Freezes while zeroing the hard drive

Question

Hello,
I recently purchased a high-res 1.67GHz Aluminum Powerbook to replace my aging PowerBook. The first thing I wanted to do was to erase the hard drive entirely and install a fresh copy of Tiger, so I started up from the system disc (Install Disc 1 that was originally included with the laptop), and, as I am wont to do, launched Disk Utility from the startup disc so that I could zero out any data already on the disc.
Unfortunately, the computer froze entirely after only zeroing out approximately a third of the hard drive. After leaving it for some time and seeing no change, I force-shutdown the laptop by holding the power button. Subsequent attempts to zero out the data on the hard drive resulted in the same problem over and over again. After perhaps seven or eight tries, each with the erasure freezing prematurely somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through, I finally succeeded in zeroing the drive and then installing the system.
That was not the end of the troubles though, since I have been receiving other problems as well after I finished installation. I've posted regarding those problems elsewhere since they're not directly related to the installation process, and you can find those problems here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1327523
I later ran the included Apple Hardware Test on the computer, and it checked out as okay on the Extended Test. Since I wasn't satisfied with those results and I didn't know what else I could check, I also booted into Single-User mode and ran memtest (tested all RAM, three loops), but it all checked out fine as well.
My initial guess would be some sort of a hard drive issue, but I don't know how to test for that aside from the Apple Hardware Test which I already ran (and which it passed). The hard drive also checks out as being Verified for S.M.A.R.T. status. I had also thought RAM, but memtest is the most thorough way to test it that I know, and it conclusively came out as being okay. My other thought was the logic board, but the Apple Hardware Test gave it the okay, and I have no idea how to test it more thoroughly.
So, is there any other clue as to what the problem might be?

Answer 1

Since I cannot edit my post, allow me to update you here. I didn't stay with the computer during the zeroing process, but I checked up on it several hours later to find no error messages reported or other anomalies, so I presume that the zeroing process completed normally. By all indications, that seems to be the case, since the drive appeared to be wiped as I would expect.
Unfortunately, the Install Disc included with the Aluminum is not one that I can boot from using my Titanium (it told me as much, and prompted me to restart from a different startup disk when I booted from it on my Titanium). So, I've gone ahead and exited Target Disk Mode for now and am installing the OS once again by starting the Aluminum up from the Install Disc.
I've also updated the other thread I linked to in my first post with some information that might be pertinent regarding the steps I've gone through in trying to isolate the cause of the kernel panics. It's a somewhat lengthy post, so I'll avoid copy-pasting it here and instead just provide a link to the post:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6276046#6276046