[nrinaudo]

I had this problem, went to the genius bar and was quickly offered to replace the defective component for free in under a week, if I remember correctly.

It's still much too long to go without a computer, but it's worth it when you realise you've been coding for three hours and haven't lost a single line of code to a crash.

That being said, before I got the part replaced, upgrading to... was it snow leopard? the latest version of OS X, anyway, increased the frequency of the issue by rather a lot. So, possibly, hold off on your update?

[kissickas]

Thanks for the anecdotal evidence. Were you covered by Apple Care or just got lucky?

[nrinaudo]

A little bit of both: my warrantee had long expired, but there was an extension for this very specific issue, since I believe it affects 100% of macbook pros from that series.

I've looked into this a bit more and it looks like my comment is entirely unhelpful: mine is a mid-2010 MBP, so while our issues look similar, they probably are not. Sorry about that, I should have checked before.

[nanook]

I think I have the exact same problem with my 2010 MBP. How long ago did you get it replaced?

[nrinaudo]

If it's indeed the same issue, I think you're out of luck, at least for the free part. Here's the Apple ticket about it: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

This explicitly states that your warrantee for this very specific issue is extended to 3 years after date of purchase. I doubt you purchased a 2010 MBP in 2012...

Still, if this looks like what you're experiencing, get a genius bar appointment. It's free, and they have an automated diagnostic system that detects this specific issue (and others). If it's the same one, you might be able to talk yourself into a free replacement.

[kissickas]

Bummer. Thanks for following up, though.