finder doesn't work... the desktop appears blank!

hi, i'm very desperate: please help if you can
i have MacBookPro 15" intel core duo 2.16 GHz/1.2f10, OS 10.4...

today i started my mac and the desktop appeared blank, nothing on it!!!

every one second the screen flickers, the finder shows up (with all my files on it) and i can't select anything at all, and it hides itself again:
finder on, finder off
when using Force Quit the FINDER shows on and off, if i'm quick i can force quit but nothing happens...
does anybody knows what to do?
i just looked for software update and can't find a way to fix this.
thank you very much for your attention....
monica

sorry for doubleposting, but i don't know if it's a macbookpro problem or OS X ? i'm new to the forum and really can't find online any resemblance with what is happening with my mac. can you help??
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=494270&posted=1#post494270

Same here

Same is happening to my Mc Book Pro DuoCore 2.4ghz. Tried to start up on saturday and it does the same thing.

Checked with disk utility and hardware test which all shows okay. Reset PRAM and controller module. Reinstalled the system and still does the same thing.

Have you found a solution? I will try to get one this week and pst it here

This is so frustrating