Finder will not respond

Question

To cut a long story short, I got a video ipod and needed to upgrade my OSX to 10.3.4, I did so and all my applications work, I didn't lose anything and everything appears to be fine, however, my finder will not respond. If I right-click it in the dock it just displays "Finder not responding" and in the top tool bar nothing appears apart from the relevant menus to any application (but not the finder menus).
If I go into Word and try to save something, I can see my Hard disk and desktop folders, but they don't appear on the desktop itself.
I'm quite frustrated, please help if you have any ideas.
Thank you.
G3 Laptop   Mac OS X (10.3.4)  

Answer 1

Hello again Colin
Sounds like time for plan B.
1. Put your OS 10.3.4 startup disk in the machine.
2. Turn the machine off using the power button.
3. Wait a few seconds.
4. Turn the machine on whilst holding down the 'c' key. It will take longer than usual to start up but should start using the operating system on the disk.
5. Once up and running take your finger off the 'c' key (you cn take it off earlier than this but as this is your first time keep it there).
6. In the finder open applications/utilities/disk utility.
7. Select the hard drive icon that appears in the top of the left hand directory window.
8. Click on repair permissions.
9. Go and make a cup of tea (if this is the first time you have done this it will take some time).
10. If you get any red messages once permissions have been repaired, unlikely, run disk permissions again until all appears OK (no redness!)
11. Restart your machine using the apple menue comand in the normal way (touch no keys).
This is the maintenance/repair permissions process we are talking about. It is best to do this (from your hard drive when not having problems) before and after any software installations, including software update, and on a monthly/6 wekly basis in any case.
If this does not work we will need to resort to you getting hold of a copy of disk warrior. But post back if the above process does not help. The recent Itunes update has presented a few challenges (whith an unlikely solution!) but we need your finder to be at least available to fix that problem if you have it.
S.