MacBook Pro CONSTANTLY Restarting...

Question

Ive had my MacBook Pro for a little over a year, and around 3-4 months after i got it, it started to go to a black screen, and sit there for 10-20 sec then restart whenever it got hot. Ok, i guess its just what it does when it overheats. So i got a laptop cooler and started using programs such as SMCFanControll. Before i opened Halo or UT04, i would set the fans to full speed and then play away... But it still would overheat, even when the laptop felt cool. So i got Hardware Monitor, and monitored the temps. It would run hot, but not hot enough to warrant a random restart. So i took it to the apple store for the first time, around 7-8 months after i first got it. They said my battery was bulging, my hd was supposedly replaced (even though it said they used a 160gb 7200rpm drive when its a 80gb) and the swapped out the logic board. It ran cooler, but still restarted randomly. I lived with it for a few months, mainly because im a student and cant really go without my only computer for another week. It started to restart so often, i had to choice but to give it back to them, as it was nearly useless to me. It would restart 30 sec after it just restarted, right in the middle of a boot. The 'genius' i spoke with before was baffled, he claimed he never saw this happen before, and basically blamed it on me. They took a look at it, said they changed the main logic board again, and i got it back 6 days later. The next day, i noticed lines would appear on the screen, and not go away until restarted it. Videos would freeze and never move from the screen until i rebooted. Every once in a while the screen would go EXTREMELY bright white, and look as if it was ready to explode, and the laptop would start to get extremely hot. At this point, im getting ******. I cant let this laptop sit somewhere unmonitored, it could blow itself apart. Leaving it on was out of the question, it had to be shut down immediately after i was done doing whatever i was doing, or else it restarts quickly when it comes out of sleep. I took the thing back, and he asked me to replicate this restarting for him. I was running on my drive and opened a program, and it restarted. Ok, so i booted on his boot drive, and he opened iTunes visualizer, wham.... it rebooted... So, one would assume this IS a hardware issue, correct? I got it back, they changed the main logic board... AGAIN, and gave me a new power supply. Of course, it was still restarting randomly. I showed my dad this, and then he came with me to the store to try and get this resolved. This time we talked to a different guy at the genius bar, and he basically said im doing something wrong, and was rather mean. So, whatever, they said they would look at it. A week later, he called and left a message. They said they had it running all week on the bench, and there is nothing wrong with it, come pick it up. I got there, he said it ran much better on their external drive and told me to clean up my 20+gb off my desktop and random useless crap i have elsewhere. He said it NEVER did anything wrong the whole week they had it running CONTINUOUSLY. So after i got it back, of course it still restarted. Ill listen to him though, he has to know something, right? So i pop in the OS X install disk, and zero out my disk, and reinstall OS X. I reinstall all my apps, update everything, etc... A hour or so after having it on, off the fresh install of OS X, NOTHING from my old HD backup, IT RESTARTS... And has been restarting randomly since then. It restarted 2x in the middle of writing this, which really is ******* me off now.
What do i do about this? Im looking at getting a new Alienware, or maybie something else, but for what i want its around $3k, and theyre chunky. I thought i liked my mac, but this this really *****, and the service on it is horrible. I cant stand not being able to do my online hw assignments from my computer being... 'repaired'...
Do i throw it on ebay as is and buy a Dell? Thats what its looking like im doing...
Oh, and i have the 3 year warranty on it..

Answer 1

Since you have Applecare, you need to get them to either repair it or fix it. As many repairs as it has had, you might even be elegible for a replacement. If a fresh installation of the OS did not fix it, then it sounds like there is an undiagnosed hardware problem somewhere. Have you by any chance run the Apple Hardware Test (on install disc #1) or the Tech Tool Delux hardware test that came with your Applecare? Try that and see if you can get any error codes.
Call Apple and ask to talk to Apple Customer Relations. Be very polite and reasonable and tell them about all the problems you have been having and how you really need your computer and can't keep sending it to the shop. Even though the shop had it sitting on the bench, they probably weren't actually using it so it's possible that the problem just didn't show up for them. And Mac geniuses are human beings--they can make mistakes. If it is really something you are doing, which I doubt, they should be able to tell you explicitly what, and it doesn't sound like they have been able to do that. It sounds more like you're having some sort of a kernel panic situation, and that's something a clean install of the OS should fix if it is due to corrupted software or something along those lines.
Good luck!