A few problems ...

[EGT]

Earlier on there my Mac went through a grumpy spell and just wouldn't respond. It was beach balling for half an hour with no response to anything I clicked on.

The first thing I did was try a restart which sat at the grey screen for much longer than normal. I know it usually takes a while after an update but the last update I installed was 10.4.3 a few weeks ago. When I eventually got logged on, after 10 minutes(!!), my menu icons were in a different order. Something's a bit iffy

I went to disk utility and verified the disk which came out fine. Some permissions were out of place so I repaired then restarted. I was greeted by the same slow loading grey screen and log in time with beachball galore on anything I tried to open when it eventually settled itself. The airport and bluetooth menu icons were gone this time.

There's only a few login items; Synergy, quicksilver and the Sidetrack Agent so I don't think they could be bottle necking it enough to halt everything.

I tried to get the Hardware test from the Tiger DVD but I cannot for the life of me find where it is! When I hold "C" after restart and the disk loads, there is no hardware test in utilities. Same with "Option". I take it I'm trying the wrong keys?

I'm thinking bad ram (AGAIN!), hard drive is on the way out or dodgy 10.4.3 ... or a nice pic 'n' mix. I've got everything backed up but that doesn't help my paranoia and the fact that my fingernails are now gone.

I've just noticed that there are duplicates in the "Open with" option when you ctrl click an image. 3 Firefox, 3 Quicktime, 3 RealPlayer and 3 Safari
Do I just have to trash a .plist file to fix that? I think i've seen it before, doubt it's related to this.

Dam computer

 

[Jay42]

Hmm, that sounds like a hard drive that is on its last legs, but you said the disk test was ok. It would be unusual for a disk to slowly deteriorate and still pass the test. Did you rename/move your home directory or any library files? Other than that, the only thing I could recommend is to bring it in and have a genius test the hardware.

 

[EGT]

Hmm, that sounds like a hard drive that is on its last legs, but you said the disk test was ok. It would be unusual for a disk to slowly deteriorate and still pass the test. Did you rename/move your home directory or any library files? Other than that, the only thing I could recommend is to bring it in and have a genius test the hardware.

Yep, it passed fine. Verified showed up green and the S.M.A.R.T status is verified. It makes strange electrical buzzing and clicking noises but nothing that sounds brutal or from the norm.

There was a really strange noise the other day while toast showed "Filling RAM Cache". It was a more high pitched buzzing sound, slightly disconcerting.

Haven't renamed or moved anything Important that I know of. I've been messing about with the normal apps I'd use daily with the activity monitor open, and everything seems fine.

I'm confused

 

[Mechcozmo]

I tried to get the Hardware test from the Tiger DVD but I cannot for the life of me find where it is! When I hold "C" after restart and the disk loads, there is no hardware test in utilities. Same with "Option". I take it I'm trying the wrong keys?

It isn't there. It is on the Hardware Test CD that came with your computer, or for newer Macs, you hold Option as you start the computer with the Software Restore disk inserted. However, your computer is old enough to have a dedicated Hardware Test CD.

 

[EGT]

It isn't there. It is on the Hardware Test CD that came with your computer, or for newer Macs, you hold Option as you start the computer with the Software Restore disk inserted. However, your computer is old enough to have a dedicated Hardware Test CD.

I completely forgot about that. I'll give it a run later and see how it goes.

The computer has been on since early this morning and it's running fine.

I thought it was on the way out last night.