10.4.11 Tiger Finder frozen (Beachball spinning) please help

[sofila]

Hallo, English is not my first language I hope to be clear enough:
Running 10.4.11 on iMac Intel Core Duo 2.0 Ghz 2gb Ram
After the booting, Finder freezes (beachball spinning). I can't get to browse to any file or folder on my computer.
Dock applications are working (i.e. Safari at this moment, Mail)
I can get to the Apple Menu (and reach System Preferences/Recent items) only through the working applications.
I can't get to any file via applications, for example if I try to attach a file to an e-mail, Mail application freezes.
I've tried the following:
-Repair permissions via install disk. Some fixings but not major problems. Disk verify is ok. Next reboot Finder frozen.
-Safe boot. Finder frozen.
-Restarted with "option S", tried fsck -fy a couple of times, minor problems fixed
-Moved (via "cd /Users/username/Library/Preferences" and next "mv com.apple.finder.plist ../../Desktop") the finder preferences to the Desktop, but after rebooting the finder freezes again.

Any chance to get out of this situation?

Everything worked fine until this morning, I can only remember one strange thing happening to the finder windows: the left column (the one with the Disks up and personal folders down) had the usual folders (Desktop/Music/Images/Documents/Movies) duplicated 2/3/a lot of times, so I used to have from top to bottom Desktop/Music/Images/Documents/Movies/Desktop/Music/Images/Documents/Movies/Desktop/Music/Images/Documents/Movies/Desktop/Music/Images/Documents/Movies etcetera.
For the same strange reason I used to have multiple "Desktop" (a lot of them) in the left column of the "browsing" windows, the ones we use to open/save/attach/export/import files (and I don't know hot to remove them)
Sorry for the long post, any help would be really appreciated.
PS It's getting very late here in Italy now, I will check for any answer only tomorrow morning CET
Thank you

 

[sofila]

...up
any chance to do anything?

EDIT: Apple Hardware Test two times, complete option: No Problems found

 

[Xavier]

Never heard of that problem before.

The only thing I can think of is doing a reinstall. Archive and install might do the trick?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Sounds like something very strange has happened to your user account. I'd suggest creating a new user and logging in as that new user to see if the problem persists, but it seems like you can't even get it stable long enough to do that. I'd try an Archive and Install - however, since I suspect the cause to be somewhere in your user folder, UNCHECK the preserve users and network settings option. You will not lose any data if you do this - it will simply end up in the archived system folder. You can then copy over what you need from the archive, after the install completes.

 

[sofila]

sorry for the delay on answering and ...yes, it was a problem tied to the account.
I tried to log-in in safe mode with another user and everything seemed to work fine, so I went back to the normal account (beachball) -> dock -> safari -> apple menu -> System preferences -> Accounts, created a new administrator one and transfered all the permissions from the old one to this last. Now everything seems to work fine.
Thank you Xavier and wrldwzrd89 for your interest.

 

[DA3411]

Beachball Bounces Over Here Too

Hello All,

I am having the identical problem as the Sofia, the original poster. Even the same Mac and OS specs. When I startup in safemode, no beachball at all. I too assume it must be my User Account.

My question is, how to a create a new User Admin and preserve all the permissions and preferences as the potentially problamatic Admin, (iPhoto, iTunes, Entourage, Dock, etc.)

Also, I am wondering if i have some funky things going on during startup in regular mode, I checked under Sys Prefs/Accounts/Login Items and only a few are listed... (Please see Picture 02) Then I looked at my startup items via System Profiler and the list is much longer. (Please see Picture 01) Do I need these things, some I dont even know what they are or how to even turn them off.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

DA