[baparry]

I am a Win XP user gradually moving to Mac – two months ago I purchased a new 17” PowerBook (not the recent upgraded model) – frequently I have had to close down the machine with the power button to get out of stalled programs.

Recently I installed Toast 7 and then the 7.1 upgrade and have had severe problems if I remove Toast my machine is ok but slow – if I reinstall the toast disk toast will not work and I have to resort to the power button to quit.

I have repaired the preferences with disk utility to no avail.

Apparently I have screwed up the system by using the power button shut downs SO what is the best remedy:

To erase hard disk and reinstall the system from the disks provided with the computer:
OR purchase Techtool Pro 4 AND/OR Disk Warrior

Thanks

[Randman]

Have you added ram lately? It could be a bad ram module.

Run the Disk Utility and disk drive software that Apple bundles and see what happens. Can also try a clean install.

That said DiskWarrior is a great must-have.

[baparry]

I purchased PowerBook whilst on leave in UK from Kuwait and a week later bought by mail order 2GB Crucial Ram - Computer worked OK there after then recently problems set in.

Sincere thanks for your advice re. Disk Warrior

[Macpilot]

Before you Erase and Install, you should try Archive and Install. This will give you a fresh install of OS X without removing your stuff, and takes much less time than backing up everything and erasing all of it and starting over. Very few situations require an Erase and Install.

Keep us informed, and good luck.

[Weezer]

Disk Warrior=amazing

[CharlesS]

I second the DiskWarrior and Archive and Install comments, and would like to add that there is a freeware application here that you can download and use to test your RAM to see if you have any RAM defects. Also, if you insert your install DVD and boot with the Option key down, you can select the Apple Hardware Test, which will have a few more tests you can run on the hardware.