All MAC programs not working

Question

Help Anyone Please !?!?! i shut down Friday, everything was fine, tried to open mail on Monday, the arrow just appears after the icon bounces once, the mouse icon spins and spins, i can't click anything in the menu at the top (if it's even there), i can alt+tab to the program, but there are no windows and no drop downs in the menu (not even the apple, i have to switch to a working program for that).
Then i find that iCal is doing the same thing, so is iPhoto, and iTunes. Then i go to use calculator and when i hit '=' it just spins the hard drive and shows 'not responding' in the force quit menu.
i tried to update software, but that spins and spins after clicking 'install''
now i'm having problems in firefox where other macs have no problems, i tried to use safari, but that doesn't load either. i'm thinking there's some internet code in the OS that is messing up the programs that do work. (photoshop, flash, etc...)
has anyone had this happen to them and what is the solution? i know to pull out my hair, but what else?

Answer 1

Welcome To  Discussions buckywoods!
Exactly which model iMac G5 is it?
What is the Processor speed?
What size is the Hard Drive, and how much space is available?
How much RAM is installed, and is it original or added?
Which exact version of Mac OS X is installed?
What peripherals do you have connected? A keyboard, mouse, printer, external drive or modem, router, etc?
Before you shut down the iMac, did you make any changes, like upgrading the system? Did you update or install any applications or programs, etc?
Or what were you doing on the iMac, before you shut down?
Have there been any unusual occurences, like freezes, crashes, power outages, etc?
Are you able to startup from the system install disc to run Disk Repair?
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD
1.Insert the System Install disk, Mac OS X CD-ROM disk, or Restore DVD disk, then restart the computer while holding the C key. Use the System disk, of the OS, that is currently installed.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, on the Menubar at the top of the screen, choose Disk Utility from the Installer contextual menu for Panther, or Utilities for Tiger.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc 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, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.Repeat steps 5 & 6, but select the Hard Drive this time. It's usually the first listed with the manufacturer's model number. Make note of the S.M.A.R.T. status.
8.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
9.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
10.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
11.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
Have you run Repair Permissions?
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP, until the only messages reported, are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
Or if Tiger 10.4.x is installed, here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.4.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
If you cannot access Disk Utility, you can run Repair Permissions, from the install disc, as you did for Repair Disk.
Is the Mac shutdown overnight, or does it run 24/7?
If you turn the Mac off nightly, the Background Maintenance Tasks, are never run.
Have you ever run any routine Maintenance procedures, as suggested in the articles linked to below?
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System Maintenance, authored by Gulliver
Maintaining Mac OS X, authored by Dr Smoke
After you have run the diagnostics, post the results.
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