[Help needed] Kernel panic on Boot after successful 10.6 install

[rookey]

I need a little help to figure out the panics my system is experiencing.

My system -
Gigabyte G41M-ES2L motherboard,
Intel Pentium Dual Core E6500,
2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 RAM,
Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII,
Sony AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM Internal SATA,
MSI 8400GS 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA Out PCI-E Graphics Card

I successfully installed 10.6 retail using a combination of Boot132 cd and USB stick with a copy of the snow leopard DVD and myHack installer.

I upgraded to 10.6.2, and installed the 10.6.2 compatible sleepenabler.kext.

Everything was working perfectly for a day or so, then attempting to wake from sleep I was presented with the light blue screen (which I took to be a crash). I then rebooted the system via the reset button. The boot process got as far as presenting the Apple and loading animation, then the "you must restart" screen appeared.

Reboot was attempted a number of times, each resulting in the same panic.

Ok, I thought, maybe there's something wrong with the HD. Something that disk utility could fix.

So I tried to boot using the USB stick SL installer. The pre boot worked as usual, then selected the USB installer to boot. After the apple and loading anim screen came the panic screen again.

I thought this was a little odd, as previously never had any problems booting the USB installer.

I tried booting from the USB using -v and got the following screen:
http://www.articulatebear.co.uk/pics/panic1.jpg

Then tried booting from the HD with -v:
http://www.articulatebear.co.uk/pics/panic2.jpg

Basically, I'd like to know if anyone could shed some light on my problem. I do wonder if it might be a hardware issue rather than software, given that it panics on both the HD install and the USB stick.

I did some further tests - Removed the gfx card; same result. Removed the HD and booting via Boot132 and then USB installer; same result. Re-seated the ram in slot 2; same result.

Could the problem lie in a bad RAM DIMM?

Cheers,

Matt

[rookey]

Took the computer to work this morning, and it's starting up correctly again.

This make me wonder if it's a heat issue. I'm using the stock intel cooler on the cpu, and core temps are between 43° and 54°C at idle. I ran a stress test and saw temps of >70°C. Now, I'm no expert, but that seems a touch too hot.

Also, core 1 is consistently hotter than core 2 by 1-3 degrees at idle.

I'm running these tests in a very cool office, but at home the computer room is quite hot. I wasn't able to check core temps at home.

I've heard that stock coolers aren't always that good. Would it benefit from an aftermarket cooler and/or better thermal paste? How about just better thermal paste on the stock cooler?

Cheers,

Matt

[rookey]

I left the computer running all day, and it went into sleep for a few hours. On wake, I was presented with the dreaded "you must restart" panic screen...

...and I'm back to square one, with OS X (both HD and USB) crashing on start up.

So it would appear that sleep is causing the panic? But why would OS X fail to start up even after a restart? I booted a linux Mint live CD without error at this point.

Is there a possibility that some data is being held in a cache or RAM even on power down and restart? That might explain why the computer started first time this morning after being off over night...

Matt