Hello all. First, thank you all for your help, or should I say lack there of. No one even offered to try to give me an idea. So this is for some one else that might run in to this same problem.
The device that caused the freeze is:
DVD/CD REWRITABLE DRIVE
model: SHM-165P6SX07C made April 2006.
Sold under the name of: LITEON.
It is a DVD Multi Recorder/Burner.
So far, this game C&C3 is the ONLY game to be stumped by this external USB drive being plugged in to the computer. Yes I did use the built in drive in my iMac to play the game. Nothing was in the external drive at the time.
If I have the drive plugged in to the iMac, and start the game, the game freezes at the splash screen. If I then unplug the external USB drive, I get a message that tells me that C&C3 can not find the DVD game disk, to please insert it in to the computer and restart the computer. If I do what it asked me to do, restart the computer, the game will start.
If I have the USB drive unplugged BEFORE I try to start the game, the game will start and run with no problems. ALSO... When I quit the game, it will NOT 100% quit. It is still on in the DOCK and I have to FORCE QUIT the game to get it to 100% quit.
Hopes this helps someone.
--Apple //GS