Finder Doesn't Load Properly

Question

Running OS X 10.3.9 With 4 Users accnts.
About every 3 days or so the finder won't load "normally" ~The desk top picture loads fine,user name in top right eventually comes into what I'd call a transparent menu bar,time & sound eventually come in(transparent)and I am getting the spinning disk the whole time.
Restarts do nothing,BUT! rebooting the modem clears things up for another couple days????This happens to ALL users??
SnoLeopard
Quick Silver   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   PowerMac G4

Answer 1

Hi SnoLeopard!
I suggest that you first run Repair Disk & Repair Permissions.Instructions below
Also, you can manually run the Cron Tasks, also known as Maintenance Scripts, from Terminal. Instructions posted below.
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, choose Disk Utility from the Installer contextual menu for Panther, or Utilities for Tiger, on the Menubar at the top of the screen.
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, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
8.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
9.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
10.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
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.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
CRON MANUAL COMMANDS
Quit all applications/programs.
Navigate to HD > Applications > Utilities.
Double click on Terminal, to open.
At the prompt, type:
sudo periodic daily
Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
This will execute the daily script that is sheduled to run every night.
When completed, repeat this procedure, but change the command to:
sudo periodic weekly
This one rebuilds a database or two, and usually takes somewhat longer to complete. It is scheduled to run once a week.
Repeat again, with command:
sudo periodic monthly
Or they can all be run in one pass, with this command:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
When the tasks complete, and return to the prompt, you may quit Terminal.
Make sure you enter the commands exactly as posted.
And here are two more good articles, with info.
Maintaining Mac OS X, authored by Dr Smoke
Running Mac OS X Maintenance Scripts, authored by Dr Smoke
Good Luck!
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