Problem with Finder in OS X 10.3.4

[Bright_Eyes]

Hello everyone. I just started having a problem with the Finder within the last two days and I hope someone can help. I am running OS X 10.3.4 on a 1.8 G5 with a gig of RAM. The problem starts when I open the Finder. In the Finder window on the left hand side where it says desktop, movies, applications, documents, music, and pictures, when I will click on desktop it will take a few seconds and start to pinwheel. It will take even longer when I click on any other tab, it will pinwheel for a minute or two. It was not doing this a couple of days ago. I also noticed that when I right click on a folder or click on any itme in the folder it will pinwheel for about 3-5 minutes before it opens it.

So far I have run the disk utility on the hard drive to repair any permissions that were damaged. I also ran the Tech Tool disk I received from Apple Care to test the hardware within the computer. Everything passed for the hardware test. I was having a similar problem with my last computer, a G4. I took it in and they could not repair the computer. It was a very similar problem, it would pinwheel and eventually crash.

If anyone could give any other suggestions as to what else I could try to fix this problem it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[trpnmonkey41]

Reboot the computer
As soon as it starts to boot hold down the Apple + S keys
Hold them until you see a bunch of text starting to load
When that is done type in
/sbin/fsck -f
Hit Enter
I have a feeling that will fix some errors...if it does run the test again
When it says Macintosh HD is OK type in
exit
and hit enter to bring you back to OS X

 

[witeshark]

As trpnmonkey41 said, and have you been running either Mac janitor or cron tasks from the terminal?

 

[Bright_Eyes]

Hey, I think I have it fixed. I tried what trpnmonkey41 suggested twice and both times it said it was ok. The only thing I did notice from it was that the fan would start to get really really loud, louder than I have heard it in the past. I then read the Sticky for Basic OS X Troubleshooting and deleted the cache files in my library section and rebooted. That seems to have fixed it. So, there was a problem with a program that corrupted a cache file? What would cause that? Thanks for the suggestions.