video killed the radio star.snow leopard mostly crashes disp video or browser mostly

[notgenx]

its an IMAC purchased 2007 running tiger os (2 GHZ intel core 2 duo)
now running 10.6.8
the history: with tiger running there were no crashes.
Background:
-updated to leopard and installed more RAM, started to crash intermittently, but usually on u tube or with browser open (either safari or chrome).
-use google chrome to prevent old flash player causing crashes on safari
-booting into safe mood will slow the advent of crashes, but it has and will crash there also.
-has crashed while playing DVD, using Quicken, or while asleep.

Assorted Remedies:
-unistalled all non native apps ex: quicken, canon printer apps
-ran long version of apple hardware test. negative for defects
-updated flash for safari and cleared the cache
-verified disk permissions for hard drive-
-bought ext. hard drive and used time machine for backup
-cleaned up desktop and files. emptied trash. now using only 75gb of 250gb capacity of hard drive

Conclusion: Unless someone has a better idea, it seems a reinstall of snowleopard is in the imminent future. And if so, the best way to accomplish?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[notgenx]

Re: video killed the radio star.snow leopard mostly crashes disp video or browser mos

here is the complete tech descript of imac:



Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.20f4
Serial Number (system): W8737110X87
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001B639A40FD

 

[karazelle]

Re: video killed the radio star.snow leopard mostly crashes disp video or browser mos

Hi,

I think you should do a memory test first. When you bought your Mac you got recovery disks. If you insert the recovery disk and reboot the mac holding down alt (option) on the keyboard, you should get the option to do a memory test. This will tell you if its a RAM problem and therefore serviceable without reinstalling anything

If that does not work, its possible to reinstall, either by doing a Timemachine backup, reinstalling and then during the initial configuration screens restoring from the backup. Make sure if you go this route that the user name of your NEW account after reinstallation is NOT the same as the account name you used before. One simple trick is to make the new account name "LocalAdmin" or similar.
Another way is to copy out files, documents and your usernames Library profile etc, but this is not recommended. Then reinstall and copy it all back.
A third way is to backup your data, but then boot from the recovery disk and choosing to install OS X and preserve the old accounts..