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Finder restarts 60 times a minute! Urgent help needed!


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Finder restarts 60 times a minute! Urgent help needed!
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stevegong
www.stevegongphoto.com
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: London
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2005-08-04, 15:55

Dear all,

I was copying a file to the desktop and suddenly the Finder restarts, and again and again and again, just about every second.

No problem, I say, so I reboot. Right when Finder first starts, it relaunches again, in a neverending loop of relaunching Finder.

Thus effectively, I can't do ANYTHING with my computer.

Tried fsck -f, didn't help.

Am I f'ed?

Thanks...pretty desperate here.


I'm on a 1.5ghz PB 12", running the latest OS version.

Last edited by stevegong : 2005-08-04 at 16:23.
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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2005-08-04, 16:54

Tried the other boot startup keycombos? (From our FAQ or other)

C will boot from CD (with any bootable OS X system CD... if its an Install CD you can ignore the onscreen dialog box instructions once you choose language and run disk utility from File Menu to repair permissions/disk)

Shift will give you "Safe Mode" or prevent startup items from launching (including Finder windows)...

Quote:
Start up in Safe Mode
Under Mac OS X 10.2 and later, you can enter Safe mode by pressing the Shift key during startup until "Safe Boot" appears in the progress window. Like starting up in Mac OS 9 with extensions and control panels disabled, Safe mode allows you to eliminate many potential sources of problems, thereby narrowing in on the cause of any trouble you suspect is related to items loading at startup.

Starting up in Safe Mode:
  • Performs a directory check of the hard drive identical to clicking Repair Disk in the First Aid pane of Disk Utility.
  • Ignores kernel extensions cache (/System/Library/Extensions.kextcache).
  • Loads only required kernel extensions (/System/Library/Extensions).
  • Runs only Apple-installed startup items (/Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems).
  • Loads only those fonts in /System/Library/Fonts (Mac OS X 10.4 only).
  • Trashes all font caches stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/user ID number (Mac OS X 10.4 only).
  • Disables Login Items (Mac OS X 10.4 only).
Because Safe mode checks (and repairs, if needed) the directory of the Mac's startup volume, startup can take considerably longer than normal, especially if you have a large hard drive. Let the startup process run its course, lest you compound a bad situation by restarting during the lengthy disk repair.

Once the Finder appears in Safe mode, restart normally and see if your problem is gone. If so, the disk directory repair did the trick. If not, restart in Safe mode again and see if the problem is gone. If so, then the problem lies with files that aren't loaded in Safe mode, such as kernel extensions caches, non-Apple startup items, etc. Use trial and error to find the troublemaker.

When you're running in Safe mode, you can use your Mac normally, with the caveat that some things will not work. For example, you can't use an AirPort card, some audio input or output devices, or USB modems because the resources required by these devices are temporarily unavailable.

NOTE

If pressed immediately at startup, the Shift key allows you to enter Safe mode as just explained. Pressed later in the startup process, it temporarily disables login/startup items specified in Accounts preferences.

If your Mac is configured to automatically login as a particular user, press the Shift key when the blue background with the progress bar appears during startup. This forces the login window to appear. Log in as the desired user, then immediately press Shift again until the Finder desktop appears.
from here

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2005-08-04 at 16:56.
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stevegong
www.stevegongphoto.com
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2005-08-04, 17:08

repair disk/permissions- no problems found

tried booting in safe mode- same problem even in safe mode

Thanks for the suggestion, but any other ideas?
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ast3r3x
25 chars of wasted space.
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2005-08-04, 17:18

Target disk mode. Replace the finder You'd have to change permissions an ownership settings probably.
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BCC IT Guys
New Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
 
2005-08-04, 19:30

does the problem prevent you from running UNIX? you can sort the problem there.
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stevegong
www.stevegongphoto.com
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: London
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2005-08-04, 20:01

Ah, I couldn't solve the problem, dunno what it was, probably that POS app Adobe Bridge screwed up the system somewhere in the base level...I can think of no other possibility.

So I copied my user folder onto my external and reinstalled everything. I figured that I would still have any preference, etc, whatever, backed up, if there was something I really needed.

Thanks for teh help guys. Dunno why it happened, OS X is not supposed to crash.
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ast3r3x
25 chars of wasted space.
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2005-08-04, 20:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevegong
Ah, I couldn't solve the problem, dunno what it was, probably that POS app Adobe Bridge screwed up the system somewhere in the base level...I can think of no other possibility.

So I copied my user folder onto my external and reinstalled everything. I figured that I would still have any preference, etc, whatever, backed up, if there was something I really needed.

Thanks for teh help guys. Dunno why it happened, OS X is not supposed to crash.
It didn't
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2005-08-04, 23:48

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
It didn't
Quite right. The worst application included with OS X did.
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