several problems with my imac

Hello,

I'm new to mac-forums, I hope you can help me.

My imac has been presenting many problems from some time ago, first of all, it works extremely slow most of the time, for any action or to open any program (I have to see constantly that spinning wheel cursor).

Safari also presents problems, when I watch a clip at any site, the video (not the sound) freezes intermittently, I tried with firefox and the video works fine.

Today a new problem has appeared, when I open a folder with several JPEG images, the icons that are shown normally while the thumbnail loads look weird, as you can see in this screenshot:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2rfx4p4.jpg

What do you think it's wrong with my imac? Do I have to format it? or it might be a hardware problem?

Thanks a lot

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Download the free maintenance and clean up tool OnyX. Read the help file and let it run in auto mode.

I'd start by checking your boot disk. If you can use any browser at all, google SMART Utility and download it. Just open the app, and if you see any red things in there, there's your trouble.

If you're reading this, you have a working machine...

Disks wear out. You may have to replace that

In addition, you can also try Applejack. If all else fails, as long as you have the original discs, I see nothing wrong if you have to format (a clean install) your machine. I do it on occasion, and it is time consuming yes, but it can be worth it. Make sure you have everything backed up though if you do it.

I hear people say that you should really never have to do an erase/re-install, but I don't buy that.

Thank you so much for your help! I guess I'll try formatting it.