also work in MIS for a local company and have tried to find diagnostic tools for Mac OS X - but to no avail. Most of my friends have never even seen a kernel panic or know what one is, yet somehow I manage to have them randomly thrown at me every week. Safari closes due to errors all the time. Firefox does the same. Pages does the same. MS Word 2008 does the same. Garageband does the same. I want to like my Mac, but I simply can't like a computer that is extremely unpredictable and crash-prone. Help is much appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Why did you wait a year and a half to solve your kernel panics?
If you got them out of the box, you should have returned the computer then while there was a return policy in effect?
If you got them in the first year, you may have had a hardware issue that could be resolved. I'm assuming of course you haven't purchased AppleCare, otherwise you'd be calling them to ask why you are getting issues. If AppleCare is giving you an unreasonable response like erase your machine before sufficient troubleshooting is done, certainly, feel free to ask us how to solve the problem.
Apple has had many a stable machine. It sounds to me you just got a lemon, and should have returned it or asked it to be repaired under warranty.
Now that it is over a year old, if you don't have AppleCare, you are going to pay through the nose to get it repaired. You should always buy AppleCare within the first year.
So here are my questions for you:
1. Do you have AppleCare?
2. Is your data backed up?
3. Have you looked at the exchange/repair programs?
http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/
which work even if you don't have AppleCare?
4. Have you looked at potential causes for heat?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=716829&tstart=0
5. Have you made sure you aren't doing anything to damage the charger, by following these suggestions?*
http://www.macmaps.com/frayguide.html
6. Have you tried to see what happens if you put back in the original RAM?
P.S. I'm just a volunteer here.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody