G5 2.0 desktop question, mail problems

I guess it's a power mac, it's the last one before intel invaded. OS X.4.1.1 four gig ram

I recently unchecked snap to grid on desktop. I was tired on not being able to put folders where I wanted them. Now my hard drives show up where ever.

A few macs ago I could freeze, so to speak, my desktop how I wanted it. GONE as far as I can tell. How can I manage my desktop and make stuff stay where I want it? The mac has always performed well and I never had to uncheck snap to grid to get things how I wanted them. Have cleared many things from desk top and noted there is no more rebuild desktop. But I did check permissions and verify the main disk. No problems there. I haven't noticed other problems

Email fails to close often and need to force quit. When I close Safarout it often makes me click a way a screen saying it quit unexpectedly. I'd sure like this thing to stop behaving like a `doze machine" Any thought's?...... And thanks.

Ron