Kernal panic while using iTunes.???? gulp....!

Question

Ok aloha I was running along smoothly in iTunes after I moved all my music from my iTunes library from my powerbook and in the middle of a song about 5 to 10 mins after this the system crashed to a Kernal panic screen. I cannot start up when I restart or when I insert start up disk. Called Apple and they sent me to the nearest repair shop. Before I go is there any way this isnt hardware, and if not hardware then software problem is my expense!!! Yikes Thank myself I backed up prior. ANY guesses as what this must me?
ALoha Reid

Answer 1

Frequently, you can't boot off the installer disk because you tried the 'C' key for startup, when in fact the Option (also known as the Alt key) key works better. Also make sure no additional peripherals are connected when you try this. See if that works first. Here's an article on the Option key startup:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178
Make sure only to use the disk that came with the computer that installs the operating system or a newer retail operating system disk as this article explains:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25517
If you can, repair the directory as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
If you can't, well, you may have a hardware problem. If your machine is under a year old, you might want to purchase AppleCare so that this and future repairs to damage you couldn't have caused will all be covered under both hardware and software causes for another 2 years.