Lion kernel panics

This issue has been well documented since Lion was released, but I want to start a new thread on it anyway. It's more an open plea to Apple than it is for help.

With Lion 10.7.3 released last week, I thought I could finally upgrade my late 2008 MacBook to the latest OS. I had tried when Lion was released, I tried on the release of 10.7.1 and then I decided to hold off. Each upgrade has led to me rolling back to Snow Leopard. In my many years of using Mac, I NEVER experienced a kernel panic until I installed Lion.

This latest upgrade has been as equally unsuccessful. Within 2 minutes of restarting the OS for the first time, I received my first kernal panic. I find cutting and pasting kernel panics useless as they tell us nothing. I also feel sending them to Apple is now a waste of time as clearly, there is no response from them regarding the issues.

I'm tired of it. I have tried everything on the list of this post http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mchlp2890.html and it has made no difference. As it happens, my install has no "Hardware Test" (I've been restarting and holding D, or option + D for the past hour) and the idea that I need to create a boot disk to access it is a joke, so I've been unable to do that. On the otherhand, apart from a memory upgrade I did about 2 years ago which has worked fine on 10.6, I haven't made any hardware upgrades.

I have a feeling that the issue is related to the Nvidia graphics card based on what I've read online. I'm at a loss as to how to do anything with it.

I've invested a lot of money in Apple lately, with a 27 iMac and a 21.5 iMac in the house, on top of iPods and iPhones, so I feel like Apple's got what they want and the needs of the few really don't matter. It's sad when a company the size of Apple can treat you with such contempt. Steve Jobs didn't want people opening and messing with his products. Well Steve, you're not here anymore and your products (or more precisely, the support of your products) suck.

I don't expect answers from Apple, and the "have you tried... " responses that no doubt I will receive will not be ones I won't have tried (I've tried to resolve this issue solidly now, for the past 3 days).

My iMacs are all on Lion and all fine. I can only assume it's a hardware issue with the MacBook. I don't have the money to upgrade. Surely, Apple, you can't ignore (based on the 160 and 224 page forum posts I've found on this matter) this issue and you've GOT to give us, your customers who have this issue, SOMETHING? You can only ignore customers for so long.