Strange glitch with screensaver, minimizing windows

[Lord Sandwich]

Whenever I minimize a window to the dock on my sister's Mac Mini (currently running Panther), the screen will freeze for a split-second, fade out to the default solid-blue background (as though it were logging out) and then fade back in. This also happens repeatedly once the screensaver is active for more than five seconds--you have to move the mouse for almost a minute before it finally calms down.

At first I thought I'd broken something when I installed TinkerTool, so I restored all the default settings and the problem went away for a while. Then my brother logged into his account and he started experiencing the same problem.

We're all recent Mac switchers, so any help is appreciated.

 

[Eniregnat]

Dragging TinkerTool into the trash will disable it. Start there, it reads like you already have. Make sure to do it from the Administrator's account. If not, call Apple. Your Mini-Mac is still under warranty, and at least they will walk you through some possible fixes.

Think about any other software "enhancements" you have added. Disable them. Which screen saver are you using? Why isn't the screen saver stopping when you move the mouse?

If you go the Apple rout they will likely ask you to do the following:
Ask you about you system.
Ask you about you monitor and settings.
Ask about software you installed.
Have you remove TinkerTool and other programs.
Reinstall OS.

Back you stuff up!

Weird problem, I hope I helped some.

 

[Lord Sandwich]

Well, it's starting to look like the upgrade to 10.3.9 caused this mess, as another poster mentioned the same symptoms in a different thread (and he wasn't using TinkerTool).

But thanks for confirming my fears with Apple support; looks exactly like what I'd expect them to "guide" me through. I'll just go install Tiger and hope for the best.