Frequent Kernel Panics, Sudden Restarts, Etc.

[JakeyPleaseNThanks]

I have a 2009 pre-unibody Macbook (Macbook 5,2) running OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard). I understand that a machine this old might be tricky (or not worth it) to repair, but I'd like to take a stab at it if possible.

In the last week or so, it has been suffering from intermittent but frequent system crashes; sometimes it kernel panics, sometimes the entire system freezes without an official kernel panic message, and sometimes it just restarts on its own without prior warning. These crashes happen even in Safe Boot, even when booted off an older backup on an external drive, and even when booted into Windows.

Other than a slight tendency to cluster (it'll be fine for hours or days and then have multiple crashes in a row), there doesn't seem to be any correlation to what I'm doing. One time, after a crash, it refused to turn on or chime and just beeped at me; one time, it displayed blue vertical lines over the gray startup screen and refused to boot further, but most times it will boot after a crash and then freeze, panic, or restart shortly thereafter.

Thanks for any troubleshooting tips you might be able to offer, even if they amount to "get a new one."

 

[Freeangel1]

you really need to try a fresh install of a much newer operating system. Snow leopard was like the first Intel based OS and not many current software install on that.

I would choose Mojave 10.14. because you still get 32 bit app support to be able to install 32 bit programs.
Also I think Mojave is the most stable and reliable macOS.

Also you may want to check or replace your RAM memory. You have have a faulty stick of RAM causing your kernel panics and restarts

also check the health of your hard drive. Replace it with a cheap SSD drive to get it to boot up much faster.