My finder does not work. I have to open an application (i.e. Safari) just to be able to click on the apple in the upper left corner. When I open Force Quit Applications I see that my finder is not responding.
I have the same issue. This might be due to the fact that the system is indexing all your files. Thats what's happening mine right now. I found that out when i clicked on spotlight and it says 'Indexing...'. It still says 10 hours left, so i guess I'm gonna have to wait to find out if the finder works or not.
I have the same issue and didn't get resolved after the indexing finished. Finder just hangs all the time. You can re-launch finder and almost immediately is hanged again. So for the moment I can only use the applications that are in my dock! I hope somebody at Apple is looking into this right now. I'm so upset.
I solved my Finder problem. Hope it works for you.
The first step is to get Terminal.app to run. I was lucky that it was in my dock already. If not, you can probably ssh in from another Mac. You should be able to turn on remote login in System Preferences even without a Finder, I think.
Then type:
sudo mv "/Library/Application Support/DivXNetworks" "/Library/Application Support/DivXNetworks.prev"
Then click on the Finder in the dock and relaunch it. Or just reboot.
An alternate method would be to boot the Mac in target disk mode (hold down the "T" during boot) and plug it into another Mac via Firewire. Then just rename or remove the DivXNetworks folder.
Or boot from the 10.5 DVD and run Terminal.app from the menu. I guess that might be the easiest method since it doesn't require a second Mac, but you'll have to look in /Volumes for your boot volume name.
I had exactly the same problem and I thought it was due to the indexing process (it wasn't). My problem went away by pressing Command + Alt + Escape, selecting Finder and relaunching it.
Eric ... Thanks for this solution ... I had exactly the same problem after dong an upgrade install of Leopard on my iMac G5. The finder would start correctly on a new account. Deleting the com.apple.finder.plist file in the original account had no effect.
I rebooted the iMac G5 in firewire target mode and mounted it on another Mac. From there I was able to rename the /Library/Application Support/DivXNetworks folder using "Get Info" in the finder.
I did have to temporarily change the volume name of the boot drive on my other Mac from "Macintosh HD" to "Macintosh HD2" or else the finder would not show me the contents of the firewire drive which was also named "Macintosh HD"
The other methods you suggest to rename the file would probably also work.
This should work if Spotlight has finished indexing your files ...
To access Terminal from Spotlight, click on the Spotlight icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen, enter "terminal.app" (without the quotes) in the spotlight search box. Then click on Terminal-Utilities, which will appear under the Applications portion of the search results, to start the terminal.
Also once terminal is running you can "click and hold down" on its icon on the dock and select "Keep In Dock."
Booting from the 10.5 DVD and running Terminal does not give me the Applications Support directory under Library.
Does anyone have a complete Idiots guide to fixing this? I trying to fix my iMac G5 and do have a laptop but have never used a firewire. I'm embarrassed to say but I don't even know what a firewire is.
I read this and said NFW. It just couldn't be something that simple. But you know what--it was. I renamed the DIVX and viola, all is well in the world. Thanks ever so much....
p.s. For the record, I should note this. I have a G5 Dual with 2 Hard Disks, MacintoshHD and MacHDStorage were the names. I tired to install Leopard (upgrade) on MacHD and I got the machine to restart, I got the Leopard Welcome, and then when it finished all that I got the Dock, the info Across the top, but nothing else but spinning beachball. I then reinstall doing Archive and Intall, but the same problem.
I then was getting really worried. I decided to do a 'first time' install on MacHDStorage, which was purely my backup storage disk (though internal). That ran flawlessly. (I should note I did a minimal install here without all the excessive language packs and printer drivers and saved nearly 40 minutes on the install time). Once that was up, I was able to see MacintoshHD (and all my data, thank god). I went in and changed the DIVX name, and then reset the startup disk so it would start with MacintoshHD, and viola. Everything worked perfectly.
From reading the boards, it seems that the unsanity APE stuff and DIVX preferences are causing a lot of glitches.
Thanks, I can get to Spotlight but am not able to type in the spotlight search box.
I guess I'll need to to the firewire thing. Again, I need a idiots guide. I was going to get a firewire from the computer store when it opens. Don't laugh, but is there only one firewire or a firewire for a Mac?
Hello Eric. I was about to try your solution, when I noticed that I don't have the DivXNetworks folder... (sigh...) nowhere on my disk. bad luck... so I remember that it could not be the same problem. I mean, I have the Finder menu bar but it is constantly flashing and it gives me no access. Only when I run an application I can access the menu. Any ideas about this issue? Anyone, please...
Eric you're a star! I's tried all the APE stuff, deleted login window preferences and startup items with no luck, the divx folder rename worked! Thanks very much for taking the time to help us all out.
