Some Programs Won't Run / Install? Help!!

Hey everyone,

So, I'm not an active poster or anything, but when my sister comes to me with her mac problems and I (unfortunately, being a windows guy ) don't know what to do to help her identify/fix the issue, I am inclined to turn to the pros here at MacRumors! I hope you guys may have heard of this before or know a way on how to fix it.

So, tonight, my sister comes to me saying that her MSN program won't startup properly. She's running OS X Tiger I believe (Her computers a couple years old and as far as I know she didn't upgrade to leopard or snow leopard) and this problem just started happening today.

I asked her if maybe she had gotten a virus or installed any software before this started happening and she said "No." although I don't know how true that is. Regardless, I told her to try and run a virus scan to check, and she came back to me 15 minutes later saying that she tried to install a virus checker but when she tries to install it, all that happens is her finder "refreshes" (so to speak) - The top-bar at the top of her screen goes invisible and then slides back into place once the application refuses to run. No notices pop up, the application simply does not start up. The same issue is happening for her MSN program, too.

From what I saw, Firefox is working just fine, as well as a few other apps on her Mac. Have you guys ever heard of such a thing? Is it a virus? I'm not too sure since I unfortunately don't have a mac (yet!) but would be most appreciative if you guys might be able to lend a helping hand.

Thank you so much!
-Alex

 

Hey MacDawg, thanks for your quick reply!

Yeah, I didn't think there were viruses, just not sure in this case . Anyways...

Mac Messenger 7 is the MSN program she's having problems with (it won't start up at all - getting that "refresh" effect I believe).

My sister managed to get the virus scanner or cleanup utility, whatever it may be (haven't looked into it at all) started finally. I think she probably just got lucky on getting it open, but it was called "CleanMyMac".

Any ideas?

Appreciate your help!

 

Yeah, after checking it out for myself I've seen that. Not really going to help her situation at all. She's not the most literate computer individual. She knows her way around her mac I believe (after having it for several years) but she's denying having installed anything prior to these events occurring.

Pretty hard to find a solution to a problem that has appeared out of "thin air" but... that's what she's saying is happening. It's happened out of no where, all of a sudden today.

Are there any tips as to how she might be able to look into crash logs or something? Maybe that way we might be able to give you guys a better idea as to what's happening. I'll see if I can persuade her into signing up for a MacRumors account and maybe updating you guys further...

Seriously though, appreciate the replies thus far! Thanks guys.