Can't launch applications

I am running Panther on an eMac. Have been running OSX on this machine exclusively since I bought it in August of 2002, upgrading along the way. It has been absolutely rock solid. Until today.

I was browsing the internet, and a site wouldn't load. tried to quit safari, but it wouldn't quit - had to force quit it. Tried to relaunch it, but wouldn't start back up. So I started closing applications, but none would close. I force quit each one and tried to restart, but not even the screen that confirms that you want to restart appeared. After 5 minutes or so, I powered it down.

Started it back up and everything worked fine for about 5 minutes - then the exact same thing happened; couldn't quit or launch applications. Even the finder hung. When I try to relaunch the finder, it hangs - for at least 5 minutes. That is when I loose patience and power down.

Any ideas? That is the one problem with never having had problems with this computer - I don't know what to do now that I have one...

Thanks in advance for any assistance or suggestions!

I can think of two things to try

When booting up the computer hold down the S key
when single user mode is finished loading (you will be able to tell)

type this in

/sbin/fsck -y

hit enter

that will probably repair some things.....if it does fix things do the same repair again and make sure it says it is all OK

when you are done type in restart and hit enter



Also try going into Disk Utility and repairing permissions