Yesterday my itunes kept quitting unexpectedly so I tried restarting my computer. When my computer reloaded, it was totally messed up. My finder toolbar at the top keeps flashing on and off and so do my desktop items. If I try to open up a program, it will open momentarily and then "quit unexpectedly" before I can do anything. I tried booting up in "safe boot" but the finder was flashing on and off in that mode as well. I do have more than one drive installed on this computer, and after the start up tone, I held down the option key and opened up my "Media 2" drive, and that worked just fine, but none of my programs are installed on that drive. FYI: it is my "Macintosh HD" drive that is giving me trouble. PLEASE HELP ME!!
The first thing I would do is make sure you have everything backed up. In this regard be thankful you can still boot the drive.
Does all this happen if you log into a different account?
How full is this drive? It should have at least 10GB free at all times.
Whenever something starts going wrong with the computer to be safe I suggest you boot from the installer disk, select language if applicable, choose utilities, run Disk Utility and verify (and repair if necessary) the drive. Then repair the permissions on your computer. You can also repair permissions from DU on your main drive while booted, but to properly verify and repair your drive you have to run it from a drive other than the boot drive.
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
From BDaqua (couldn't have said it better):
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Then Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes."
Hi, have you found a solution or would anyone have any other suggestions to solve this?
This started on my computer past 2-3 days also. Finder window appears top left unexpectedly approx every 3mins, desktop items flash and vanish for a couple of secs & if typing I get cut off, or when using spotlight search the window vanishes.
I've tried all the suggestions below and Safeboot. According to First Aid, Repair disk & permissions, Techtool Deluxe and Disk Utility everything is fine. But it's not!
I've also had the Address Book open without warning and if I try to quit it, it just reopens.
Thought it might be connected to new back up software I just installed for a new external HD, but I've uninstalled all 3 programs: Intego, Silverkeeper, Lacie 1click Back Up & all prefs and files linked with them except for the dmgs.
1 other strange coincidence is that I also just opened and used iTunes 8 for the first time on Sunday and it's around the same time that these problems started. (hadn't used it for a while and this was the first use since updating from itunes 7 (?)
Please help, everything was working fine just before Christmas!
Thanks in advance.
My computer just started having the flashing desktop icons problem, too. Every 2-3 minutes the menu bar and desktop icons would flash, any open Finder windows would close and any app I was working in would deactivate and switch to Finder. It didn't crash my apps, but was impossible to get anything done.
I thought at first it was Suitcase X1, which began behaving strangely at the same time. Uninstalled it, but same problem. Then I found this thread and remembered changing some settings in iTunes to try and share my library on our home network (which I never did figure out).
So in iTunes sharing prefs I turned off look for shared libraries and share my library on local network. iTunes sharing was already turned off in my firewall settings. That
seems to have fixed the problem!! I'm running Tiger 10.4.11 and iTunes 8.0.2.
Thanks for the iTunes hint! Hope this might help someone else.
I've just had the same problem - also 10.4.11 and iTunes 8.0.2. I was listening to a track through Plantronics USB headset plugged into keyboard, working on Photoshop when my file shrank to the size of a pinhead. Opened Illustrator and same thing happened. My Finder started going beserk and now my entire desktop is slightly bigger than my display, and slightly fuzzy. I have to scroll around to see everything. I tried to reload 10.4.11 amongst other checks (ran Onyx, started up from Start up Disc and ran Repair Disc). Turned off all iTunes settings. Still no improvement. Help!
Thanks to all who replied trying to help and, for those having similar problems, the only thing that worked for me was finally running the Archive and Install.
I'm still not sure what caused the problem initially: the itunes, security update or, the 1click backup software from the new Lacie backup drive (this was definitely lurking deep in the system despite being told by the uninstaller that it was no longer installed) - but the finder crash is now repaired and running smoothly once again.
I am also a victim of this phenomenon. It started when I downloaded the latest security upgrade for my OS and restarted. Now my finder is flashing and I cannot access the hard drive- it appears that the resolution has changed on my monitor as the menu bar is too high. The dock and desktop pic in tact but all else is flashing and unstable. Cannot open anything with out it crashing immediately. Rebooting has not helped. If I do archive and install form the start up CD will my files be safe?
I have read a lot of "solutions" to this but none seem to help anyone. Oddly when I did the firmware upgrade I chose NOT to install the latest itunes version.
Hi morrisstudio, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, test if the Finder/Desktop/Dock works right while in Safe Mode, reboot when complete, test again.
If it work in Safe Mode but not a regular bootup, then Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
I just started having this same problem: every few minutes all of the items on my desktop flash off, then come back. The only change to my system was the latest QuickTime update, which is when the flashing started happening. Repairing permissions hasn't helped. I'm going to try a DiskWarrior run and see if that does anything. But if you guys find a solve for the problem, other than a complete reinstall of the OS, please post! 10.4.11 here.
Genius. You are my hero. I wish I would have scrolled to the bottom of this thread rather than killing time reading and running disc utilities. Thank you oh saged one. (Now Apple, please fix this and get another update out... this happened when I ran the latest security update!)
Genius. You are my hero. I wish I would have scrolled to the bottom of this thread rather than killing time reading and running disc utilities. Thank you oh saged one.
I am not responsible for the fix. I just posted a link to it.
(Now Apple, please fix this and get another update out... this happened when I ran the latest security update!)
It may be Stuffit's problem. It's not the first time they have caused Finder resetting.
