I have the same problem too and I have tried the PRAM (the one that you did) yet, but when I hit the restart button, it closes all the app and then the dock stays there and iMac stay there too and doing nothing, even after you don't touch it, it goes to sleep and if you move the mouse or touch the keyboard it wake up and still there.
If I open for example Safari at that state, it try to do the restart again and this time everything will be gone and just a gray screen I can see and again nothing will happen.