Can't send email again

Question

I can't send email. I can receive it, and I can send and receive email through my .Mac account. This happens only on my laptop running 10.4.8. My desktop seems to run fine with this OS.
I reinstalled Tiger on my laptop which helped the sending mail problem, but two days later, I am
back at the same point of not being able to send--just receive email. This is the second time this
has happend using my laptop. I thought there was something else wrong which is why I reinstalled
Tiger. Safari also acts weird, I can't type in the composing email box, and the mail won't send, it just sits as a draft.
I tried updating to 10.4.11 with the new Safari (BEFORE reinstalling 10.4), but Safari was not allowing
me to type in this discussion area and overall was acting buggy). Because I couldn't revert back to
10.4.8, I reinstalled it without updating.
What is the issue now that Apple mail reverts back to not being able to send mail. Connection doctor is making a connection without a problem and Activity viewer is showing a good connection.
Thanks for the help.
Luisa

Answer 1

OK. So the problem is that you cannot compose the message in Mail and when you hit Send nothing happens, right? What’s your Mail > Preferences > Composing > Check spelling setting? Set it to Never, restart Mail, and see whether that makes a difference. If it does, the problem is some Launch Services cache or preferences corruption that affects Mail’s ability to use the built-in spell checker.
The following article describes how to manually reset Launch Services — the notes at the bottom of the article also provide information about the side effects of deleting each of the files involved:
Resetting Launch Services
If you prefer using a cache cleaning utility instead of following the manual procedure described in the previous article, take a look at this other article for general troubleshooting and cache-cleaning procedures. Actually, you should also verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described there:
Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption
The most appropriate utility for this particular problem probably is Tiger Cache Cleaner, but you may also want to consider other utilities, such as OnyX, or Cache Out X, which are free. Whatever utility you choose, be sure to read this first:
Side effects of System cache cleaning
As an example, this is how you should proceed with OnyX:
1. Quit all applications.
2. Launch OnyX and enter your administrator password.
3. Go to Maintenance > Reset and check LaunchServices database.
4. Un-check any other pre-checked options.
5. Click the Execute button.
6. Restart the computer.