Dock problem: Apps won't open, they bounce once and don't open.

Question

hi,
my ex-girlfriend has had problems with opening up some of her programs (Mail, Safari, iChat, iTunes, Msn-Messenger, Skype) on the dock. They bounce on the dock once and then don't open at all. She said that it just happened after a recent update (17/9/08).
I've been trying Disk Utility and this comes up with:
+_First Aid Failed_.+
+Disk Utility stopped verifying 'Macintosh HD' because the following error was encountered:+
+The underlying task reported failure on exit+
Underneath it says: 1 HFS volume checked, Volume needs repair.
I have also used Disk Warrior and that also came up with the same error that this person got (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1459800&tstart=4).
I've even tried using fsck but that wasn't successful. I think I might need to work from disk utility from the start-up disks but was wodnering would I ahve to first back-up all the stuff that she has on her laptop at the moment???

Answer 1

I compiled what I could find on the application bouncing once problem.
I made it for Safari but much of it may apply to other Applications.
- Create a new user account on your machine.
- Log in under that new user account.
- Try to launch Safari.
If Safari launches under the new user account,
Then it's likely a preference file or some Safari add-on (e.g. "Application Enhancers" PithHelmet or Saft) running under the original account that's preventing it from launching. Remove them, if possible and clear the cache.
If Safari does not start under the new user account the same way it doesn't under your original account,
Deletion and reinstallation will be needed:
1) Back up your bookmarks to a safe location. Your Safari bookmarks are in Your Home/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist. Copy the Bookmarks.plish file to a flash drive, or somewhere safe.
2) Download Safari from http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ and save it where you saved your bookmarks backup.
3) Download an application deletion software, such as AppCleaner or AppZapper. A simple Google search will provide you with download locations.
4) Once you have installed the application deletion software, run it to delete Safari. The application should find and delete all files related to your Safari install. This is why it is important to save your safari download package and your bookmarks backup to a flash drive off of your system. If you did not do this, make sure to uncheck these files from the deletion list.
5) Restart your computer and install Safari once again. Once you have installed it, you should copy your bookmarks file to the new Safari's location. It will be located at "Your Home/Library/Safari/". If their is already a Bookmarks.plist in the Safari folder, then replace it with the backup.
If deletion and reinstallation doesn't help,
Perform networking diagnostics.