Insomniac Mac

Hi
Just recently (within the last couple of weeks) my 20” iMac has developed a bad case of insomnia – it either refuses to sleep (not responding to the Apple menu sleep command or staying in screensaver mode past the start time for sleep), or occasionally going to sleep but then refusing to wake up, requiring a forced hard restart. Occasionally selecting the Apple menu sleep command produces the infamous spinning beachball, but no sleep.
Within the last couple of days I have also developed a probably related iTunes issue: sporadically iTunes refuses to respond to a system shut down/ restart command (by neatly quitting like other running apps). Instead I receive a system alert telling me that the Mac cannot shut down because the application iTunes has “stopped responding”! This is the first time I have ever seen the familiar Windoze-style error “stopped responding” on a Mac, and I am getting quite concerned. When this occurs iTunes does not respond to an a force quit command (the first time I have ever seen an application refuse to respond to a force quit command in Mac OS X), so I am again forced to resort to a forced hard restart. I have tried deleting all iTunes preference files and repairing permissions, but this has not fixed the problem. I have also tried running Activity Monitor while the computer is idle – this does show regular disk read-write spikes but I don’t know how to link these to any of the active processes.
I suppose one possible explanation for this increasingly frustrating problem is that I have an external USB backup drive – I am aware that these sometimes cause sleep problems, but unplugging it does not seem to fix the problem. And anyway, I thought these issues had been fixed!
Also, the escalation of this problem – in particular the regular iTunes freezes – coincided with the installation of the latest Front Row update (1.2.1).
If anyone can offer any suggestions I would be v grateful as I am reaching banging-my-head-on-the-desk stage!

Hi guys
It's bad news, I'm afraid I have tried all the suggestions kindly provided here and elsewhere for this kind of problem- ie deleting the various preference files, resetting the NVRAM and PRAM, disconnecting peripherals (I have an external USB 2 drive for backup, a G5 video iPod, JBL Creature II speakers, and an external iSight); cleaning the cache; adjusting sleep setting options to remove admin wake-up for ethernet connections; checking activity monitor for processes that may be interfering with sleep (not easy to do if you don't know what you're doing)...and nothing has worked. I have even done a complete reinstall of the Mac OS (using the Archive and Install option and 10.4.5 combo updater). My iMac is still completely unresponsive to the sleep command in the Apple menu, and freezes, refusing to wake up if timed sleep set in the Energy Saver preference panel kicks in (so I have set that option to 'never'). What's more, I have started to experience occasional nasty system lockups, in which one app suddenly becomes unresponsive - initially just iTunes, but I have now also experienced it with Energy Saver in System Preferences, Airport Admin Utility, and Safari. The iTunes problem usually occurs at system shutdown or reboot and it refuses to respond to the force quit command. The Safari problem appeared to completely lock up the system, forcing yet another hard reboot. I thought system freezes were impossible in a memory-protected protected operating system like Mac OS X?
I wondered if my iPod was somehow causing the sleep problem - it does have a history of occasionally freezing. But disconnection from my iMac has not solved the problem. Another possibility that crossed my mind is Airport Express - could its connection to my ethernet cable modem somehow be keeping my Mac awake? Switching off Airport makes no immediate difference.
The only hardware changes I have recently made are the addition of the backup drive and the JBL speakers - but disconnection of the former makes no apparent difference and the latter seem an unlikely culprit.
I have been unable to find any references to bugs in the 10.4.5 update that might cause such problems, so I have come to the reluctant conclusion that this is probably a hardware problem - although it should be noted that, for the time being at least, the machine is booting up quite happily and working fine apart from the problems described. Do the problems I have described sound like imminent hard disk failure or something similar?
PS - Sorry to ramble on at such length!

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