Finder won't launch....it will blink over and over again

but can't seem to complete its cycle. I can move the cursor around but cannot open any applications. I've tried the following (to no avail):
-connected the laptop to my desktop via a firewire and successfully ran the disk utility, disk warrior, and tech tool pro
-rebooted zapping prams, under the safe mode, and under single user mode
-tried starting up with an apple hardware disk (didn't work)
Also, sometimes the screen will allow me log in and then the finder keeps blinking (as stated above), while other times I've only gotten to the white screen with the grey apple and swirling circle (and stay there), and a couple of times I've gotten to a black screen asking for a command.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

This exact same thing just happend to me yesterday. It was if the finder kept restarting. I solved the problem by creating a temporary log-in account, switched over as the new user. When I went back to my regular user name, everything seemed to be back to normal.
However, I have a new problem that may or may not be related. Since this incident, I have not been able to burn CDs. I used Toast to burn a CD just before the above problem. It work fine. Now, burning the same data, the burn goes extremely slow. Once the CD is burned, the verification always fails at the very end of the burn (no problems until the last second or two of the verification). I believe it has to do with the 'finishing' of the CD since files can not be read or copied from the finished CD.
Anyone else have either of the above problems?
Any suggestions?

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Finder won't launch - tried everything - HELP!!!

Okay...
So following all of the sudden, the finder won't launch. Clicking on it on the dock doesn't work, and I can't use force quit to relaunch it (obvious, since it wasn't launched in the first place). Rebooted several times, to no avail. Further noticing, that only a few apps will open (Safari, Mail, TextEdit), but others won't, and even then, you can't interact with anything on the desktop (i.e., opening a text file with Safari). Things like iTunes or AppleWorks won't open at all, both are which essential to me.
I've tried booting up in Safe Mode. Nothing. I tried repairing the permissions. Nothing. I tried running from the Install Disc, and repairing via Disk Utility (several times). Nothing. In fact, it did note several errors, but was unable to repair the drive. Also tried archive and restore off the 10.3 Disc 1, but wouldn't let me, as it said 10.4.9 was newer and couldn't repair through the older disc.
So does anybody have any solutions on this? I upgraded to Tiger via a downloaded update, so I don't have the Tiger disc to repair through. And I certainly don't want to go through the whole debacle with a complete reinstall with a slave drive. Anything would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Well that sounds like it could work...and I really should get a backup...
BUT!
Saving that as the final straw, would there be any cheap (e.g. free) solutions left? I'd rather wait to buy another external drive, since I'm trying to save money now, so any immediate and cheap solutions would work best.
Hmm... I upgraded to Tiger via download, so I don't have the boot CD for it. But since I already have Tiger, would it be at all possible to get a free 10.4 boot CD to help with this problem? If I explain my plight to Support, do you think they could spare one, since it's very probable 10.4 Disk Utility would work, since the only reason 10.3 couldn't was because it was too low?
If that doesn't work, I suppose the only thing left to do would be to carry through and clone to an external. But first, do you think I could get a 10.4 disc for my problem, or would that be "forbidden" for some reason?

I purchased microsoft office mac in 2004 and suddenly I get an error message. It won't launch. I click reopen and it does the same thing. I get a long message in the panel. It tells me it will send a report. I still can't access any microsoft item - word

I purchased microsoft office mac in 2004 and suddenly I get an error message. It won't launch. I click reopen and it does the same thing. I get a long message in the panel. It tells me it will send a report. I still can't access any microsoft item - word, excel, nothing works.
I have a mac book pro 10.6.8
Thanks

cassidy3 wrote:
Good news is that I can access all my documents. Bad news is I had to pay $150 for it.
I spent a lot of time trying to find a solution before buying. I did not try the launch terminal solution....
I will check back so I can find out what to do should this happen again.
More possible bad news. If you had followed what fane_j had asked you to do you might have found out it wasn't microsoft's fault for your problem and wouldn't have had to spend $150. Because while you may have an Office that works, fane_j was not suggesting a solution but probing for a trojan (google "flashback trojan") that has been crashing powerpc code which is what Office 2004 is.
So if you do have the trojan, while you can run a version of Office, the trojan may still be in your system since installing a version of Office isn't going to remove it. So I'll make another request. Launch Terminal (in your Utilities folder) and copy/paste the following line into the terminal window and hit return:
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment
If you see anything other than a "does not exist" error message you almost certainly do have the trojan and post the results in this thread.
The choice is yours. You can ignore this and take the risk. Or do what has been requested.

Finder won't launch after re-install 7.1

I reinstalled QT 7.1 after having problems with 7.2. I was getting only audio and no video. After the reinstall I rebooted and now the finder won't launch so I can't see my hard drive or any icons on my desktop. And oddly enough the only app that will open is safari and quicktime now works!
What have I done and any clue on what just happened?

There is no "re-install" of older software versions allowed in OS X.
The only safe way to revert to previous versions is by Archive and Install using the Tiger DVD.

Finder won't launch after re-install quicktime 7.1

I reinstalled quicktime 7.1 after having problems with 7.2. I was getting only audio and no video. After the reinstall I rebooted and now the finder won't launch so I can't see my hard drive or any icons on my desktop. And oddly enough the only app that will open is safari and quicktime now works!
What have I done and any clue on what just happened?

There is no "re-install" of older software versions allowed in OS X.
The only safe way to revert to previous versions is by Archive and Install using the Tiger DVD.

Finder Won't Launch After Traumatic Re-Install

Hello All,
I've had one **** of a ride. I run 10.3.9. After a bad Mac update corrupted my boot disc, I was forced to reinstall...but since I bought my G4 used, I didn't have the original discs. I needed a computer up and running immediately, so installed the only operating system I could find...10.2.8. Luckily, all my files and apps are intact.
Today, I finally managed to find an install disc for 10.3.4. When I installed 10.3.4, everything was great....except that Finder won't launch. I can still launch the programs in my dock, but I can't get to apps that aren't in the dock...namely Final Cut Pro. I thought I might be able to beat it by installing the combined 10.3.9 update from Mac, but my Finder is still dead.
Any help anyone could provide would be more appreciated than you'll ever know. Thanks!

Welcome To  Discussions Mulcahey!
"...so installed the only operating system I could find...10.2.8."
"...find an install disc for 10.3.4."
What type of discs are these?
Are they a Jaguar Full Retail CDs, and a Full Retail Version, of the Panther Install CDs?
The discs should look exactly like the images in the above links, and not say Upgrade, CPU Drop-in DVD, or "This software is part of a hardware bundle purchase - not to be sold seperately." on them.
If not, that may be the problem.
Additional info in these links.
Using OS X Install CDs/DVDs On Multiple Macs
What's A Computer Specific Mac OS X Release
Software Update, Upgrade: What's The Difference?
ali b

Finder won't launch and application icons just bounce

I successfully logged in. But then it went to just a blue screen with the dock on it. No hard drive showed up in the corner. Applications just bounce, then get an unexpectedly quit message. Finder won't launch at all. Tried disk repair, permissions repair; these were all fine. Have no idea what to do next and could really use some help! Thanks.

I would startup from your install disc. Enable root user which is found under utilities on the menubar, and restart the computer. Then see what happens when you login as root.

Song will play over again after it finishes

After a song finishes playing, it will start over again. The time left that is shown on the scrubber remains at 0:00 but it just keeps playing. The song won't change unless I manually hit the forward button. Shuffle is on and repeat is off.
Any help would be appreciated
iPod touch 4th gen

If your country's iTunes Store allows you to redownload purchased tracks, I'd delete your current copies of the tracks and try redownloading fresh copies. For instructions, see the following document:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
Otherwise, I'd report the problem to the iTunes Store.
Log in to the Store. Click on "Account" in your Quick Links. When you're in your Account information screen, go down to Purchase History and click "See all".
Find the items that are not playing properly. If you can't see "Report a Problem" next to the items, click the "Report a problem" button. Now click the "Report a Problem" links next to the items.

Can't download the latest iTunes. A window pops up... The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs. No iTunes now.

Can't download the latest iTunes. A window pops up... The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs.
Now, iTunes won't launch and can't be updated. Please help.
If I have lost my music collection I will be switching platforms ASAP. It is insane that Apple has updates seemingly every day for their products.

I was in your same situation with 14 downloads and 14 attempts.
You have to make sure that your Mac is booting into 64 bit mode. You can make sure of this by going into System Preferences and scrolling down to 'Software' and making sure that you are booding with 64 bit Kexts.
If not, restart while holding the 6 and 4 keys down until you see the spinning gear wheel and try installng again.
BUT, what I also did was to go into Applications, click on the Lion installer, Get Info, and give yourself custom priviliges to Read And Write.
I did this simultaneously, and I don't know what function did it, but it worked for me, with no further downloads of the installer.
Good luck!

HT1338 I am having trouble installing updates on my mac this is the error code the pops upThe update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that

can some one help me? I have been trying to update my MAC and it will not download because this message come up
(The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs.)

For anyone that comes across this. I managed to fix the problem. It had something to do with the date on my computer. Mavericks installer apparently does a date check of some sort and that is where the error is coming from. Open terminal and check the system date. It may be wrong. Another poster in the forums told me how to to check the date and change it. Click here for the link to the explanation. Be careful because the date is in a weird format.

The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs.

How can I solve this? Every time I have the option to update an application I receive the same notification: "The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs"

Can we eliminate one minor possibility: are you in the UK and using Virgin Media cable connection? I ask because the latest 'Superhub' firmware is corrupting large downloads for some people.

Latest update returns error " None of the selected updates could be installed. The update could not be expanded, and may have been corrupted during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs."

Latest update returns error " None of the selected updates could be installed. The update could not be expanded, and may have been corrupted during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs."

Which latest update? Details get answers. Rather than using SU, DL and install from http://support.apple.com/downloads/.

10.6.8 update crashed before it completed and now the Finder won't launch

This morning I was installing the update on my 25" iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (was at 10.6.7) and after almost 15 minutes of the installer claiming to be moving files around, the screen went blank except for being backlit. After few minutes of pondering what to do, I restarted the computer and the "Finder quit unexpectedly." message started and all my iMac wants to do is have me send thousands of reports to Apple. I tried the safe restart and nothing changed expect the process number in the reports restarts in the low hundreds.
I have LOTS of applications on my dock and while most of the Apple applications (Safari, Disk Utility, etc.) crash upon launching, a few applications don't (Firefox takes a few minutes to crash while Chrome seems okay enough for me to send this report). The "About this Mac" claims that 10.6.8 is installed, so Software Update claims there are no updates, so I can't use that to reinstall the update (I'm not sure I should even if I could).
Because I cannot do is relaunch the Finder from either the Dock or via the "Force Quit" command I can't reinstall 10.6.8 via the. I can open a terminal window but I'm not sure what to do with that to get me out of this situation. I downloaded the combo update but without the Finder running, I don't know how to launch it via the a terminal window. Any suggestions welcomed.
TIA.

I've got my Mac back!
Even though the Finder wasn't running, because I had populated my Dock with dozens of applications, I was able to launch the Terminal app and open a window. From there I was eventually able to launch the Installer, point it at the 10.6.8 Combo Update (for some reason, fortunately, I had downloaded it rather than letting Software Update do it), and wait at least 30 minutes when the installer claimed that there was less than 1 minute left to complete the install. After it was done and I restarted the Mac, it no longer insisted that I needed to send/ignore thousands of "Finder quit unexpectedly." messages and the Finder was running.
BTW, towards the end of the installation (or re-installation), the Finder began to function (my desktop icons appeared and I could open folders) and now the only remaining issue is the Menu Bar won't appear unless I click the Finder in the Dock.
Thanks to those who helped me by providing the instructions needed to use the Terminal window correctly.

Finder won't launch at startup

What's the best way out of a problem which stops the Finder launching at startup? I have no idea why my recently clean-installed system seems to spontaneously start corrupting in the middle of innocuous tasks but here's my own grisly log of this issue:
1. Erase Boot Camp partition
2. Create new Boot Camp partition
3. Install Windows XPsp2 and Apple Boot Camp drivers
4. Boot into Windows, install 2 apps, all ok
5. Boot into Mac Os
6. Disk Utility Verify Disk reports all ok
7. Repair permissions
8. TextEdit freezes while saving to desktop
9. Finder is inaccessible although cursor moves
10. Force power down
11. Reboot but icons don't load and menubar is incomplete and transparent
12. Message: Finder quit unexpectedly on startup
13. Message: SystemUI Server quit unexpectedly on startup
14. Finder Report:
Identifier: Finder
Verdsion: ??? (???)
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Crashed Thread: 3
(unable to scroll to remainder of report)
15. Repeat 10-14 above with same result
16. Boot into external FW drive (10.5.1)
17. Very slow
18. Click on Disk Utility in Dock and it disappears in puff of smoke.
19. Open DU from Applications folder and Verify Disk reports internal Mac partition is ok
20. However DU unable to verify new Boot Camp volume as it "could not be unmounted".
21. Open Boot Camp volume but no files or folders visible.
22. Repair permissions on internal Mac disk.
23 Reboot into internal Mac partition
24 Repeat 11-14 above
25. Force power down and reboot into Safe Mode
26. Repeat 11-14 above
Does anyone have a clue what might be going on? Meanwhile, is there anything short of (yet another) system reinstall which might fix it? I have a Time Machine backup - not as current as I would like but that may be A Good Thing. But I keep having issues with this iMac after 5 weeks of perfect running... ever since the 10.5.2/Graphics/Quicktime 7.4.1 updates to be precise.
Is it conceivable that my symptoms are hardware related? Even after a zero erase and full reinstallation a week ago, I can't seem to keep the machine running properly.
I have a very similarly configured Intel MacBookPro which has behaved impeccably - but it is still running 10.5.1.
Thanks for any help.
Simon
Message was edited by: pr100

Well, there has been a resounding silence so I guess y'all are out enjoying your weekend instead of poring over the forums.
Just to follow on with the next chapter: I booted one more time into my external drive and ran DU Verify Disk on my startup volume again. It passed it as OK. I then ran DiskWarrior 4.1 over the disk. It also passed it as OK. Finally, I ran all the TechTool Deluxe 3.12 hardware tests and the big one failed. It reported problems with the volume structure and attempted (but failed) to repair the Leaf Record Count in the Catalog B-Tree.
I guess it's possible that TT was wrong and the others were right but in view of the problems I'm having, I figure TT has to be right. So I'm now writing zeros to the Mac partition and will restore from Time Machine to a week-old backup which was carefully checked before backing up.
I just wish I knew what caused these problems. This is the second time in a fortnight that I have had to erase and reinstall - and it's becoming a full time job! Anyway, this is definitely the last time. If the disk goes kaput again, Apple can have my iMac back.
Simon

Finder won't launch after Firmware Update

I ran the firmware update for my MBP (MBP31.0070.B07). Now, my finder will not automatically launch upon restart/login. I can click on the Finder icon in the dock and launch the finder, but it won't do so on its own.

Weird...
Go into /Applications/Utilities/Console.app. Click on "Console Messages" on the left side. Is there anything specifically mentioning the Finder in the text that appears on the right side from around the time you logged in? Then check LOG FILES->~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter. Are there any crash logs listed with Finder in the name? If so, copy/paste the bottom one into a reply and post it up. With that info we might be able to figure out what is going on with your machine... Good luck...

Finder won't launch....it will blink over and over again

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