MacBook Pro Crashing! help!

Question

I'm using the following:
MacBook Pro 15"
2.16 Ghz
1 GB factory installed ram
256mb VRAM
100 GB 7200 RPM HD
Occasionally (about 8 times in the past week; I've had my macbook for a week) the computer has crashed. More specifically: the screen dims slightly and a message comes up (in about 8 langauges) saying you must restart your computer, with no indication as to why. I have the latest firmware, from what I understand (1.01), and I am also running bootcamp with Windows XP Home, however it has never crashed under windows (strange, i know!). The problem, however, existed before installing both bootcamp and windows. Also, a complete reformat and reinstallation (including removing bootcamp/windows) of the software from the Install Discs which came with the macbook pro did nothing... I should also mention that the crashes have only been when the computer was idle... i.e. when i leave my computer alone overnight and the screen saver has been on for five hours with nothing significant running in the background (maybe iChat, Mail, etc.). On the contrary, I have used the system to play resource intensive games (call of duty 2 under Windows) with no problems whatsoever.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Sunk, although you will find threads on this forum about stability problems, my answer is that kernel panics or other system freezes or crashes are not common problems.
My week 12 MBP has been running many hours a day 7 days a week since I received it on 30 March, 2006. I have not had any system panics, crashes or freezes, and only one application crash resulting from a poorly written set of the application's preferences that allowed me to choose incompatible settings (a one-time crash that hasn't happened again, once I diagnosed the problem).
Of the 8 MBP owners I know (including myself), two had stability/speed/heat issues. Those two cases were easily cured. One resulted from Migration Assistant import of an incompatible application that was a startup item. It stalled and froze, placing a high load on the processors. Deleting it and substituting a compatible application resulted in a stable, fast computer. The other resulted in activation of a set of Widgets that were loading up both the processors and the network. Deactivation of almost all Widgets resulted in a fast, stable computer with good network performance.
Bad RAM can cause problems. And it's always possible that a particular computer may have hardware problems. Insert the Install Disc 1 and restart while holding down the D key. Choose the extended hardware test routine. If any error is reported, call Apple. But note this doesn't always catch bad RAM. If you have two RAM sticks, remove one at a time, operate the computer for a while and see if the problems go away. If so, replace the RAM stick that causes problems.
There have been reports of panics suspected to be related to AirPort or network problems. I can't comment on that, as I've never had that problem.