Having problems with Kernel Panic screen on iMac 17" 1.83

Question

I have this iMac that was running fine the we had a power surge and the computer started crashing with the Grey Screen with the darker block in the center that said I need to restart the computer. Finally it would not even come up with out crashing. I removed the hard drive to use on my Mac Pro to retrieve the files and it took forever but I finally go them. Then no matter what I could not reformat the hard-drive even though SMART said it was okay. So I replaced the hard drive, installed Snow Leopard and all the updates. Everything ran fine for a day then started then it started crashing again. i finally erased the harddrive from my mac pro by firewire and the iMac was in transfer mode. But now I can not get Leopard to install from the DVD. It shows the errors below:
Dec 5 14:29:14 localhost configd[65]: BUG in libdispatch: 10A432 - 1656 - 0x930b
Dec 5 14:29:14 localhost Unknown[80]: 2010-12-05 14:29:14.633 LCA[79:903] _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host. Error: 35
Dec 5 14:30:07 localhost LCA[79]: Folder Manager is being asked to create a folder (cach) while running as uid 0
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost LCA[79]: Launching the Installer using language code "English"
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Mac OS X Installer application started
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: 1 display(s) found.
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Display[1] is using OpenGL acceleration.
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: @(#)PROGRAM:Install PROJECT:Install-572
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: @(#)PROGRAM:Mac OS X Installer PROJECT:OSInstaller-255
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Hardware: iMac5,2 @ 1.83 GHz (x 2), 1024 MB RAM
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: DYLDNO_FIXPREBINDING=1
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: PWD=/
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: SHLVL=1
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: OS_INSTALL=1
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Env: _=/System/Installation/CDIS/LCA.app/Contents/MacOS/LCA
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Using install media product at /System/Installation/Packages
Dec 5 14:30:30 localhost OSInstaller[142]: Opening OSInstall package '/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg'.
Dec 5 14:30:55 localhost LCA[79]: Child exited with status 10
Dec 5 14:30:56 localhost Unknown[148]: Launching the Installer Crash Log Viewer

Answer 1

I don't know that system profiler really tests RAM. I don't know about your model but some Macs come with an Apple Hardware Test disc for that kind of thing. There's also RAM testing utilities such as Memtest and Ramber. From reading I get the impression testing for bad RAM can be finicky and requires long runs. Sometimes it is easiest by removing chips and seeing how things run in different configurations.
[http://guides.macrumors.com/Testing_RAM]
Good job on getting it all working again.