[martinart]

I am running MAC OS X 3.9 on a G4. Today, I can open few of my desktop icons. I cannot open the harddrive, I double click and the desktop flashes clear blue, then restores the icon images, but the HD will still not open. Finder intermittently turns itself off, as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Martinart

[ghporter]

First, before anyone piles on you to "correct" you, it's "Mac" as in short for "Macintosh." Some people here get their shorts in a wad about that, in part because the acronym MAC stands for a networking term.

Anyway, have you tried to boot into safe mode? In case you're not up on how to do this, here are the instructions.

[CharlesS]

In addition to Safe Mode, try disabling your login items by holding down the shift key immediately after you log in (if you have automatic login enabled, just hold down the Shift key during the entire startup process).

[martinart]

Thank you for your suggestion to start in safe mode. It did not correct the problem. I am not sophisticated enough to know what to do now. Thanks anyway. Maybe I will just wait til someone here comes along.

[turtle777]

Did you try to Repair Permissions ?

It sometimes fixes really odd behavior.

-t

[Grenise]

You should try resetting your PRAM. restart holding:
Command-Option-P-R
Otherwise, try using another computer to connect to it and restart in Target Disk Mode. (restart holding T)
Hope that helps.