10.4.11 cannot find keychain

Something changed recently. Now, things are not remembered like the Dock on restart stays open even though Hide has been selected before shut down. Open Safari and it says that it does not have keychain access. Even the Owner of the computer reverts from my name to System on restart. Tried to re-install system. Installer shows up but when I do restart on Installer disc it only reverts to original start up disc

Try a Safe Boot - it does a hard drive repair during its longer startup time:
Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode
How to Use Your Mac's Safe Boot Option

If that is successful, you just restart normally afterwards. How much hard drive space do you have left?

There is 136gb left. Will try to do restart in safe mode now