I downloaded Mtn. Lion about three weeks ago to my early 2008 24" IMAC. Logging in generates all sort of weird graphics and finally a lock up. Unusable except under safe mode.

Question

I have been on the phone with technical service twice ( both as helpful as they could be) and took the computer into the apple store to have the hardware checked out. All of the hardware checked out. They installed Lion in place which is useless to our family as the last backup was done under Mtn. Lion in safe mode. I reinstalled everthing from the backup and can work from safe mode but this has its obvious disadvantages.
What happens is when (if I get this far) I log in,  the desktop graphics go "crazy" and eventually the computer locks up. I have reinstalled Mtn. Lion numerous times with no improvement to the situation. I post this out of frustration and hoped for answers. That $20 download is not worth the cost of the loss of  use of the Office programs, the Adobe programs not to mention photos, teaching documents, scouting documents, family documents, music, that are all somewhat in limbo because of this mess.
As a long time Apple product user I have not come to expect this kind of problem from Apple products. I have not been advised of how I will know when a "fix" has been arrived at leaving me further in the dark and discouraged. School is starting up on Monday and this computer gets a lot of use from both a teacher and a High School student.
Apple, you said that our particular model was compatible with Mtn. Lion. It has been checked out at the local Apple store and everything found to be OK. Our backup is under Mtn. Lion (running in Safe Mode). We have no way to go back to Snow Leopard to retrieve and run all of our previous programs. So Apple, the ball is 100% in your court. When are we going to have the solution?

Answer 1

Well I believe I was able to clear those two programs out. I still had the dmg files with each having an uninstall. VirtualBox was a clean uninstall and while the Palm SDK would seem to be gone it was not as clean an uninstall, having repeated it several times.
I have since restarted three times, once after pulling the plug from the back and waiting for several minutes. One time I thought it was going to be stable but after about 2 minutes it started with the graphics problem again and then finally locked up.
Could Skype or Flash have something to do with this?
Here is the latest dump under Safe Mode:
Last login: Sat Aug 18 16:06:35 on console
Macintosh-2:~ MMLyonsHome$ ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta} * L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null
/Library/Components:
/Library/Extensions:
/Library/Frameworks:
AEProfiling.framework
AERegistration.framework
AudioMixEngine.framework
HPDeviceModel.framework
HPPml.framework
HPSMART.framework
HPServicesInterface.framework
HPSmartPrint.framework
HPSmartX.framework
NyxAudioAnalysis.framework
PluginManager.framework
TSLicense.framework
iLifeFaceRecognition.framework
iLifeKit.framework
iLifePageLayout.framework
iLifeSQLAccess.framework
iLifeSlideshow.framework
iTunesLibrary.framework
/Library/Input Methods:
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
AdobePDFViewer.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.webplugin
JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin
Quartz Composer.webplugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
flashplayer.xpt
iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled):
Flash Player.plugin
/Library/Keyboard Layouts:
/Library/LaunchAgents:
com.hp.devicemonitor.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons:
com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
com.adobe.versioncueCS3.plist
/Library/PreferencePanes:
Flash Player.prefPane
Flip4Mac WMV.prefPane
VersionCueCS3.prefPane
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools:
/Library/QuickLook:
GBQLGenerator.qlgenerator
iBooksAuthor.qlgenerator
iWork.qlgenerator
/Library/QuickTime:
AppleIntermediateCodec.component
AppleMPEG2Codec.component
FLV.component
Flip4Mac WMV Advanced.component
Flip4Mac WMV Export.component
Flip4Mac WMV Import.component
/Library/ScriptingAdditions:
Adobe Unit Types.osax
/Library/Spotlight:
GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter
LogicPro.mdimporter
Microsoft Office.mdimporter
iBooksAuthor.mdimporter
iWork.mdimporter
/Library/StartupItems:
HP IO
HP Trap Monitor
/etc/mach_init.d:
/etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d:
/etc/mach_init_per_user.d:
Library/Address Book Plug-Ins:
SkypeABDialer.bundle
SkypeABSMS.bundle
Library/Fonts:
Library/Input Methods:
.localized
Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
Library/Keyboard Layouts:
Library/LaunchAgents:
com.adobe.ARM.930da3ce175de4e82bd3cdf1dd8571f74bd3b6a7236bc94bfc00f6e9.plist
com.google.keystone.agent.plist
Library/PreferencePanes:
Macintosh-2:~ MMLyonsHome$