Finder Not Responding. Help!

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Just upgraded my old 800mhz G4 from 10.2.8 to 10.3.9. My hard drive icon is not showing up on my desktop and finder is not responding. My dock shows up and my aps work fine (except finder), but my toolbar only appears at the top of my screen once I click on an ap. Anyone know how to fix this? Thanks in advance for any help.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Hmmm ... strange indeed ... have you applied all available updates to your computer?



    If you have then try going to the Force Quit menu and click on Finder and hit "relaunch"



    What happens?



    Also, when you upgraded, are you sure everything installed ... meaning, you didn't have any power failures or error messages during your install...
  • Reply 2 of 11
    duzledwarfduzledwarf Posts: 72member
    Yes I installed all available updates. I tried to do a force quit but finder is not listed as an active ap (like it usually is). I'm pretty sure there were no power surges, and that everything downloaded and installed. I was in front of the computer throughout the whole process. It's just when I restarted the computer at the end that I ran into this problem. I installed all the updates hoping it would fix it but no luck.



    Thanks for your response Nuke. If you or anyone else have any other ideas please let me know. Thanks again.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by duzledwarf

    Yes I installed all available updates. I tried to do a force quit but finder is not listed as an active ap (like it usually is). I'm pretty sure there were no power surges, and that everything downloaded and installed. I was in front of the computer throughout the whole process. It's just when I restarted the computer at the end that I ran into this problem. I installed all the updates hoping it would fix it but no luck.



    Thanks for your response Nuke. If you or anyone else have any other ideas please let me know. Thanks again.




    Okay, if you can open disk utility, do that and try running a permissions repair. If that still doesn't help, you can try booting your mac in Safe Mode. turn off your Mac, and thenturn it back on - after the startup tone, hold down the shift key until the gray background with the Apple logo appears. This will only load all your essential system stuff and it will force the computer to verify the startup directory and check your disk. See if Finder shows up then. If so, restart the computer normally and see if it's still there ... if not, then we'll go back to the drawing board
  • Reply 4 of 11
    duzledwarfduzledwarf Posts: 72member
    Thanks for the feedback Nuke. I'll try this tonight when I get home from work. Just off the top of my head though I can't recall where disk utility is located. I'll let ya know how it goes. Thanks again!
  • Reply 5 of 11
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by duzledwarf

    Thanks for the feedback Nuke. I'll try this tonight when I get home from work. Just off the top of my head though I can't recall where disk utility is located. I'll let ya know how it goes. Thanks again!



    Awesome ... disk utility is located in UserName/Applications/Utilities



    Also, as always when troubleshooting possible drive problems, remember to back up all essential files!



    If you're using a wireless connection to access the internet, be advised that this will be unavailable if you're booted into Safe Mode.



    Good luck - let us know how it goes!
  • Reply 6 of 11
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    It sure sounds as if you have a borked install. Why not try an Archive and Install again?
  • Reply 7 of 11
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    It sure sounds as if you have a borked install. Why not try an Archive and Install again?



    I'd say that's a bit premature. There are a couple of quick little things he can try before resorting to that.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    duzledwarfduzledwarf Posts: 72member
    Okay heres a little update on my problem. I tried to run a permissions repair (found applications and utilities folder but nothing about permissions repair) but was unable to figure out how to do it. I then rebooted in safe mode to see if that would help but no luck. I then popped in the install and restore discs for 10.3 to try and reinstall it but nothing happened. Not sure what else to do. Any ideas. Thanks to everyone who has been trying to help me.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Well, permissions repair is part of Disk Utility, but I doubt if booting into Safe Mode didn't show the finder and hard drive, then this is not likely to help.



    It is starting to sound like a botched install, but there is one more thing you can do to make sure. Go to your System Preferences and click on Accounts. Underneath the accounts window there should be a little + sign. This will create another user account on your computer. Click it and create a new user account. Make sure you remember the passwork and make sure you click the box at the bottom of the window asking if you want to give the user admin privledges. Click okay and your account should appear in the accounts window. Quit system prefs and then go to the Blue Apple menu and log out of your user. Log in again under the new user and hceck to see if the problem is solved.



    It sounds complicated but you should be able to do this in about 10-15 minutes. Let us know if you have any trouble or if this fixes the problem
  • Reply 10 of 11
    duzledwarfduzledwarf Posts: 72member
    Well I just quickly made a new user account and logged in with it. Unfortunately my hard drive icon is still missing and finder is still not responding, and no toolbar appears at the top of my screen until I open an app like iTunes or Safari or something else in my dock. I guess I heve a botched install. Now when I put in the install and restore disk for 10.3 to try and reinstall it nothing opens up or appears on my desktop (like a disc icon). Thanks for all your help Nuke, I'll keep trying to figure this out.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by duzledwarf

    Well I just quickly made a new user account and logged in with it. Unfortunately my hard drive icon is still missing and finder is still not responding, and no toolbar appears at the top of my screen until I open an app like iTunes or Safari or something else in my dock. I guess I heve a botched install. Now when I put in the install and restore disk for 10.3 to try and reinstall it nothing opens up or appears on my desktop (like a disc icon). Thanks for all your help Nuke, I'll keep trying to figure this out.



    Okay, if you have the actual OS X 10.3 Disk, you can boot from the CD by holding down "C" when you restart. Keep in mind that you need to back up all your essential stuff (docs, pictures, music) in case something goes really bad.



    If you boot from the CD, you should be able to access the disk utility from the menu. If you can find it, open it and in Disk Utility, ask it to verify disk, if everything checks out, then it appears that your install is no good and you'll need to try it again.
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