Experience With This, Anyone

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask for help but it seems as good as the other forums

We downloaded some video and audo files from an outfit called The Great Courses and ever since our computer - 10.5.8 - has not been working right. The first thing that I noticed was that working on photoshop files became sluggish, the tools were jerky when using them. Next iDVD opened and wouldn't close. Because of this I couldn't restart or turn off the computer. I had no option in iDVD to Force Quit. Somehow, she has no idea how, my wife tried again later to close iDVD and got the Force Quit option and iDVD closed. Now, though, in Safari, I can't play some games I was able to play before the download. I get a message that an error occurred during the download (of the games). But - I can download and play these games in Firefox.

Who knows what else I'll find out in the days to come that isn't working right.

Does anyone have any experience with this company's downloads and I'd really appreciate some thoughts or suggestions how find out what's wrong.

How could these downloaded files mess up other programs in the computer?

If I trash the downoaded files, will the computer resume its proper working order?

I trashed the caches and cleared Safari.

Thanks

You may have a nasty virus or may just need to delete some files to free up some space. Having lots of movie, game and audio files use up a phenomenal amount of memory and can make computer programs act slow and glitchy. These downloaded files can be corrupt and have devastating effects on the way your computer operates. You can try deleting these downloaded files and see what happens. Have you tried opening these downloaded files, or do they not work? I am not a computer expert and suggest you see an IT specialist. Otherwise, I hope this was helpful

You don't have a virus because there are none in the wild for Mac OS X. It is possible that one or more of the audio or video files may contain malware. What else if anything was downloaded along with the audio and video files? Did you download a player to play them? If not, what are you playing them with?

Have you been using Time Machine to make backups? If you have, just revert back in time to before the downloads. If you haven't been making backups, you need to start.

Also, how about some specs on your computer? Year and model Mac? You said you're running 10.5.8 which is an older version of OS X. (now three versions behind the current 10.8.2)

Another possibility: have you filled up your hard drive to nearly full? That would certainly explain most of the symptoms you've relayed to us.