Variety of problems.

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Hello all! I am new to mac-forums.com and am looking forward to your expertise. I fix PC computer problems for my friends and am unfamiliar with Mac, but a friend has asked for my help. She is having troubles with her machine and it is out of my range. Below is the email she sent me with her problem and computer specs. Please let me know if you have had this problem and fixed it.

I am not sure if this is where it started but while were living in ___, Entourage my email program started acting strange. One by one the boxes started dimming to where I couldn’t access the address book then cal then notes etc. I panicked and shut the computer down and it seemed to fix itself. It has done this a couple of times and also recently, well after the problems got worse. So I am not sure if that’s related or jut an on going problem with Entourage. I didn’t look for any updates or fixes to Entourage because of the other problems.
Chain of events:
Everything disappeared on desk top – i.e.. Files - folders – applications - I can still see the applications in the dock on the side and open them from there. Then can go into the app to open a file that was created in that app but not straight from the desk top because there isn't anything on the desk top.
can’t empty trash
can’t open finder
computer much much slower opening applications
can’t see CDs or DVDs at all
Just recently my other 250G HD has disappeared altogether. Actually it shows it there but I cant access anything in that drive looks like its empty. Example-Know I have a word document in the 250, I open word and tell word to open the 250 to get the document and it sees the 250 but I cant go any further than that. Just shows there is a HD but no files or folders visible.

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 900 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.8f7
System Version: Mac OS X 10.3.9 (7W98)
Kernel Version: Darwin 7.9.0




That is what she gave me. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 

chscag

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I'm afraid it's going to take a few more emails between you and her to try to figure out what's causing the problems she's having.

Anyway, here are some thoughts: Ask her how much disk space is left on her internal hard drive. Also ask if she has run any system maintenance utilities lately such as "OnyX". "OnyX" is a utility which can clean up disk caches, repair file permissions, and many other tasks that can help a Mac to run smooth and fast. It's also a free utility.

Her machine is an older PowerPC machine but a very good one. She's also running a rather old operating system - OS X Panther. She could if desired update her OS X to Leopard. (OS X 10.5.X)

Also, it might be best if she could find someone nearby to help her out rather than try to do things via email. Or have her post direct to these forums.

Regards.
 

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