First of all..
ALL COMPUTERS CRASH!!

No platform is safe from this. Plain and simple. Anyone telling you that one platform doesn't crash is full o SH*T!!!

Second, I can't really say about laptops as I only use desktop machines. From what I have heard though is that the Toshiba Satelite series are rock solid. Sony Vaios are nice indeed as well.

Software,
Not sure what you are looking for here in the long run? Sounds like something where you want a sequenced events triggering sounds and so forth?

I know Logic does something of that nature. Also look into Ableton Live.

Peace

Opus

Thanx Opus for your help and time! I'm actually looking to bassically run my whole gig of the laptop.The audio will not have midi just 2 trk stereo audio (bass & drums) hopefully mixed properly into the hard drive on a wav file.I know i could use a mp3 player but those lipstick shaped controllers and screens are TINY.I'm hoping that eventually i can pull up a larger screen (laptop)scroll down to the tune,minimize,pull up the lyrics,nice and big so i can read them on the fly,then kick off the music (w/countoff)and play guitar and sing over it,on the beach in hawaii so the humidity in the air can screw my laptop up!!! thanx again Dave

There are solutions that you can take to avoid using a laptop. I'm using a dedicated audio computer called the music xpc (http://www.musicxpc.com). It is insanely fast and powerful and very portable. Get yourself a USB 2.0 interface (Edirol makes one, forgot the name but check out www.edirol.com) and you are all set. Reason and Cubase SX are good software to use.