Finder unresponsive even after reboot

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Level 1

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Finder unresponsive even after reboot

History:

I had an iMac G4 800 (OSX 4.11) connected to an Intel iMac (White Model OSX 7.5) via firewire 400 and had shared my internet from the intel mac to the G4 through the firewire as the G4 doesn't have wifi.

I had wanted to transfer files from the intel mac to the G4.

I proceeded to transfer files over the firewire.

all the files where being transferred to the desktop

One of the files was a movie, 2.3 gb in size.

When the process began to transfer the movie the Finder began creating multiple icons of the movie. In no time the desktop was filled with icons with this movie.

Computer froze.

What I've done:

After realizing that the computer was frozen I did a hard shutdown. Unplugged the firewire and restarted the computer.

Computer booted fine, but the finder was unresponsive.

Went into activity Monitor and saw that the Finder was not responding.

Did a force quit. Finder would quit no problem and restart, but after the restart of the finder it would resume the process that it was stuck in. None of the icons would show on the desktop. CPU usage was running at 60% and memory would increase slowly until all available was used ( I have 1GB of memory)

Did a hard shut down and left it over night, rebooted and no change.

Left computer on all day and night figured I'll let the computer do it's thing hoping it would resolve itself, that did not work.

Went into terminal and did a "killall Finder"

Reacted the same way as force quitting in activity monitor.

….. Now I'm at a lost… Never seen this happen before. It seems like the finder is stuck in a loop or process or something and it doesn't want to give it up.

Posted on Mar 18, 2015 8:06 AM

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Answer 1

K Shaffer

Level 7

34,978 points

Mar 18, 2015 1:02 PM in response to McMac_05

As a near last resort, you could boot from the install DVD and choose to archive & install

a new system folder, then update that to the last step (via Combo update) and see what

else isn't in the new folder that you need or want. Several of these would need to be fully

re-installed if not available, when third-party software; especially if they had key codes.

{A full system clone-copy on external FW enclosure would be a means to restore the Mac.

Also that's a better way to make a backup since it would be a complete one of everything.}

Other terminal or command-line effort may have been able to restore use of the Finder.

However I'm not sufficiently experienced with accessing or changes via Terminal to offer

any suggestion. And the word 'terminal' can have more than one meaning, in this matter.

The manual code or processes available via Terminal or command-line are cryptic.

Hopefully someone such as BDAqua or Linc Davis, among others, may help there.

The use of the install-restore DVD to try 'repair' and 'repair disk permissions' may

also be worth a go; you need not reinstall a new system/folder to try these...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

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