My mac plays up. It' crashed again today when i plugged in my mobile phone usb cable. It's random, but it has crashed once every two weeks.

Should I reinstall the OSX?

Is it hard to backup my email with mail? Files are backed up.  

No idea. I've never reinstalled OSX (although I'll probably have my first experience with it when Leopard comes out). I doubt that backing up email would be all that difficult.

I think there's a good article on this here . Good luck!

Work backwards and look at what you've installed. One of your apps could be flaky.  OSX seems pretty solid to me -- I've only had a couple of crashes in 6 months and I use it every day.

I had another crash today.

I can try to look at other apps, but I don't know. I'll give it a look. 

Check out the Console app in Applications/Utilities. It has all your logs in there.  You might find some clues.

This is my option.

Mick - FWIW, i've done reinstalls and upgrades of OSX with no problems at all ... once you pop your install dvd/cd, you need to boot pressing some key (D ? C ? something VERY non-intuitive.... it's documented somewhere). then it'll boot from the install cd. there's an option to kill the whole disk, or whatnot... 

caveat emptor, backup your data or not... starting from scratch isn't a bad option sometimes.

-- El Beto 

If this is still applicable, I'd recommend SuperDuper as a way to backup/clone your HDD. It's free!

Hold down option to select a boot drive. Or 'C' to boot from optical drive, I think it stood for 'CD' back in the day when DVD drives weren't common yet...

Does it only crash when you plug in your phone, or when you do other things too? Another thing to check is your RAM.

 Reinstalls are pretty simple, but it just takes some time. So it's nice to know for sure it will fix the problem before you do it.

Mick, I was getting that same error and problem with my iBook G4 for no explicable reason. Eventually, the hard drive died. It turned out that the hard drive died because Apple laptops apparently are using hard drives that can't stand up to any kind of rough use, like moving the laptop around, or holding it at angle. The apple techs on the phone admitted this to me after discussig this with them pretty extensively. They replace a lot of hard drives in laptops, it seems.

Anyway, I would venture to bet that, because your symptoms are similar, you are probably looking at a dying hard drive. MY advice is to get on the phone with Apple right now to start a documentation trail with them, because they won't replace the drive unless the drive manager tool indicates a drive failure. The drive manager tool often won't indicate a drive failure until the hard drive is close to total failure, and also to make sure your hard drive is backed up, because you can restore your hard drive easily when it is replaced.

Good advice! Quick Mick. Start backing up!

Go ahead and boot from either thet CD or DVD by inserting the disk, restarting and holding down the 'c' key. Once you get to the installer, choose the 'archive and install option', this way you keep alll your info and make a fresh install of osx. You may have to reinstall some applications, but for the most part, you won't have to.

or if you just want to wipe it, this may  help back up your 'gotta keep' stuff.

http://www.whimsplucky.com/whimsplucky/Software/FCE42CDC-64CD-4A4D-93BD-F5999A31046F.html 

I had issues like this, also with a phone (Thanks RAZR) I ended up cloning my main HD to my Firewire Drive and then booting to it.  At that point I let Disk Warrior do it's thing (there are alternatives but I already had this one).  SInce then I haven't had an issue, but I also haven't plugged my phone into the box again either.

If I were you, personally I would just do a fresh install of osx and wipe the HDD, But definitly make sure you have bcked up your files first.

As far as mail; Backing up messages is super easy, I had no issues when I did it.

Sorry you are having isues with your Mac! I have only ever had maybe one crash, it was random, I never found out wha caused it.

 ** By the way, I envy your glossy LCD, My MBP only has the matte screen, and I absoultly love the look of that beautiful liquid screen.

Try "Repair Permissions" first (it's in Disk Utility). Fixes 99% of weird problems, including kernel panics.