Brand new macbook, applications crashing

Hi all, got a new macbook tonight and after trying to fiddle around with both pre-installed applications and ones that I have installed myself (aim, and an app from pure-mac.com called schoolhouse to keep track of homework assignments) applications are quitting without warning and I get the error message, "The application _______ quit unexpectedly" and then gives me the options of closing the window, reporting to apple, or reopening the application.

This literally started happening about 20 minutes after setting up the computer. What am I doing wrong?

Run the hardware test which I _think_ will require you to boot from the DVD.

If the tests do not find any problems, then I would just do a fresh install of OS X via the install DVD you have. If that doesn't fix the problem, take it in to be fixed.

I ran the hardware test, no problem was found. I re-installed OS X and am still experiencing the application crashing problem. I have to say that this is really really really really frustrating. I guess I'll just take it back to the store tomorrow unless anyone else has suggestions about what I should do. *sigh*

The AIM client has issues and a lot of people have reported Crashes with it. If you are just going to use the AIM service, Try iChat in OSX or Adium which is a Multi Chat client and very stable. Are many of the Built in Applications crashing? That should not happen but AIM is not very stable.

Yup. Same happened to me on Day 3 of Macbook ownership. AIM is evil, crashes EVERY time I try to load a buddylist so definitely install Adium. Adium is a brilliant app and has never crashed on me once, indeed nor has any other app except iMovie once but that was probably my fault as I did about 3 things at once.

I have since installed Adium and it hasn't crashed, I like the layout better than AIM as well. I was also having problems with an app called schoolhouse downloaded from pure-mac.com, but I suppose the problem with that is probably with the app itself and not my macbook as I haven't experienced any other applications crashing. I was running both AIM and schoolhouse at once and as both of them were crashing simultaneously, I got a little spooked I guess but I've been fiddling around with pages and numbers - neither of which has had any problems so far. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that it was the apps themselves having issues. If any others crash I'll probably take it back to the store to find out what the problem is. Thanks for your help/advice everyone!

I know you have reinstalled already and this may sound stupid... but worth a try to delete the .plist files

Especially if its a brand new Mac & you done have any major changes made yet?

No I haven't done any major changes at all. I haven't even transferred files from my old laptop to this one as of yet. What are the .plist files if you don't mind me asking? What will deleting them do?

plist files are XML type files used by applications. Do NOT delete .plist files or anything else that you have no personal knowledge of.