Application 'not responding' cannot force quit

I previously posted this before upgrading to 10.4.4. Problem persisted. THen i doubled the RAM, thinking it was a ram problem. Still no solution.
Short Story: in various applications, at various times, the program stops responding and Force Quit does not work. Usually this occurs when using the SAVE AS, or Export As, or Import function. Ultimately, i have to do a hard restart.
Long Story. I have an eMac G4 that was running 10.3.8. it was networked at home via airport with an eMac, TiPB and Cube. All was good. Then we moved. I reestablished my home network, but this time will all 'puters hooked up via ethernet. My eMac then started experiencing bad behavior. For example, iDVD would hang when burning a DVD. Or, MS Word would hang when printing to PDF. Or when i tried using save as. Force Quit would appear to work, forcing the window to close. but the dock would still show the program open. when i return to Force Quit, the offending program would be there in red (not responding). Other open programs would then do same thing. only recourse would be to do a hard restart.
i bought 10.4.3 (family pack) and upgraded all 'puters. Same problem.
i ran disk utilities to both repair permissions and repair disks. Same problem.
i bought disk warrior and ran it several times. same problem.
i tried some shareware, YASU 1.3.5. Same problem.
i have trashed preferences for all programs. Same problem.
i do not have iDisk.
My energy saver is set to default.
i have NOT bought Tech Tool Pro. Should I?
i have not run any virus software detection/protection. Should I?
the problem is not occurring on the networked 'puters (Cube, emac and TiPB).
any help out there in Macland would be most appreciated.

Hi, iciclesteve.
Troubleshooting freezes and hangs — which appears to be the root issue — is not unlike troubleshooting kernel panics: the steps are virtually the same. As a troubleshooting roadmap, use the steps in my "Resolving Kernel Panics" FAQ.
It's also possible the eMac may have been damaged in the move, or something has become unseated (added RAM, AirPort card, etc.) or loose as a result of shipping. Check these things if installed.
Running the Apple Hardware Test that came with the eMac — the first step in my FAQ above — is a good step, but my FAQ should help you sort this out further if the Apple Hardware Test — or the subsequent suggestions on RAM testing — doesn't find a cause.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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