My suggestion to you is that if you make a living with your machine you really do need to have a backup. Consider an ibook for cases such as these. My Powerbook has also required 3 repairs in the last 3 months. All of them major. But as I don't make a living per se from my machine and since I was able to get my repairs done by walk in it didn't cause me that much of a problem. Since I'm leaving Bangkok shortly that's all about to change.