Blue screen on start up, nothing else. What can I do?

Re: my son's 14" iBook (G3 900 mHz, 10.4.2).
Before doing anything, I repaired permissions, ran all tasks in Mac Janitor.
First I wanted to update to 10.4.3, but got an error message within seconds saying it could not install it. I had downloaded the stand alone update from the Apple site earlier.
The iBook had iTunes 4.9, I believe. Installed iTunes 6.0.1 from stand alone installer. It installed just fine and went to restart to complete the installation. I now get the grey apple screen with the grey spinning thing, and then it goes to a pure light blue screen, no log in window ever appears, no cursor.
Put in the Tiger disk, ran disk utility, clicked repair disk but disk did not need to be repaired. Repaired permissions. Still nothing.
I firewired it to my iMac and got all the items in his user folder out of it. Looking at it, I saw that the iTunes is indeed 6.0.1, and the system still 10.4.2
I restarted the iBook again, and got a BEEP and then the powerlight on the front of the iBook flickered a number of times. Then it started to the blue screen again. It has only done the beep thing once though.
When I boot into safe mode, which works fine, and open System Preferences, I cannot click Accounts, it says "Preferences Error: Could not load accounts". But I am in the user/admin account on this iBook.
Could the iTunes have caused this?
I have had trouble with system updates on this computer before. It is on its 3rd logic board (both times it needed replacement after going for major system updates, Jaguar to Panther and Panther to TIger). Last time, in July, the hard drive was replaced as well.
My Apple dealer here in Costa Rica does not seem to find an underlying problem.
I know I may have to do an archive and install. I am hesitant to do this because everytime I have ever tried to do it on this computer I get a kernel panic and end up having to send it to the dealer which is a hassle because it's 5 hours away and it takes awhile to get it back.
If there is anything anybody can suggest, I - and my son!- will be very grateful...
-Joanna

Joanna-
Since it comes up ok in fire wire target mode and you've backed up everything in /Users, I'd suggest doing a clean install of 10.4, in other words, reformat the hard drive and install 10.4 then the combo updater 10.4.3.
Main catch: any applications that have been installed that would be difficult/impossible to re-install afterwards? You'll need to know where to get them and have the registration keys (if any) available. Also helps if you know how to re-build the apps' customizations/preferences you might have in place (these may just come back from the ~Library/Preferences, but might not).
Also, be sure you have any users documented so you can add them after reinstalling (especially the short names). It's somewhat time consuming but you're certain of getting a clean OS X install that way.
BTW, wasnt there some wide-spread problem with iBook logic boards a couple of revs back that Apple agreed to replace? Was yours part of that?
HTH, -K

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And thankyou for any assistance!
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Blue screen on start up, nothing else. What can I do?

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