Intel iMac stuck at desktop screen, no menu bar, no finder, spinning ball

Hi, I've just run into a serious problem with my 24" Intel iMac not starting up properly. At first it was getting stuck on the gray screen, then I got it to the blue screen, and now finally I can get it as far as loading the desktop picture, the cursor comes up and is responsive to the mouse, but has now become the spinning beachball. There is no menu bar, and the finder will not load. It's been in this state for about ten minutes. What I did to get it to this state is:
1. Disconnect all peripherals. I'm using an Apple wireless keyboard and mighty mouse, too.
2. Reset the PRAM.
3. Reset the PMU.
4. Used the installation disc to run Apple Hardware Test (the short version) successfully...no problems.
5. Used the installation disc to run Disk First Aid. Corrected a minor problem with the file structure.
6. Used the installation disc to run Disk First Aid. Repaired permissions.
7. Performed a Safe Boot, and got to the log-in screen, did not log in, but restarted normally as suggested in one of the Apple support articles.
8. Am now staring at my desktop picture without the menu bar or the Finder, but the spinning beachball is chugging along and is responsive to my mouse.
If it is of any help, I've noticed for several months that the computer would occasionally fail to wake from sleep, and I'd need to force a shut down by holding the power button for several seconds. Could this have been a precursor to the current problem?
At this point, I'm not certain which version of 10.5 I have, because I can't check. But I've installed all the Apple updates that have come through, so I must be at the current version of 10.5. I can't remember exactly how much RAM I have installed, either, but it might be 3 GB. I installed a second memory module at the time of purchase, which I bought from Crucial.com.
I'm having to write this on my ancient PowerBook G4, which is still performing admirably under OS X 10.4.11. Thanks for any help or suggestions anyone can provide! : )

It appears to have been a short of some sort on my power supply...it blew a capacitor somehow, though I don't know how/when that happened. Computer is on a surge protector, and generally sleeps during day while I'm away, but no power outages or other electrical issues occurred while I was out that I'm aware of.
Anyway, I had a new power supply installed by an Apple certified technician...opted not to do it myself...and discovered that the HD is perfectly fine. No data loss. Phew! Just two weeks w/o my computer, and no way to recover backup files on Time Capsule in the meantime.
Thanks for all the help and advice!

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