[JazzCatDRP]

If anyone can help me out with this problem, I'd be much obliged. Ever since I updated to 10.3.8, I've had problems with crashing that I've never had before...very often when something was mounted, like my iPod, or external drive. Well earlier today, I turned on my external, and got my usual crash (the black box that says I need to restart my computer). Did so...and got some bad luck. The apple logo appeared for about a minute, and finally the spinning circle would appear and would spin indefinitely (I waited 20 minutes for it to do something). Well, I figured a re-install was in order, so I did the archive and install option to preserve as much data as I could since it had been a week or so since my last backup. Had a lot of problems when I got that running, but re-updating to 10.3.8 fixed them all, but one. When I restart, it takes forever. Before, I'd get the apple logo for 3-4 seconds, then the spinning circle for 10-15 seconds and then I'd see the progress bar and be in business shortly thereafter. Now I see the apple for 15-20 seconds, the spinning circle for around a minute before anything happens! Is there anything I can do? I hate to go through the process of erasing everything and starting over...particularly if there might be a 10.3.9 on the horizon that might fix it. Any ideas?

[alphasubzero949]

Run DiskWarrior. You may have a corrupt directory.

[Randman]

Could try repairing permissions and cleaning your font cache. Also, trash the finder plist.

[JazzCatDRP]

I don't have DiskWarrior yet, so I'll have to get a hold of that. I've already repaired permissions. How do I clean the font cache and trash the finder plist? Thanks!

[Randman]

Apple f for "finder" and you'll see com.apple.plist.finder. Can trash that. For fonts, check versiontracker, lots of free font cache cleaners (I use Font Cache Expunger).

[Detrius]

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=248286

Start here. If you still have problems, keep posting in this thread.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by JazzCatDRP:
I don't have DiskWarrior yet, so I'll have to get a hold of that. I've already repaired permissions. How do I clean the font cache and trash the finder plist? Thanks!

None of this is going to fix kernel panics. You may have directory structure damage, but it won't fix your kernel panics. If it really is just directory structure damage, then you will likely have to run DiskWarrior AND reinstall.

[JazzCatDRP]

I reinstalled the OS (but kept my home folder), still had the problems. I'm running DiskWarrior now. I've narrowed the problem down though. I have a firewire card for my old powerbook. The panic happens after I dismount the hard drive (it's fine at this point), but as soon as I remove the firewire card, I get the panic. I've suspected for a while that the card is buggy, as whenever I nudge the card ever so slightly, the mac loses it for a second and it has to reload itself. Could the card be the cause of the panics?

[JazzCatDRP]

Here's an update on what's going on lately. I finished DiskWarrior, and all seemed well, but I was still having a minor icon problem that I've been trying to solve (in the GUI customization forum). Someone suggested I zap the PRAM, so I did that, and that wrecked some sort of havoc on my computer, cause when it tried to start back up, it gave me a circle with a line through it (like a no-smoking sign), and wouldn't do squat. So I re-installed the OS...again. Haven't dealt with the external drive yet, in case the firewire card is the problem. BUT, I'm still having my old icon problem. So, something's up with my Home folder (which is in a separate partition) I've decided. I'm about to go through and delete everything I don't need. (I need all my files, mail, address book contacts, iCal, etc) Any advice on how to go about doing this safely? Thanks for all the help!