My computer keeps needing to restart and the computer won't allow me to submit error report to apple

Question

My IMAC keeps prompting me to restart after the screen turns grey. Essentially, after a few hours of use, the screen turns dark grey, filling in from the top to the bottom slowly. Once the screen has the dark grey hue, directions pop up in the middle of the screen for me to restart the computer. Once I restart it, the computer automatically generates an error box to report to apple. However, when I click the box to submit to apple, even if when the computer is connected and running well, it will not allow me to report it. It's been doing this for a few months. What do I do?

Answer 1

What you're getting are kernel panics. These are usually, but not always, caused by hardware, with memory the leading cause.  I would go find your original OS X disks that came with the system, find the one that says in small print on the label 'AHT Version x.x', insert and reboot holding the D key down (if that doesn't work, hold that alt/option key and when prompted choose the Apple hardware test). When prompted, choose the extended test. Does that identify any hardware issues?
You can also run Rember from  http://kelleycomputing.net:16080/rember/ if you want to thoroughly test your memory. Let it run overnight for a good test.
Also, see this FAQ: http://thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html