Most of my Apps won't run!

[Bobosaurio]

Almost if not all of my applications won't run.
The shortcut buttons on my keyboard (Volume, Eject, Play) don't do anything.
The computer won't shut down.

Right now the only apps I can get to run are Finder and Chrome, nothing else.
I can't run Activity Monitor, Terminal or Console to see what the problem is.

This is like the third time it happens. I just manually shut down the computer.
When I turn it on again, everything is working fine.

This usually happens when I have my iMac on for about 2-3 days. Most of the apps simply stop working and I can't shut it down.

Does anyone have any idea what the cause of this could be?
Maybe give me a suggestion before I turn it off manually again... It pains me every time I have to do this.

 

[Bobosaurio]

Oh, by the way. Last time this happened, once I turned the iMac on again I ran Disk Utility and it said everything was fine.

Just to give another symptom, which is probably related... During this recent annoyance, I connected my iPhone4 to it and iTunes open and hanged forever.

 

[John T]

A bit more info regarding the machine etc would help!

 

[Bobosaurio]

Info of my comp

I am encountering the same issue again. I turned on my computer in the morning, came back to use it at night and I can't run any apps except for Chrome. It won't shut down.

I can't check at the moment info about my computer, as it won't even open "About my Mac".

However, I have an iMac. I think it's the 25" one. It's running Snow Leopard. I installed Snow Leopard a couple of months ago, as it came with Leopard. I remember buying it a month or two before the release of Snow Leopard.

I'll see if I can shut it down and give more info one's its up and running again.
Any suggestions as to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bobosaurio]

Mac Specs

Hi, this are the specs of my iMac.

Mac OS X
Version 10.6.7
Processor: 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

I don't know what info is useful. But please, if anyone is able to help I would appreciate it. Any info or application I should run to diagnose, I am willing to.

Thanks in advance.

 

[daneoni]

Repair permissions and/or reinstall OS X?

 

[Bobosaurio]

I just did a "Repair Disk Permissions" and it did hundreds of

"Group differs on..."
"Repaird Applications/..."

Is this normal?

 

[daneoni]

Yea but more importantly...did it help?

 

[Bobosaurio]

It didn't work...

I thought it did, but turns out the problem is still there. I've had the computer on for at least 2 days. Tonight I encountered the same issue.

My apps won't run, except for Chrome and the ones who were already open.

There has to be some relation to the fact that Chrome is the only app that does run. Really. I try to run every single app from my applications folder and they all jump on the dock 4 times and disappear. Even clicking on "About This Mac" won't do anything. But Chrome is the ONLY app that runs.

I'm gonna have to turn it off by keeping the button pressed again. It pains me to keep doing this. I would really appreciate some help here. Any ideas or suggestions. At this point I'll take anything.

 

[daneoni]

Re-install OS X

 

[Bobosaurio]

OK, and what is the best way to do that?

My iMac came with Leopard.

I bought Snow Leopard and still have the CD. Should I just run that?

 

[MonkeyCookie]

OK, and what is the best way to do that?

My iMac came with Leopard.

I bought Snow Leopard and still have the CD. Should I just run that?

Yes, you can reinstall directly from the Snow Leopard CD. My Macbook originally came with Leopard, but when I upgraded the hard drive, I just booted from the Snow Leopard CD, formatted the drive, and installed Snow Leopard.

Do make sure you back up of the files you want to save before you do so, and (important!) test to make sure you can restore files. There's no greater disappointment than finding out the backup you made had a problem and can't be used to restore.