Can't shutdown, restart or force quit from Finder???

[Aniej]

My finder is going kinda nuts right no. When I click on and select anything from restart to shutdown to force quit nothing happens. I have never in my life experienced something like this before.

Is the only safe option to power off from the power button? this is really weird. I have been experiencing a ton of problems in the last few days even with word docs that struggle to make it through simply saving a 32 page doc.

 

[iBookG4user]

If you can open Terminal, then do the following command:

sudo killall Finder

it will then ask for your password and then it will restart Finder.

 

[Aniej]

thanks. i will try now and let you know. i appreciate the help, most of the apple stuff i can work through very easily, but not so good with terminal, it's a shame actually. How do you learn?

 

[Aniej]

wow!!! even that did not make it so I was able to restart or shutdown. i select one of the two and nothing happens. what in the world is going on? i have had safari 3 running perfectly for 2 days now so it is not likely to be related.

 

[banjomamo]

heres a free repository too start at:

http://www.osxfaq.com/tutorials/LearningCenter/index.ws

theres a lot on the web just dont get too playful without understanding you can do some damage. backup important docs etc. blah blah

 

[iBookG4user]

thanks. i will try now and let you know. i appreciate the help, most of the apple stuff i can work through very easily, but not so good with terminal, it's a shame actually. How do you learn?

My friend is quite good with terminal, so I just watch what he does and learn from him. Although I also like to explore it by myself. Going into terminal and then type 'emacs' then press escape and then type 'x' and then 'tetris' or 'Doctor' is always fun .

 

[iBookG4user]

wow!!! even that did not make it so I was able to restart or shutdown. i select one of the two and nothing happens. what in the world is going on? i have had safari 3 running perfectly for 2 days now so it is not likely to be related.

Go to Disk Utility and check the disk and if it needs repairing, repair the disk, and then repair permissions and see if that helps.

 

[Aniej]

already did that before i went to the step in terminal you just suggested.
I think next step is to manually shut down and reboot. thoughts?

 

[iBookG4user]

already did that before i went to the step in terminal you just suggested.
I think next step is to manually shut down and reboot. thoughts?

Have you tried creating a new user and seeing if the same problems happen? If not, then I'd see if a new user account has the same problems.

 

[banjomamo]

do you have any network volumes that were recently turned off but not unmounted? that can lock up for the finder for quite awhile as well. if all else fails you could hold down the power button and that will turn off the machine - its not a good thing to do often but it might work.

 

[synth3tik]

holding down the power button is not what I would use for every day shut downs, but if selecting restart or shut down from the menu doesn't work or if [ctrl] + [] + power button, or the terminal doesn't work, then holding down the power button to get the computer back up is fine. After the restart I would go back into disk utilities and verify/repair the disk again.

 

[banjomamo]

synth3tik is right. i didnt really elaborate on it but DO NOT make this procedure a habit.

 

[mrpharmacy]

shutdown issues

I have the same problem with a new Mac Book Pro (2.4GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD, NVidia 256mb video card, etc). I can't get through the shutdown process. I started the shutdown by clicking on the apple, but 3 hours later, I just had a screen and mouse. I've tried everything ... any help?

 

[bov]

i actually JUST got the same problem and i dont know what to do.......

any advice?

 

[pranavss11]

Just manually restart using power button. When done, go to disk utility and repair your disk
-x