Finder flashes and re-launches itself every few secs after my last security update

Hi there,

I'm a Mac user for a few years now and I never saw this before.. I'm starting to believe I sort of have to blame the last mac update I did thing is, this is really getting on my nerves more than I thought.

So I'm on iMac G5 10.4.11 and I recently did the updates popped up as usual from the security update box of apple. It required a restart which I left idle for a couple of days as I had a lot of work in photoshop plus my deadlines and my schedule were unbelievable. I guess it makes sense for other designers to understand me in this. Anyway as I restarted my computer I noticed the issue instantly. I restarted a few times but it keeps happening. Every time apple has a new update I suppose it's for good and every one of these times I notice a minues either in iTunes or in the system at certain small parts of it.

So I restart my computer, I open firefox. The only programs running are finder and firefox. Finder itself keeps flashing the desktop once as it it stucks and flashes every few seconds the same thing on repeat and then it relaunches. In case I'm typing in firefox (as i am doing now) it stucks and i can't anymore.. I have to click in the box again after the finder flashes as if it effects everything or as if a pop up ad would distract the typing process and i had to go back in if you know what i mean. Whatever it's really annoying! When I have a folder open and a program, well the program doesn't quit but the folder flashes and sometimes disappears with the re-launching or it opens again. What on earth is happening? If I had a pc i'd guess it's a virus or hardware problem but i'm kind of puzzled, no clue, i'd blame once again the last update or the fact that i did not restart as immediately? is there any possibility of system restore? i don't even have backed me up with an image so that id restore it in order to set the old update situation back...

Another problem is that several months now my cd drive doesnt work. at first it stopped reading dvds, then also audio cds. Like it's nothing in there, it's tragic. It makes a noise as if it is first chewing/tasting the disc and acts like it likes none of the discs i insert. Only thing i can do is reject (something that doesn't always work that well or directly). I guess this one needs the apple store

2 years ago while the computer was still in warranty I had this problem. Mac stuck, screen froze and then as id turn it on light down right corner wouldnt go off after the sound and it would make a noise like a microwave or a fridge.. the fan would go wild! So they told me the Logic board was in trouble, they first changed it and they did work because it happened again and then the third time it was ok only that my iSight camera did not work perfectly after I took it home (the Andy Warhol effect of it with the 4 colored frames that repeats your image shot lacked one image. It builds 3 out of the regular 4 images..what the??)

Firefox also stucks few times and I have to re-start it because the tabs begin to open blank and they do nothing on enter either re-fresh. I still have got 2.0.20 since it works faster than Mozilla 3.0 on this mac (imac power pc g5 1.9 ghz, 1.5 gb ram/500regular+1gb kingston ddr2, 150gb hdd)

Sorry for writing the story of my life. Any thoughts on the first problem with Finder actually? I did disk utility permissions repair by the way, few reboots and deleted some big files etc. I also have the mac os x cd in case i'm gonna need it.

Thank you in advance for reading x
Helena

See if this item helps you for starters, then we'll return to your other questions. Folder Rename Crashes Finder (Stuffit AVR Bug) - The macosxhints Forums

A further Google search brings up several other related links, ie. the Stuffit AVR Bug.

this helped me too

It seems all to be linked to Stuffit and a preference called Stuffit AVR
(Archive Via Rename): In your system preferences go to the bottom and
click on the Stuffit AVR option. Click the Stuffit AVR tab
on the left, and click the "STOP" button. This should do the trick. For
some reason this is cycling through our desktop/finder and causing so
much of the frustration since this update.

Apple - Support - Discussions - READ THIS if your finder is ...

Thank you, thank you, thank you...dddagmar!!

I just did an update and experienced the same DANG THING. After 4 hours of frustration, found this answer...worked!

God bless you, I was losing my mind.