10.4.5 desktop icons disappearing until all applications are closed??

I was wondering if anyone could help me with icons that disappear on my desktop under Mac 10.4.5. The only way to get them back is by closing all open applications then my icons will re-appear. The applications that are usually open when this occurs are either entourage, netscape, NAV or onyX. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Seems like Finder is crashing on you.

Repair permissions first by going into Disk Utility, selecting your HD, and clicking Repair Permissions.

Then, do a restart. See if it continues happening and if it does post again. :mac:

Thank you for the reply but I have already tried that to no avail. I have run the repair permissions while while running 10.4.5 and while booted from the disk. I have also used a utility called disk warrior as well.

Well, there goes the "easy" fix...

hmmm

Just to confirm my suspicion that it is Finder crashing...when the icons disappear can you still open a Finder window?

Does the problem only happen with those programs open, or just more frequently?

Unfortunately no... I get a border around my desktop area an cannot access anything except for my dock and the bar running along the top (I'm still relatively new to Mac btw). My network drives connections temporarily disappear and once I close all open applications then everything reappears. Thanks for all of your assistance btw.. it is much appreciated!

Not a problem, beats working!

Hit F11 on your keyboard and see if it causes the "border" you're talking about.

you could do the other "easy" option... back up all your data and reinstall tiger.

Do you have an Intel Mac? because I'm pretty sure 10.4.5 was designed for Intel Macs. If you don't, there's your answer.

But if you do try wiping your hard drive clean and reinstalling os x tiger.

No, don't have an ""Intellitosh" here. I'm using a G4 and the installation of Tiger is rather recent. I personally view this as more of an annoyance and not a critical error so I probably won't wipe out my installation (although I guess it really doesn't take that long to address). I appreciate everyones' input and if you should run across a thread of a user with a similar issue if you could direct me there it would be very helpful. Thanks again!

Create a new user and see if the problem follows the user. If yes it may be a preference problem. Move your ~/Library/Preferences (in your ~ means home directory) to a temp location. Then reboot.

Also try booting with the shift key pressed. (safe mode-esque)

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help. I fixed the problem using an app called "AppleJack 1.4.2" and haven't been getting any of the problems I mentioned above. I ran it from single user mode, ran all of the utils and no more icons disappearing. I just wish I knew what the app did specifically so I could try to fix this manually next time.

I'd be curious to know what it was also...

AppleJack is a really cool program, glad it worked for you.