Hi
I have had the imac open and cleaned it out I also removed the hdd to do a scan with spinrite everything is a ok no bad sectors.
I am not sure whether if a boot into single user mode will cause it to freeze haven't tried that yet.
Thanks so far.
Chris
Good to hear that you have had you iMac open & were able to clean any dirt or fuzz.
Basically I'm trying to suggest ideas that an "end-user" can troubleshoot & repair themselves. Kernel panics are usually caused by bad or failing hardware issues...such as bad ram, bad video card, bad motherboard.
Generally speaking, bad hard drives are not something you look at first for solving kernel panics...check out this article:
http://www.index-site.com/kernelpanic.html
In your case (because you have an iMac)...the only thing you can really troubleshoot is the user upgradable ram...but you've already mentioned that you don't have any additional ram installed in your iMacs ram slot. An iMac's video hardware is soldered to the logic board...so you can't troubleshoot this by removing it.
Do you know if your iMac's fan is operating properly? If you turn on your iMac does the fan rpm's speed up as you do various tasks. I'm thinking that since you say your iMac is clean...that if your fan is not working properly, then your iMac may be getting too hot due to the fan not working properly. This may be a long shot idea...but something to consider.
Worst case scenario is something has gone bad on your motherboard...and there's not too much we can do about that...other than replacing the motherboard (expensive).
So try:
- to determine if the fan is working properly (if you don't already know)
- running the hardware test again just to be sure
- boot from your OS install CD/DVD, launch & run "Disk Utility" and see if finds any problems with the hard drive.
- boot from your OS install CD/DVD and try installing the OS
- if you are successful installing the OS, install "Temperature Monitor" to get a handle on how warm your iMac is running.
Beyond this we may be running out of options.
Good luck,
- Nick
EDIT: Here's another good link for explaining Kernel Panics, and Kernel Panic Resolution:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html