What's Wrong?

After updating from 10.5 to 10.6 everything worked much better for a couple of months but then problems began.

Crashes - A number of times the computer either turns off or goes to a gray screen and then I have to turn it off (hold power button for 10 seconds) then back on. Sometimes the gray screen actually looks like the old b&w tv sets with lines across it. It usually, but not always happens when working in Safari.

When I updated to 10.6 and told the computer to go to sleep (apple icon / sleep) it did so immediately. Now, after some surfing or e mailing or whatever, it takes about 20 seconds from the time I click sleep before it goes to sleep. It never took so long with 10.5

One time, the mouse froze and I had to turn the computer off manually then on.

If I restart the computer, it takes a while for everything to clear the screen, turn off and then a long time before it starts again. After restart, everything works correctly until the next time...

I remove the caches every month and reset Safari at the same time. When I was having similar problems with 10.5 apple suggested deleting these files,

Com.apple.finder.plist
Com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Com.apple.unversalaccess.plist

I don't remember if it made things better and I don't know what they are so I'm reluctant to delete them again.

Any help in fixing these problems is appreciated.

Boot the machine with your Snow Leopard DVD and use Disk Utility from the DVD to verify and repair your hard drive. Let us know the results.

Ok, Thanks.
Sorry about that private message ... Here is my message and your response.

A few days ago you responded to my post asking for help getting my computer to work better. The post was titled, "What's Wrong?" You responded that I should reboot with the Snow Leopard DVD and use Disk Utility. I'm not computer savvy and beyond putting the disk in, I don't really know how to do that. Can you offer more detail, please or is that info somewhere on the internet? I appreciate your help.

If you have your Snow Leopard DVD, insert it and reboot the computer by holding down the "option" key as soon as you hear the boot sound (Bong!). Keep holding it until you see the choice on the screen to boot from the disk or the hard drive. Select the disk. Once it boots to the disk, accept the license and the language (English). But do not go into the install phase. Instead, select "Utilities" and then "Disk Utility" from the top menu. Highlight your hard drive on the left screen and then select the "First Aid" tab on the right side. Now select "Verify and Repair". Let us know the results.

The results have been good. The computer is behaving properly again. On occasion when I open Safari (my home page is Google) it does not connect on line until I hit the Google tab again but otherwise its fine.

Thanks

Pop the DVD in, reboot and immediately after the chime hold down 'C' key until the gear wheel starts rotating and release. When the page opens, look along the top for Utilities, click on that and move down the menu to Disk Utility and select Repair Disk. It will advise if the hard drive requires, or can be, repaired.

Startiing Again

Hello - The computer has been working fine but it loooks as if this problem may be starting again. Not sure what the next step would be if it gets worse.
Thanks

Well Disk utility only gives a pretty ordinary report on the health of the drive. Next step download SMARTReporter and see what it says. Only $5 and you can get a demo:-

http://www.corecode.at/smartreporter/