Major Problems with Finder, iTunes and iPhoto.

[smurfsgonewild]

I'm at wits end with what to do so I'm coming to you guys for help.
Finder is having major freezing issues, If I scroll down in my appliactions folder past a certain point, usually the iPhoto icon, it freezes up and I have to restart.

iTunes won't let me play my last few purchases from the store and it lags like crazy when i try to play my other purchase and it also won't let me burn anything at all. I get some "format not recognized" error or something close to it.I can burn through finder but iTunes or even iPhoto won't let me burn. I was trying to burn my iTunes folder through finder so I could reformat but it won't let me back up my latest purchases. I got this error "Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in ____.m4p could not be read or written(Error Code -36)"

Safari is crashing like crazy and my mac's just being a general pain in the ass lately. I think it all started to happen around the last time I bought something from the iTunes store.

Well guys, I'm basically begging for help. Anything would be greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[frankblundt]

Try booting from your system cd/dvd and running Disk Utility > Verify Disk - it may be a disk problem, report what comes up. And what hardware/OS software are you using? G5 iMac? Tiger?

 

[Counterfit]

Be more careful when you create a new thread.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Try these:
Repair Permissions
Repair the hard drive (as previously stated by booting off the OS X CD)
If all else fails, either Archive and Install, or try reinstalling iTunes and iPhoto and whatever else fails. Make sure you are using the latest version of the OS. What kind of Mac is it? How big of hard drive? How much RAM?

 

[frankblundt]

Other standard responses to general unexplained weirdness include:

Maybe give zapping the PRAM a try.

and

Have you tried using fsck instead of the OSX disks?.

 

[smurfsgonewild]

Sorry I left out all the important details. I've got a Powerbook G4 1.33ghz and 768mb ram with a 80gig hd running OSX 10.3.9. I've tried zapping the pram, verified my permissions, reinstalled iTunes did all the disc utility stuff and it still isn't working that well. Everything looks normal but it sure as heck isn't running normally.
What does archiving do? I know I've seen it somewhere before but can't remember where.
Thanks for the help and I'll be back tomorrow to see what's up. Thanks again guys.

 

[frankblundt]

Archive and Install just means it loads a brand new system but keeps an intact copy of your original system saved (so you can dig out old stuff you might need).

 

[mad jew]

Create a new account first and see if the problems carry over. Also, is there at least 8GB of free space on the hard drive?

What changes have you recently made to the machine in terms of software and hardware?

 

[smurfsgonewild]

Well, I haven't made any major changes to the computer lately and I've still got 50 something gigs left so I'm good on space haha.
I ran the various disk utilitie stuff today while I was at class and the Verify disk was the only thing that was normal. The Verify and repair permissions got the same error message, "Disk Utility has lost it's connection to the Disk Management tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility." That ain't normal I take it hah. Another question, If I were to archive everything would I still be able to get all my music and what not and delete them after I've gotten them? I've got all my stuff on me iPod but I don't know of a way to transfer from iPod to the pbook. I'm sure there is a way but I don't know it. Anyone got any suggestions?
Once again guys, thanks for the help.

 

[joker2]

I would suggest backing up everything to your iPod (or other media) in disk mode so that you can drag & drop things back to your machine should you need to do so.

"Disk Utility has lost it's connection to the Disk Management tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility."

I got this message, general lagginess and lots of beachballs just before my HDD died... was thankful that after a cold boot I was able to get an image of the drive via Carbon Copy Cloner.

 

[2nyRiggz]

Sounds like your HD might be giving you the last of its legs.....Back up everything you got I would tell you to get a External HD....Verify the S.M.A.R.T Status...also give the second account a try to see if it does transfer over.


Bless

 

[funkychunkz]

Delete cache (all levels), safe boot, delete preferences, run cron scripts, update pre-bindings (just install any apple update), check disk, permissions, and don't boot anything from norton, check the catalog with Techtool, Diskwarrior, (I don't know if drive genius will do this, try putting it into FW boot, or the apple diagnostic tools.

As for the ipod, use ipoddisk, simple as that.