iMac G5 Troubles

[Verto]

OK, so this morning before work I turn on my iMac as I'm getting ready. When I come back to it, the computer has loaded and brought up my desktop. It has opened Mail, which I have set to open on startup. But...even though the mouse cursor will move, I can't get anything to respond. I shut it off by holding the power button down and try again. This time is comes up, and I am able to open Safari, and start browsing one of my websites. I then decided to open iChat, and then suddenly it becomes unresponsive. Can move cursor, but can't do anything. Shut down again. I turn it on again, and leave for work.

When I come back, Mail is open. I am able to click on Spotlight (wanting to Repair Disk Permissions..) but end up with the same problem. I did an Apple Hardware Test and it found no problems. I turned it on after the Test and was able to get Repair Disk Permissions to start up. It is now hanging at about 75% done, which I don't know was caused by me moving/clicking the mouse or not. I have let it sit for 5-10 minutes, hoping maybe it would finish, but no luck.

Oh, yes. During my startup after the Hardware Test, it opened up an app to try to find my keyboard; I switched out the batteries which had only been in there for a couple weeks with some news ones, and got it connected again. Don't know if that is significant.

Anyway, I am at a loss for what could be the cause of this. It ran perfectly last night, up until 11 or so when I shut it off for the night. I didn't install anything new, not for several days. Any ideas? Would appreciate all possible haste, I'm having to use WinXP to access this site!

 

[tikibangout]

I think I was recieving this problem last night and this morning too. My iChat would just get a beachball for awhile, and wouldn't connect, and then I tried to get online and it wouldn't work. I had the same results this morning, so thinking it may do something, I restarted my Airport Express through the Airport Setup Assistant, and then right after it restarted, everything was working fine again. If you're still getting the problem, i'd try what I did.

 

[Verto]

I think I was recieving this problem last night and this morning too. My iChat would just get a beachball for awhile, and wouldn't connect, and then I tried to get online and it wouldn't work. I had the same results this morning, so thinking it may do something, I restarted my Airport Express through the Airport Setup Assistant, and then right after it restarted, everything was working fine again. If you're still getting the problem, i'd try what I did.

I will, but I don't think this is the same - yours sounds like an Internet problem. Mine beachballs not just during iChat conversation, but during offline processes as well. I tried to VERIFY permissions, and it hangs at ~75%. I was able to check the Activity Monitor and CPU usage, etc, and shut down the computer properly. However, it is still hanging with the disc permission, although iChat came back from the beachball.

 

[tikibangout]

I'm not sure this would matter too much, but could you post your computer specs?

 

[Verto]

I'm not sure this would matter too much, but could you post your computer specs?

iMac G5 2.0 Ghz
512 MB RAM installed
250 GB HD w/ 212 GB free.

Overall the entire system feels slower than usual, even when I get it to open programs. So far it seems to be ok doing things like iChat, Safari and iTunes at once, it's just when I do Repair Disc Permissions that it bogs down.

 

[tikibangout]

Hmm, if you don't have it already, i'd suggest running a program like OnyX, repairing disc permissions that way.

 

[Agathon]

Try this

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=162662

 

[Verto]

Thanks for the link, I ran that last night and it seemed to solve the problem for now.

However, when I first ran it, I got the message "Could not be repaired after 3 attempt...
Error: Underlying task reported failure on exit"

I then ran Repair Disc Permissions, and tried Disc Repair again. Both seemed to work successfully after that.

 

[Agathon]

Thanks for the link, I ran that last night and it seemed to solve the problem for now.

However, when I first ran it, I got the message "Could not be repaired after 3 attempt...
Error: Underlying task reported failure on exit"

I then ran Repair Disc Permissions, and tried Disc Repair again. Both seemed to work successfully after that.

If you continue to have troubles do an archive and install of the OS (you won't lose anything).

As long as it is now allowing you to repair permissions, you should not have a problem.