I have a 3-year-old MacBook. I run OS X 10.4.11. Yes, I know it's old. I am currently studying abroad in Hungary and I have only one month left until I go home.
My MacBook was running well until a few days ago when I was on my browser (Flock), downloading a movie from stagevu.com via Firefox, and editing some photos on iPhoto. Most likely, I had iTunes running, because that's how I roll. Oh, and I had Skype up too because I was expecting to speak with a friend online.
The hard drive started running really fast, like it does when it's about to freeze or require some force quits... and it makes sense because I was doing a lot of things at once. But the slowness this time was exceptional. I had to shut it down twice and when that didn't really work, I threw the movie I was downloading into the trash and my browser and Skype since those applications seemed to freeze the computer. I then repaired my disk permissions and have been using Firefox since. The computer is at least useable now.
When I restarted, I noticed that my dock position and the items in my dock had changed and my background had gone back to the default. I was also unable to download items (the disk images failed to mount). I created an alternative account that works fine for downloading and was able to put Skype on my computer again. I also downloaded Preferential Treatment to try to find the funky preference files but the scan came back clean.
Now, every time I log off or shut down, all of my preferences are wiped from my administrative account. I still cannot download applications, but documents are just fine. This means that I have to set up accounts iTunes, Skype, and Entourage every time I log in. None of my Firefox settings or dock settings are remembered. My iTunes library always becomes corrupted when I open up iTunes anew and I have to re-add all my songs again. It seems that all of the files I've created still exist... it's just that none of my preferences stick...
What do I do? This is ridiculously annoying!
Thanks for your help!
My MacBook was running well until a few days ago when I was on my browser (Flock), downloading a movie from stagevu.com via Firefox, and editing some photos on iPhoto. Most likely, I had iTunes running, because that's how I roll. Oh, and I had Skype up too because I was expecting to speak with a friend online.
The hard drive started running really fast, like it does when it's about to freeze or require some force quits... and it makes sense because I was doing a lot of things at once. But the slowness this time was exceptional. I had to shut it down twice and when that didn't really work, I threw the movie I was downloading into the trash and my browser and Skype since those applications seemed to freeze the computer. I then repaired my disk permissions and have been using Firefox since. The computer is at least useable now.
When I restarted, I noticed that my dock position and the items in my dock had changed and my background had gone back to the default. I was also unable to download items (the disk images failed to mount). I created an alternative account that works fine for downloading and was able to put Skype on my computer again. I also downloaded Preferential Treatment to try to find the funky preference files but the scan came back clean.
Now, every time I log off or shut down, all of my preferences are wiped from my administrative account. I still cannot download applications, but documents are just fine. This means that I have to set up accounts iTunes, Skype, and Entourage every time I log in. None of my Firefox settings or dock settings are remembered. My iTunes library always becomes corrupted when I open up iTunes anew and I have to re-add all my songs again. It seems that all of the files I've created still exist... it's just that none of my preferences stick...
What do I do? This is ridiculously annoying!
Thanks for your help!
