Mac Sleep/Startup Error

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I am using an iMac (5.1) running 10.6.8 on an Intel processor. This computer is about 7 or 8 years old. (To put this into perspective, there are columns of dead pixels in a variety of rainbow colors adorning my screen at this point.)

Over the last couple months, I have been experiencing various issues related to the startup of the computer and to waking from sleep mode.

1) The whole thing started with the computer in sleep. I tried to wake it up (space bar, mouse click, whatever) and it did so, but it wouldn't receive a signal from my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and the mouse would not respond. So I reached over and manually turned off the power on the back of the console and then restarted the computer. There were no issues upon startup, and all was well. That is, until the computer fell into sleep mode again, and it would do the same thing (freeze and need to be restarted).

2) After a while (I don't know, a week or two), as issue #1 continues, the computer became more touchy about the restart (again, I am using the hard power button to turn the computer on after I have shut it down, also manually). I could turn the computer on fine - the LED in the front would begin glowing, and there would be mechanical noises whirring to life inside the computer, but the display would not wake up. After a little experimenting, I decided that the best way to turn the computer AND the display on was to press the button for one or two seconds, and release just before the mechanical noises began. So this stage was essentially a touchy restart, but everything from issue #1 was still going on.

3) Maybe two weeks ago, I had a restart-attempt session that would not get anywhere. No matter how tricky I felt I was being with the timing of the button-pressing, the display would not brighten. So I unplugged the whole thing from the power source and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I replugged it and (eventually) brought the computer to life. At this point, the computer was backed up and the disk permissions repaired.

4) More recently, when I DO manage to wake up the display with my fancy button-pushing, sometimes it gets frozen on the gray screen with the Apple logo and little pinwheel thing. Sometimes the pinwheel doesn't even appear, and I have to restart right then.

5) Finally, I just received this error message on the gray screen. I apologize for the photo problems, if there are any, but I had to take them on my phone. I think I have all of it included in the images.

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IMG_0603.jpg
IMG_0604.jpg
IMG_0605.jpg

I'm afraid what you'll say is that this machine is just old and to prepare for the inevitable, but I was curious to see what the community would say about my issues...
 
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I'd say the Hard Drive is failing and has lost some system files that it keeps trying to rebuild.

This computer is about 7 or 8 years old
Thats about 90 in human years, so don't expect too much.
 

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