IMac won't startup - freezes on either white screen or Apple symbol

Got my 24" 2.4GHz iMac on release last year, with Tiger. Installed Leopard on it on release day.
The problem I have is that ever since a botched Boot Camp installation I've had endless problems with certain applications hanging during their startup (notably Image Capture) or refusing to quit (notably iTunes). Force Quit doesn't resolve these issues. Restarting doesn't work because Force Quit can't quit them so I have to pull the plug or otherwise force a shutdown.
Upon restarting I either get the grey screen that instantly appears, or, if I've pulled the plug and left it for a few minutes I can get to the Apple symbol but no spinner or any further start up action. Occasionally I get lucky, get back up and running, and all is well until the next crash.
All this started happening when I decided to try installing Windows on Boot Camp again. I've had it on here a couple of times since Leopard was released but usually end up deleting it eventually because either the Windows installation gets bogged down or I get bored with it and never use it. Anyway, this time, using the same discs I've always used (and yes, it's SP2, so it should be fine and anyway it's worked at least twice before) when I got to the 'restart to continue installing Windows' bit, I got the white screen and nothing happened. After an hour or so of praying and restarting endlessly trying to get a response, I finally got it to recognise my OSX installation and was up and running again. The Boot Camp volume didn't appear to be there and Disk Utility revealed zero problems whatsoever. Everything looked fine until these recurring hangs, refusals to quit apps and screwed up start-ups.
Any ideas? I don't have the expensive Apple support, but it's less than a year old! Of course, I realise that this means nothing to Apple, who seem to think I should pay a premium in order to have my machine warrantied by them for more than 90 days. Grr...
If I get it up and running I'm thinking I should just wipe the ENTIRE system absolutely clean and re-install Leopard and then use my Time Machine backup to put all my data back on (pricelessly valuable as I use the machine to work on my photography with), but I'm concerned that if there's a flaw in the System somewhere, a corruption, that installing the Time Machine backup will just reintroduce the error. On the other hand, if it's a deeply embedded and invisinle partition corruption from the bad Boot Camp installation attempt, that should be fixed by wiping the entire drive to reinstall Leopard, right?
Any ideas? I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of this now.
Many thanks,
Owen

But service support means dragging my iMac down to an Apple Store after making an appointment that's no doubt a couple of days away. Taking a 24" iMac on public transport in London isn't something I particularly want to do.
It did actually start up eventually. I left it sitting on the Apple logo and after a few minutes it restarted itself and all was fine, until a couple of days later when two apps failed to quit, and force quit wouldn't do anything. Neither would Terminal, or Activity Monitor (it was BBEdit and Photo Mechanic this time).
I was forced to pull the plug and since then nothing whatsoever will get it past the Apple logo. Tried popping the original Tiger DVD in and running the hardware diagnostic and it says everything is fine, but trying to restart from the Tiger DVD, or the Leopard DVD, or any other DVD that's bootable, or the hard drive, or an external hard drive - all of them result in hanging at the Apple screen. Tried safe mode, tried holding Alt to choose a startup drive, everything.
What the heck do I do now?!

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Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
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a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. The easiest way to deal with the problem is to boot from an external drive, or else to use either of the techniques in Steps 1b and 1c to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 6.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
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Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 9
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 10
Repeat Step 9, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 11
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 12
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

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