[dmeeknc]

Someone has asked me to take a look at their iBook G3 running 10.4.8, with 700MHz processor, 640MB RAM and 30GB hard drive because it is running slow. One thing I have found is that there are odd characters showing up in a number of places in the Finder.

1. In a typical window, in list mode, the file sizes show up as "LV1" and the column headers show up as "N220" (where name should be), "N221" (for date modified), "N223" (for size), etc.
2. Where icons should be in the left pane of a Finder window, folders are listed.
3. On the Finder View menu, Show View Options shows up as "N35". The same is true of a number, but not all of the other menu options.
4. The hard drive shows "U9, U9 Free" where one should see 27.8 GB, 8.8 GB Free.

I'm guessing some pointers are all screwed up, but Disk Utilities didn't fix it and I'm not sure what I should try next. Please help!!

[tooki]

First, check to see if it's specific to the user account by creating a new user and logging in with that account.

Second, use a utility like Tiger Cache Cleaner to erase the system caches.

Third, do an archive and install of Mac OS X, which will almost certainly fix the problem.

tooki

[dmeeknc]

Thanks for these suggestions. I confirmed that it was not specific to the account and then went ahead with the OS X re-install. The problem went away. I don't know why it appeared in the first place, but it's gone now.

For the folder icon issue, someone suggested I just manually rebuild the list, which is what I'll do.

Thanks