Can't boot on hard drive or CD/DVD - grey/gray screen of death

A few weeks ago my PowerPC G5 Dual Processor running Leopard OS X froze while the screen saver was running. I hard-powered-off the computer --> held down power button for ~10 seconds. When I tried to start up again, I got the "gray/grey screen of death" with the Apple logo. The screen hung there and then fans starting ramping up to full speed with no sign off boot up. I know others have posted similar issues, but I wanted to start a new thread.
Basic Specs:
PowerPC G5 Dual 2.5 Hz Processors
4 Gb memory (recently upgraded form 2 to 4) ***
Bought in early 2005 (I think)
Here's a summary of what I've tried:
DOES NOT WORK
- booting up holding down C (for drive) --> straight to kill screen
- booting up from original discs for G5 (from both C mode and Option mode)
- booting up from 10.5 Leopard disc (from both C mode and Option mode)
- booting up holding down Option-Comman-P-R --> straight to kill screen
DOES WORK
- connecting to secondary computer using target mode (holding down T) - I can see both of my hard drives
- booting up holding down Option - I can select either my main drive (secondary is not present there but there is no OS on it) or CD/DVD in slot
- booting from Apple Hardware Test (AHT) disk from Option menu
-- I ran disk checks, had errors. I ran Disk Warrior from secondary computer in target mode and repaired the drive, running the AHT test again shows no errors
- ran disk repair from secondary computer to fix errors (using disk utility and disc warrior)
OTHER THINGS I'VE DONE
- replaced backup battery on motherboard that was weak at only ~70 mV with fresher battery at ~3.6V
- held down PMU (not SMU) reset button for 30 seconds
- (main fans were cleaned a few weeks before issue)
- two weeks before issue I installed more memory (from 2 Gb to 4 Gb with two new 1 Gb cards)
- backed up data - so I can delete drives if needed
THOUGHTS
- I'm concerned that under CPU it shows 158950.77 GHz - shouldn't it be showing two CPU?
- the drives look healthy when looking at them in target mode
- issue is occurring between power up and drive selection (since CD/DVD is also not viewable)
- maybe the new memory caused local over heating to the motherboard?
- I may be able to replace the heat sink, but the spare computer I have access to has different looking hardware. It's probably a different model of the G5. My computer has one metal case cover and the extra one has a split case cover.
NEXT STEP
- I need to back up secondary drive fully first
- pull out new memory sticks
- pull out all memory except originals
- pull out secondary drive
LAST RESORT
- buy external case for drives and cry about how no one will buy my dead desktop
Because this is a long description, I will post updates in the comments and a final comment here:
(Coming Soon)

The final lines in the log were all iTunes, but I think it's a hardware issue that's preventing me from booting.
Here is the line that includes the world "fatal" and a few lines before and after (it was the day before the crash):
Oct  9 02:05:50 Rys-Big-One com.apple.SystemStarter[28]: kextunload: unload kext /System/Library/Extensions/CiscoVPN.kext succeeded
Oct  9 02:05:51 Rys-Big-One kernel[0]: CiscoVPN : unloading cisco ipsec kernel module.
Oct  9 02:05:50 Rys-Big-One com.apple.SystemStarter[28]: Stopping Adobe Version Cue ...
Oct  9 02:05:50 Rys-Big-One vpnagent[88]: Termination reason code 7: The agent has been stopped.
Oct  9 02:05:51 Rys-Big-One kernel[0]: CiscoVPN : detaching from interface: en0.
Oct  9 02:05:50 Rys-Big-One vpnagent[88]: Function: getDownloaderMessage File: MainThread.cpp Line: 964 Invoked Function: CVpnMgr::processEvents Return Code: 0 (0x00000000) Description: fatal error, stopping service
Oct  9 02:05:51 Rys-Big-One kernel[0]: CiscoVPN : interface en0, filter has been safely detached.
Oct  9 02:05:51 Rys-Big-One vpnagent[88]: Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client Agent stopped, version 2, 4, 0
Oct  9 02:05:51 Rys-Big-One com.apple.SystemStarter[28]: Using CATALINA_BASE:   /Applications/Adobe Version Cue/tomcat
Here is the last lines in the log:
Oct 10 15:59:53 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: MuxSendToClient send failed for 0x1-ef497a0f0338225857a1061ea364e83ba6c46aa7@0x4b400000:64988->0x20da60-iTunes/ com.apple.iTunes:336: 32 - Broken pipe
Oct 10 15:59:53 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20da60-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:08 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:09 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20da60-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:09 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20da60-AppleMobileDeviceHelper/com.apple.SyncServices.AppleMobileDeviceHelper using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:09 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20d740-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:20 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:00:50: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Oct 10 16:01:20 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:02:20 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:03:20 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:04:21 Rys-Big-One com.apple.usbmuxd[26]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x20e4d0-iTunes/com.apple.iTunes using library usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:10:00, running usbmuxd-211 built on May 16 2011 at 00:14:52
Oct 10 16:04:23 Rys-Big-One iTunes[146]: _NotificationSocketReadCallback (thread 0xa03d1820): Unexpected connection closure...
Oct 10 16:04:23 Rys-Big-One iTunes[146]: AMDServiceConnectionSendMessage (thread 0xa03d1820): Could not send message size: Broken pipe

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  • Hi. My iMac hard drive is running Mavericks.  I have an old version of Quark Xpress (3.32) which won't run in Mavericks.  Can I partition my hard drive and run an older system on one partition, so I can access my Quark?  Is that possible?

    Hi. My iMac hard drive is running Mavericks.  I have an old version of Quark Xpress (3.32) which won't run in Mavericks.  Can I partition my hard drive and run an older system on one partition, so I can access my Quark?  Is that possible?

    Hi ancelau,
    QuarkXPress 3 is a Classic Mac OS application, so you need a version of OS X that still supports Classic. I believe 10.4 was the last one.
    So if you have an iMac that boots with 10.4, then yes that is possible. I doubt though that newer Macs boot with OS X 10.4.
    So why don't you upgrade QuarkXPress 3 to a newer version? I am not just asking that because I want you to spend money with us.
    Typically using software that was released almost 20 years ago is just feasible when you keep an environment that was current at the time of release or a few years after, so an older Mac with a operating system present at that time. 20 years in IT is a lot.
    So my opinion is that on a new Mac with a brand new operating system you need to use something a bit more current.
    How about QuarkXPress 9 (released 3 years ago) or QuarkXPress 10? You are better off with v9, as QuarkXPress 10 only opens v7 and higher (whereas QuarkXPress 9 opens v3.1 and higher).
    Or - I am even happy to make an exception - upgrade to 9 and we give you 10 for free? Let me know please.
    Thanks
    Matthias

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