My Computer Has an STD?

[StarbucksSam]

In all seriousness, I think my computer contracted something. I'm running the most current OS on a Santa Rosa Powerbook - but I installed both Limewire and Audacity today, forgetting that they can be suspect ... now Mail, iChat, and many other programs (Garage Band) - I haven't even tested them all NO LONGER WILL OPEN. They give me the error message every time.

I've even zapped the PRAM. What have I done? What do I do?

 

[mackindergarten]

Hi,

what does the error message say when you try to open an application?

/Rupert

 

[tersono]

1. It's NOT a virus. Trust me on this.

2. You may have some disk corruption, or possibly a permissions problem.

Boot into single-user mode (hold CMD-S on boot).

When the alphabet soup stops scrolling up the screen, enter the following EXACTLY:

fsck -fy

Let it do its thing. If, at the end, it tells you that ***THE FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED***, then run it again.

Once finished type:

reboot

You can now let it boot into OS X normally. Once you're there, go into disk utility and repair permissions.

Note: Warning - do not type anything other than the above two commands when in Single User mode unless you know what you're doing - you can hose your system quite easily if you're not careful.

Anyhow - try the above and see how things are then - if you still have a problem, post back to this thread and we'll look at some other options.

 

[StarbucksSam]

1. It's NOT a virus. Trust me on this.

2. You may have some disk corruption, or possibly a permissions problem.

Boot into single-user mode (hold CMD-S on boot).

When the alphabet soup stops scrolling up the screen, enter the following EXACTLY:

fsck -fy

Let it do its thing. If, at the end, it tells you that ***THE FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED***, then run it again.

Once finished type:

reboot

You can now let it boot into OS X normally. Once you're there, go into disk utility and repair permissions.

Note: Warning - do not type anything other than the above two commands when in Single User mode unless you know what you're doing - you can hose your system quite easily if you're not careful.

Anyhow - try the above and see how things are then - if you still have a problem, post back to this thread and we'll look at some other options.

Thanks for the advice. I did run the command but didn't get the message you were talking about. I did a permissions repair as well to no avail. AppleCare recommends backing up important items and doing a clean install. Anyone have thoughts before I do that?

 

[bartelby]

You have tried repairing permissions haven't you. I apologise if you have and I'm stating the obvious.

 

[StarbucksSam]

You have tried repairing permissions haven't you. I apologise if you have and I'm stating the obvious.

Oh, no, I had - but it was a good question to ask.

I realized that this all started when I installed Garage Band from the system disks last night - I decided to try reinstalling the entire suite and now it all works (though I lost all of my preferences) so ISSUE RESOLVED (yay!).

Thanks to all who helped.