The application Finder.app can't be opened.

If its an early 2009 model Mac Pro it should run Leopard just fine, go get a copy of that and format it. By this time next year you should be able to use Snow Leopard.

Yes, get the mail order company, or your local apple store to get you a copy for free, or if you have an Apple Care plan, maybe they will send you one if you speak to them over the phone.

Lane,
I's a good idea and I tried to reboot on my Leopard (Family pack) but it didn't work. I just learnt than you can't rebbot on an older OS than the initial OS. So it's an early 09 Mac Pro but configured with 10.6.

Neil,
I called Apple Care and they will exchange my Mac Pro with a new one. I hope this one will work and if it doesn't I will ask for refund.

That is good news.

Just wondering if you tried the install from the Leopard DVD while Snow Leopard was running, or if you tried starting the machine from cold with the DVD in the drive....and I think the C key pressed to force boot from the DVD

I tried both ways and it didn't work.
Apple Care told me that the Root system is configured for the OS they gave you. So if you try with an older one it can't work.

I got the same problem 2 days ago. I FOUND the solution with the help of Apple Care in Greece.

Here are the steps we took:
1. Shut Down
2. Press and hold "Shift"
3. Power on your mac
4. After the 'apple logo' and the 'loading BAR' appears let go of "shift"
5. After it boots, go to Apple Menu, System Preferences, System, User, select your user, choose the Login Items tab check them all and press the "-" (minus) to delete them all and close the Sytem Preferences window
6. Open Finder go to "YourAccountName" (the little house icon on the left) and open the "Library" folder
7. Find the "Caches" folder and drag n drop it on the desktop
8. Also in Library find the Preferences folder and drag n drop on the desktop the file called "com.apple.finder.plist"
9. Restart your mac and you're done
10. Drag n drop the "caches" folder and "com.apple.finder.plist" file to the trash bin and empty it.

That worked for me. I hope it does for you to.

Theocoach,
Thanks for the trick but it didn't work for me:
Yours 8 first steps were Ok but after i got a "no icon Finder" with a marvelous "improperly ejected hard disk" when i asked to close.
Then impossible to open till I press "option" then chose my Hard Disk.

Somehow it seems strange to me. Since I didn't use the dvd drive, those nasty hangs didn't reappear. Can anyone confirm that? Or is that the same as those issues related to external drives?

I have no solutions or diagnosis to add, just another data point.

I'm running Time Machine regularly backing up to an external 500 Gig G-drive Mini. I've been running off Firewire, but have just changed to USB. I've experienced the "Finder.app can't be opened" three times. All three started with Time Machine running for hours and hours when it usually takes between 10 and 15 seconds to complete its hourly backup. When I tried to stop the backup, I got the spinning coloured wheel and finder stopped working. It wouldn't respond to a forced quit. I eventually powered off the external drive, and Finder started working again.

Like someone else on this thread, I dumped a laptop running Vista because I found I was spending an inordinate amount of time fixing the %$@ * computer instead of using it. To me, a computer is like a stove. When I want to cook, I turn it on and cook. I don't want to play with it or fix it -- I want it to WORK.

If anyone from APPLE is reading this, you're making your great Mac commercials look hypocritical.
I'm ready for a commercial with the PC guy saying "Trust me, Snow Leopard will be Great!" and laughing.

Message was edited by: ricketty rabbit

just want to throw my experiences in, i've not been able to read anything past the first and last page of this thread.

2.4 ghz macbookpro unibody, installed snow leopard the other day and immediately upgraded it to 10.6.2

today, for the first time, I got the 'application finder can't be opened' message when I plugged in a USB hub containing several external drives and an external time machine drive and used spotlight

My finder had crashed because of the 10810 but I solved this issue for myself by hitting the key shortcut shift-command-q to log out of my account. This took me to the login screen, which took about 5-10 minutes to right itself and allow me to type of select anything. Once it did, i simply logged in and I'm back in business.

Message was edited by: kbparry

Have you tried unplugging the offending device. I don't suppose it's very elegant and potentially could result in data loss, but it does seem to correct everything.

I'm getting this error on an iMac I bought today. Browsing the external NTFS disk I have attached via USB gives a spinning beachball. I can force-quit the Finder, but it won't relauch. Unplugging the drive does not clear up the error. This is not a good first night with a new mac.

Please contact Applecare and report this. The more we lean on Apple, the more likely we are to get a fix. The tech 2 guy I was speaking to last week, said he had had it on his own Mac. I have been sending Data Capture files of the crashes and lock ups to the tech guys at Apple but no response yet. The latest suggestion is to set up an additional partition on my hard disc, do a clean install of Slow Leopard (mis-spell intentional!) and see if that still gets the finder lock up issue. Lot of my time to do their work is my opinion on that.

Wilson

same error for me.. and i had been restarting my macbook pro .. many times .. sometimes force shutdown some more..

for me.. i have a network external hard disk.. connect to macbook using the AFP, but seemed to have stopped working after some time .. it used to be working seamlessly... but stopped connecting after some time, without any change in configuration..

now.. i am desperately trying to connect back to my network disk.. using SMB, FTP and any other methods.. which caused Finder to hang at times.. with error 10810