unusual freeze up -- broken finder?

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It appears that my finder is somehow frozen, but it is not the usual sort of freeze. That is, there is no spinning ball. I can use the mouse and cursor to do limited things. For example, I can open Dashboard, I can highlight file icons on the desk top, I can mouse over the dock and it shows the app/file names, I can right-click to create a new folder on the desktop, I can highlight and edit the name of files on the desktop, I can open dropdown menus for features such as Time Machine and Bluetooth and Date/Time. But no applications or files will actually open when I click on them. And I cannot access any drop down menus in the Finder. Also, the force quit dialogue box shows no apps open--not even the finder.

Now, here is the really strange thing: a forced restart gives me a few seconds of access to the dock and finder before things "freeze" up. Anything I open in those few seconds (file, app, system prefs,) will actually stay open and function (ie: I can surf the web in Safari or Firefox), but none of the open applications appear in Force Quit. And after a few seconds, I cant open anything else.

This on a Mac mini running 10.5.2.

Any thoughts?
 
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2.53 Intel Core Duo Mac Mini; 4g RAM; 350g HD, OS 10.6.3
hmm..that is strange. maybe try running verify/repair permissions and disk. see if that fixes anything.
 
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iMac 17" 1Ghz G4  iPhone 3G  10.5.5
It appears that my finder is somehow frozen, but it is not the usual sort of freeze. That is, there is no spinning ball. I can use the mouse and cursor to do limited things. For example, I can open Dashboard, I can highlight file icons on the desk top, I can mouse over the dock and it shows the app/file names, I can right-click to create a new folder on the desktop, I can highlight and edit the name of files on the desktop, I can open dropdown menus for features such as Time Machine and Bluetooth and Date/Time. But no applications or files will actually open when I click on them. And I cannot access any drop down menus in the Finder. Also, the force quit dialogue box shows no apps open--not even the finder.

Now, here is the really strange thing: a forced restart gives me a few seconds of access to the dock and finder before things "freeze" up. Anything I open in those few seconds (file, app, system prefs,) will actually stay open and function (ie: I can surf the web in Safari or Firefox), but none of the open applications appear in Force Quit. And after a few seconds, I cant open anything else.

This on a Mac mini running 10.5.2.

Any thoughts?
If it is the Finder, try deleting the preference file for it.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/finder.html

You can also try Safe mode.
 
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hmm..that is strange. maybe try running verify/repair permissions and disk. see if that fixes anything.

Well, this *seems* to have fixed itself after about 10 forced restarts. I jumped in and opened about four applications on one restart before it had a chance to freeze and that seems to have somehow woken up the finder. All is working now.

Still, it weirds me out and I'm a bit frightened to restart. Worried there are some corrupted files lurking.

Where can I find "verify/repair permissions and disk"? I've only used it once before and that was ages ago, so I can't remember where it lives.

---

Also, regarding deleting the Finder preferences file, what other ramifications will that have? I guess I would have to re-set any finder preferences...but anything else I should be aware of before I do it?
 
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You can find Disk Utility in the utilities folder. (applications/utilities)

To look for any corrupt preference files, download Preferential Treatment.
 
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You can find Disk Utility in the utilities folder. (applications/utilities)

To look for any corrupt preference files, download Preferential Treatment.

The problem is back only worse. Someone suggested that I should make sure my OS was up to date, so I ran Software Update and found I needed to update the OS. I installed it and of course the computer had to reboot. Now, after reboot, all it will show me is my desktop image and the mouse cursor, which is live. There's no dock, no finder, no nothing else.

I tried rebooting in Safe Mode with the same results.

I'm kicking myself for not repairing permissions before the update. This is beginning to look like I'm going to burn at least a morning visiting the local Genius desk. Unless anyone has any other suggestions.
 
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Well, I tried a number of things with no success, so I rebooted from the install disk and wouldn't you know it, there was a "restore disk from Time Machine" option under Utilities. I restored my hard drive to before the crash and so far, the only problem was the need to rebuild my Entourage db. Thanks God for Time Machine. Still lost over a day of work time.
 
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one issue--my fan now runs constantly and I don't know why. much noisier than before.
 

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