Rescuing a MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2009 Would appreciate help -

I have an old MBP mid-2009 shipped originally with 10.5.7 Leopard, currently running 10.6.8. I restarted recently and found a kernel panic on startup. I have tried  booting in safe mode (unsuccessful), recovery mode (unsuccessful), reset NV-RAM (unsuccessful startup) and from an OSX install disc ("unable to install OSX on this computer"). The last option yielded an actual startup screen ith language options and a box offering the option of restoring from a TM backup (I don't have one as I did not have any important data on this machine). So broadly the machine works but never gets past the grey screen with the apple logo and the time wheel.

I have another 2 newer MBPs at home and considered using target mode to resuscitate the oldest malfunctioning mac. BTW I can't eject the OSX disc from the bad mac.

Any advice on how to revive my old Mac? I'd like to keep using it as it was fine yesterday.

Thanks.
Too late for this question, but why do people not consult Apple about Kernel Panics? Maybe you had other choices, yesterday. 

My July 25 answer to similar question:

Read Apple's own support page, About Kernel Panics , and MacWorld's How To Troubleshoot a Kernel Panic. You'll be able to isolate the problem and from there, know what steps to take, many of which are quite simple.