Beach ball stalls

[Robert Seltman]

I am using 10.5.5 (the latest update) and Firefox 3.01 (the latest version I assume) and often multi task several applications, including iTunes and Mail. Recently my system has locked in beach ball stage, Force Quit is very slow to respond and states that my open applications are not responding to the Force Quit function. This forces a reboot via the on/off button on my PowerBook G4. In past years I have very seldom had to force quit and/or reboot this computer. I have rebuilt my hard drives with Disk Utilities.

Any other ideas?

[Col]

I am using 10.5.5 (the latest update) and Firefox 3.01 (the latest version I assume) and often multi task several applications, including iTunes and Mail. Recently my system has locked in beach ball stage, Force Quit is very slow to respond and states that my open applications are not responding to the Force Quit function. This forces a reboot via the on/off button on my PowerBook G4. In past years I have very seldom had to force quit and/or reboot this computer. I have rebuilt my hard drives with Disk Utilities.

Any other ideas?

Probably an update-related problem. I would start by resetting the browsers and deleting their caches, then download and re-apply QuickTime 7.5.5, iTunes 8 and download and apply the (enormous) OS 10.5.5 combined update. After each update, repair disk permisssions.

Colin

[Robert Seltman]

Probably an update-related problem. I would start by resetting the browsers and deleting their caches, then download and re-apply QuickTime 7.5.5, iTunes 8 and download and apply the (enormous) OS 10.5.5 combined update. After each update, repair disk permissions.
Colin

Thank You I updated again all the apps and OSX update suggested and switched to Safari from Fire Fox and things are running better. You mentioned resetting browser, does that mean throwaway and download the browser or is there a button for this? I made the mistake of throwing away my cookies in Firefox (couldn't find the cache place) and lost all my password collections. Frustrating. Every time I check preferences in a browser they seem redesigned and different from previous layouts. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Col]

You mentioned resetting browser, does that mean throwaway and download the browser or is there a button for this? I made the mistake of throwing away my cookies in Firefox (couldn't find the cache place) and lost all my password collections. Frustrating. Every time I check preferences in a browser they seem redesigned and different from previous layouts. Thanks again for the suggestions.

In FireFox 3 the easy reset is "Clear private data" at the bottom of the Tools menu. This is analogous to Reset in the Safari menu of Safari. Both give you the option to delete your cookies or not.