When I bought my TiBook, I also bought the extended AppleCare 3 year warranty service (it was on a special promotion with a discount.)
I took my TiBook to my dealer last Tuesday (9/12) (AppleCare services are actually done by the authorized dealers in Hong Kong), and got a call on Saturday (13/12). They replaced the slot-loading combo drive and the motherboard (presumably there was something wrong w/ the old motherboard which caused all the kernel panics). They also pointed it out to me that there was a small dark area near the bottom of the LCD panel and I could have it replaced as well. I am aware of the small dark area, which I didn’t care about too much, so I told them I’d rather have my computer back. They told me that I could have it serviced later whenever I feel like, and that the computer was ready for pick up.
I am going to pick it up later today. Will report.
Update (22:40) They replaced the combo drive. They said that since they didn’t have my password they couldn’t load up my computer to test for the kernel panic problem (whatever…) so they replaced my motherboard as well.
It didn’t go very far and the machine was locked up solid again. I tried to do an “Archive and Install”, but the screen went corrupted about half way thru, the installation failed, and the machine wouldn’t boot from the HD (presumably because the OS on the HD was written over.)
Crap.