Dock Display resets itself; Overheating; Loosing Bookmarks w/ Firefox

Hello,
I need help and was wondering if anybody might have an idea of what is going on with my iBook which is 2 years old. Up until a week ago I had no problems whatsoever with the laptop and all of a sudden things seem very strange...
1) I am loosing battery power very quickly. The charge holds, if I am not using the internet, about 1 hour.
2) I lost all my bookmarks in firefox for no reason. I started saving bookmarks again but the next day, they were gone again.
3) The Dock is resetting itself to the original view every time I start up the laptop. I save icons in the dock but they disappear the next time I turn the laptop on. What I find interesting though is that the wallpaper stays the same. Do the dock settings and the wallpaper have different memory?
4) The laptop is overheating and the fan is blowing almost constantly even though I am using the laptop on a table (hard surface; yes, I read the posts).
I spoke to Tech Support and they had me take out the battery and press the "power on" button for 6 seconds (sorry, I forgot the term that they used for this process). It seemed to help while the Tech was on the phone but the next day, I had the same problem.
Can it be that I need a new battery or does anybody think there might be more wrong with it?
Thank you to all who respond.

Glad the genius bar was able to help you!
Would agree with the erase and install once you get your important data backed up. It will get rid of any corrupted software and cobwebs and make your machine seem like new again. This would be a good opportunity to gain a little hard drive space by doing a custom install and opting to not install all the languages and printer drivers you will never use.
It would not surprise me if your overheating problem might get better or even go away after an erase and install. I don't know which model iBook you have, and I understand that some of them do run hot, but it has been my experience that my iBook usually runs cool and the fan very seldom comes on.
When I mentioned Activity Monitor, I was wondering if you might have had a runaway application going on in the background. One time I was just doing email and the computer got hot and the fan came on--and the CPU showed 85% use, which was way more than my usual few percent. In view of your battery problems and overheating, I wondered if you might have had the same sort of thing going on. Here is the article about this:
Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304882
Most people don't need File Vault. If you do have a few sensitive documents on your laptop that you want to be secured in case it ever gets stolen, you can use an encrypted disk image instead. Just go to Disk Utility and click on "New Image". It will create a file that you can protect with a good password. For most users, File Vault is more trouble than it's worth.
I think once you do the erase and install, everything will be working as it should again.
Good luck, and thanks for the star!

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OK, I will offer one more post on this problem. And no one questions your knowledge about computers, it's just that you are an Apple novice. As we all were at one time. Different platforms do things differently
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Hi HevnLgh,
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Hi Mike,
Are your other APPs there, and your Dock the same?
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. If I reset my computer thereby wipeing out firefox brower and then reinstall it later, will firtefox remember my bookmarks? I really do not want to loss my bookmarks. Thanksn

will firefox remember my bookmarks after i reset my computer to original factory settings, then reinstall firfox again?

Whatever you are doing I recommend you manually back up your bookmarks. It may then make sense to keep such bookmarks on removable media, or maybe somewhere else: another computer, or even as an attachment to an email.
* see [[Backing up and restoring bookmarks]]
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I'm not sure what you mean by the statement that the iPad reset itself when you restarted it. Do you mean you had to restore it and start all over again with device activation? You said that you put in ID etc, and that really doesn't tell us that much. Now all you get is can't connect to server. I assume that you mean in Safari. If that's what you mean, clear Safari, close all of the apps on your iPad, and reset the iPad.
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Dock Display resets itself; Overheating; Loosing Bookmarks w/ Firefox

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