I had the same problem this morning. The Finder was going on and off, on and off, ... Really annoying, although all other apps were running fine. I first had to force reboot in order to log into another account under the other administrator password (I have set up two accounts with admn privileges). The Finder was working fine there. I thought immediately it had to do with some Finder prefs or plist files corrupted in my Library. I tried Disk Utility from the other account. Did not work. I tried Disk Utility from the Panther Start Up Disk. Did not work either. Whenever I tried to log in my main account the Finder refused to launch or was quitting after a second. I just didn't want to fiddle with Terminal which scares the shit out of me (anyway, never knew what to do with that beast).

My solution was to reboot under Classic. The Finder was obviously working fine there (OS 9.2.2). I deleted from my User Library, the localised.something file found on the Desktop, and the Pref files in the Finder (including .plist files). Rebooted from OS 10.3.6, logged back in my session and voilà! Everything back to normal.

Hope it'll help you.

hey i'm in montreal also - salut!

my problem doesn't seem to be the preferneces - the finder doesn't load in either of my accounts (i've also got two admin accounts) and i tired deleting the preference files - no dice. seems more likely to be a problem (or a mismatch) with some library that finder is trying to access. and since (it appears) that software update uses the finder, i can't seem to do that either.

curses.

I have just had something VERY similar happen.

i was downloading the new update 10.3.6 and downloading iwork....then i get this message on the screen that I need to reboot the computer.

I did and did fsck -f

ffixed some stuff.

now the finder doesn't work. yet i'm on the net, without a hitch. my desktop is blank with no icons.

I have no clue what to do!


Dave

just thought i'd post here to say that i've got my finder working again.

used pacifist to unpack the combined 10.3.6 update package to extract the DiscRecording.framework directory
and copied it to /system/frameworks using the terminal.

whew. that sure was a pain in the goddamn, but, well, at least I learned some things.

hope this thread helps someone in a similar situation.....

I had this exact problem almost a year a go under 10.2.8. I know most of you dont want to hear this but my only option was a full re-format and install.

The problems being described here is what was going on w/ my system, I also had at time the icon for my hd ( the only thing I keep on my desktop) show up with weird colors and the pixels were all screwd up.

I tried an archive and install to save some stuff but when I imported my users folder the sme thing would happen.

I had the same problem on one of my machines (Dual USB iBook, G3, 640 MB RAM, OS 10.3.6). The problem occured very soon after the latest Sysetm Update (iTunes, QT and Security Update). Symptoms: very slow bootup and login, dock appears. finder wouldn't load. Tried Disk Utility's Repair Disk and Permissions Repair via OS X install CD. No luck (in fact, the problem seems to cascade and get worse, eventually leading in my case to a kernal panic).

Solution (after backing up via Target Disk Mode to another Mac) was to do an Archive and Install of Panther. Most (but not all) settings are retained. I was back up and running after some minimal manual swaping and replacing of files from the "Previous System." Since many of the settings from the "Previous System" are brought over, but some of the custom files to which these settings may make reference are not, this step is more than cosmetic--if a Syetem Preference Pane seeks a file that's not in the new system (such as a custon desktop or screen saver) System Preferences crashes.

One additional step--after I "fixed" the problem with the Finder, Safari began to malfunction (the app would start, but URLs wouldn't load). I tossed Safari and re-installed it via the installer available at apple/safari website. No other problems noted beyond these two (so far).

Okay... before I throw this powerbook into the wall... I'm going to see if someone can help me out.

I use my Mac everyday, for both work and play... but I'm far from a guru. I know how it works when the computer is running smoothly but I'm far from confident when it starts acting up. I'm experiencing the same problems that others in this thread are experiencing (finder not running, missing desktop icons). I want to try some of the recommendations from above but I have no clue how to run a program or open a file without the finder.

Lets say I want to run pacifist and unpack the update. How do I do these things if neither appears on my desktop? If this is too dificult to do... how can I simply backup my entire computer to my external hard drive (even if the drive doesn't appear on the desktop when the firewire is plugged in?

Thank you in advanced for all the help you can provide!

How do you open pacifist if you can't use your finder? I'm lost at that point.

As for running programs, I have only been able to do this by adding them to the startup items of the user account. Stupid, but effective.

I too am having the exact same problem with a machine I am working on running 10.3.6. The user noticed the problem when they tried to burn a CD using iTunes and the program crashed as soon as she hit burn. I noticed some others mentioned CD burning so I thought it might be relavent. Also, I noticed that LimeWire was installed. Any others with this problem have LimeWire installed?

Can anyone confirm that extracting that file fixes the problem?

omg! thanks for posting your experience and how you solved it. I had the same problems after the 10.3.6 update went bad. My iBook reset itself mid-upgrade, the About box showed 10.3.6, but the log utility showed that the update hadn't been applied. Finder didn't load, no icons etc. When I tried to download the combo update I could open it but it ran only to a certain point and just hung.

I was just about to throw in the towel and do a reinstall when I read this thread. Tried the same thing and Finder popped up. Now running Disk Utility to check permissions and then will try to apply the combo updater.

thanks thanks and thanks again.

Must say that although I am fairly computer literate, when things go wrong on Macs it is as bad, if not worse than on Windows