[fosterhere]

My wife is a freelance Graphic designer she is in the middle of a large project. Her fairly new ( Christmas present ) 15" Powerbook is acting up.

Safari will not load, ya just get the spinning ball and you can't get out of it you have to hold the power button just to get the computer to restart. Help menu results in the same problem as does Disk doctor. Other browsers work fine like IE and AOL. I re-installed the software install and restore disk ran through it with restore in place mode so we would not loose all the work and programs. Is there any simple way to get this back on track. She is hesitant to do a total reinstall since she has all her programs set just so. YES we are backing up hourly burning through a pile of CD's fast. Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop are operating fine. So essentially she can continue to work but there is that nagging feeling that the system is unstable. Also this project and others are going to last a long time so we are going to be stuck with this for the duration and the possibility that it may spread and get worse. ANY ADVICE would be helpful.

Thanks

[Brad]

FYI, when you get the spinning wait cursor, you can simply force-quit the affected application; you really shouldn't need to restart. You have several options including (in order of increasing difficulty):

1. Press command-option-escape to get the force quit palette.
2. Switch to another application and choose Force Quit... from the Apple menu (or press command-option-escape).
3. Right-click (control-click) on the application's icon in the Dock and choose Force Quit. If the bottom item is just Quit, press the option key to toggle it to Force Quit.
4. Fire up the Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder), select the process, and click Quit Process in the toolbar or choose Quit from the Process menu.
5. Fire up Terminal and use the kill command to wipe out a process.
6. Connect remotely via SSH and kill the process.

In the vast majority of cases, you won't need to go any farther than step 2. I just felt like covering all of the options anyway.

Have you installed anything that might modify how Safari behaves? PithHelmet, AcidSearch, PDF Browser, etc? Try removing those first. Then, another thing to try is removing the Safari folder from your home Library directory. That will remove Safari's settings and set it back to the default configuration.

[fosterhere]

Thanks brad yea I'm using the force quit feature and it works fine. In diagnosing this computer we are finding MANY more applications that are just not working. Sure we can get pass Safari not working as long as AOL and IE work, but who wants to live that way. Other programs that are not working are Address Book, Sherloc, Help, iPhoto, iMovie. Again these progs are not essential to the work my wife uses the computer for but it is disconcerting that all these problems are happening on such a new computer .

[wuf]

You mentioned running disk doctor. Correct me if i am wrong, but i have heard some really bad things can happen with running norton on OS X. I BELIEVE i had a friend mention to me that he ran it on his OS X machine, and had apps stop working because it started moving files around that it didn't know what to do with.

-wuf

[Quagmire]

Maybe a wipe and clean install of Panther might help. If it doesn't take it to a local apple store if one is close or call apple.

[fosterhere]

Originally Posted by wuf You mentioned running disk doctor. Correct me if i am wrong, but i have heard some really bad things can happen with running norton on OS X. I BELIEVE i had a friend mention to me that he ran it on his OS X machine, and had apps stop working because it started moving files around that it didn't know what to do with. -wuf

Did I say disc doctor I meant to say Disk Utility the OS X utility that comes with OSX.

Undertaker I am sooooooo hesitant to do a clean install cause then I have to re-install all her settings and programs all over again BIG pain in the ass. I just tried the install in place again. When I do that I have to reinstall quark which is already a pain cause I have to type out that whole long serial number yaaaaaack

[Brad]

Originally Posted by wuf You mentioned running disk doctor. Correct me if i am wrong, but i have heard some really bad things can happen with running norton on OS X.

Oops! I didn't see where he mentioned Disk Doctor.

Yeah, Norton software = very bad mojo. See the thread Essential System Utilities for New Apple Convert?! for a discussion of the evils of Norton.

In any case, a reinstall of the system should take care of everything. If you use the "Archive and Install" option, you shouldn't need to reinstall all of your existing software. Most if not all of it will continue working fine. See my post here for an explanation of how the Archive and Install option works.

[Brad]

Ah, I was composing the above post while you were posting, fosterhere.

Have you tried the Archive and Install option that I mentioned?

[fosterhere]

Originally Posted by Brad Ah, I was composing the above post while you were posting, fosterhere. Have you tried the Archive and Install option that I mentioned?

I Tried it once and now in the middle of my second attempt. Im posting all this on MY 12" powerbook that works fine Part of my intent to get my wife's fixed is that should it have to go back to apple for service MY laptop will become HER laptop while in for service.