MacBook Pro: Crashing Apps Part V

I finally figured out what has been making my MacBook Pro behave so erratically. Completely random application and dashboard widget crashes and hangs, several corrupted files, two kernel panics…those of you already familiar with these symptoms already know the diagnosis: defective RAM.

I bought 2Gb of matched RAM a couple of months ago, but forgot that defective RAM can cause any and all of these problems. After [1] examining my fonts (corrupted fonts can be a major headache), [2] reinstalling OS X and then performing a fresh update via Software Update, [3] zapping my PRAM, and [4] about 20 other typical troubleshooting actions, I finally realized that maybe I had a defective RAM module (here’s the MacWorld article that jogged my “memory”, and here’s the free RAM diagnostics tool).

Final Diagnosis:
I replaced the 2GB RAM with my old factory installed RAM, and immediately my MacBook Pro instability issues disappeared. Problem solved. Now I just need to get my free replacement RAM from Other World Computing.