Member Avatar for jql999

Hi All,

I haven't seen this problem discussed before so here goes...

I have a G5 running OS X v10.4.11.

I'm using adobe creative suite, microsoft office and entourage for mail. (Entourage is not my choice - I'm stuck with it.) I have both Safari and Firefox installed.

The most common problem I have is that Entourage will not quit properly. Once it's open, I have to Force Quit - after which it will not open at all until I Restart the system. I sometimes have similar problems with DreamWeaver, but it's not as bad.

It is not uncommon for me to have photoshop, entourage, dreamweaver, safari and/or firefox, transmit and some office program open at the same time. This is pretty typical for anyone trying to do web development. Quite often I get "stuck" on one app and I can't switch back and forth.

I'm having to restart at least 3 or 4 times a day - which I haven't had to do since I was using Windows95. Our support guy is a PC guy that doesn't really know macs very well. His typical answer is "Well don't have that many apps open at once." Typical.
Others with the same configuration do not have this issue.

At one point my account got corrupted somehow - so that when I logged in the dock and finder never opened. I just got a blank screen. The hack - pardon me - solution was to create another account with a different name.

Since no one can figure out what is going on, the answer is always to wipe my hard drive and start over - which we've done twice in the past three months already.

Has anyone out there seen any of these issues? I know it can't just be me.

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Member Avatar for Rick150

You need first to find out if it is a user profile problem. Set up another account and log on to this one, it's always handy to have this. Use this account and see if it is only user specific or a system config problem. Another thing you should do is open 'Console' found under Applications, Utilities. Run it and have a look at the log, it will tell you what is causing the problem, maybe.

Member Avatar for jql999

I suspect that it was a user-profile problem - but maybe not. When they wiped the hard drive and re-installed everything, they were still having problems. They ended up swapping my hard drive with one from a box with a bad power supply and it seems to work now.

What they really need to do is bite the bullet and buy some new machines, but the fear is that requisitioning new Macs will beg the Mac vs PC question, and in an agency run by bean-counters...

Thanks for the tip about Console.

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