HELP!!!! Keeps restarting

Question

Ok my imac desktop 24inch last years model(white) has been working flawlessly.....i was on it all day today.....i go upstairs for a couple hours and then back downstairs and my computer wont wake up.....finally it wakes up and it was on the screensaver but stalled out with the little color wheel....nothing was happening so i restarted my mac......after it started back up it went to the nice light blue screen but then seconds later it faded from light blue to dark blue from top to the bottom of the screen.....then appeared a transparent box with a power button symbol beind it and in three laguages it told me that i needed to restart the system by using the restart button or holding the power button....i held down the little button on the back left side until it restarted.....well everytime i restart it does this same exact scenario......i unplugged time machine backup drive just incase......so i have all my backups i need in there which is a huge plus......but another problem is that there is a disc still in the drive on the mac....so i cant even load the leopard install disc.....i figured maybe i could just load in that disc when it powers on and it might read it and i could fresh install and then do a back up with time machine.....what should i do???? Thanks so much!

Answer 1

To Eject the CD, Turn computer ON while pressing and holding down the mouse button.
To address your main issue, have your tried resetting the PRAM?
*Resetting PRAM and NVRAM*
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.
Let the computer boot and see if it solves the issue.
Axel F.