Leopard quite sluggish, should I fresh-install snow leopard?

I have an iMac 3.06 GHz core 2 Duo bought new in June '08 with 4GB RAM and 500 GB internal drive.
Internal drive holds OS (10.5.8) and has 108 GB free out of 465 real GB (190 GB of that is an aperture vault).
My home drive is on an external 2TB WD firewire 800 drive that is half full (914 GB used, 978 available).
I also usually have one or two other firewire 400 drives connected also (1TB or less).
I use the machine mostly for photo editing (Aperture mostly, but also trialing Lightroom now since Aperture doesn't support my new D300s yet), and a couple XP apps running under VMware Fusion 2 (also have Parallels 3 or 4).
Lately the machine has been getting sluggish, and I can't find anything obvious as the cause of the problem.
I was thinking a fresh OS install might be worth all the hassle. But if I am doing that I thought I might as well go to snow leopard at the same time.
-Can I download a full snow leopard version that is not just an upgrade (for the upgrade fee)?
-Is this a good idea?
-Is Snow Leopard fairly stable now? (Sounds like it is not too bad, although I use PS CS3, which I think last I heard had some issues).
-Finally, any other ideas to try to speed up my sluggish machine before a more drastic step like a fresh OS install? (The one idea I recall from other "slow imac" threads is a disk permissions check/repair.)
Regards,
Strathglass

You cannot download Snow Leopard. You must purchase the retail installer DVD for $29.95 or the SL Bundle for $169.00 (SL, iLife '09 and iWork '09, plus Leopard.)
I would consider erasing the drive and install Snow Leopard. I would also reconsider keeping your Home folder on an external drive. OS X will operate faster with the Home folder on the startup volume where it is installed originally. You can certainly choose to move your data to the external drive.
I did not see you mention backup. With all this data you have I hope you have a backup strategy implemented.
Snow Leopard is fine although one might ask if you really need to upgrade because if you don't then you may be better off with what is now working especially if this is a work-related computer.
As for improving your computer's performance you might consider performing some maintenance as well as moving as much data as you can to your fastest drives - the internal drive and FW800 externals.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. MimMac (Commercial)
11. CloneTool Hatchery (Shareware)
12. Clone X (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

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Fresh install snow leopard - backup question

So here's the scoop;
My 2008 iMac is slowing down. What is the most efficient way to backup settings and files to an external drive, wipe the drive and run a fresh install for maximum speed?
I installed snow leopard as an upgrade from leopard on the day it was out and love it, I just like to start from scratch from time to time and I have a lot of files right now. I basically just want to backup all the files and preferences as they stand now, and copy it back onto a fresh install.

1. Repair the hard drive and permissions.
2. Clone the system to an external hard drive.
3. Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat the drive.
4. Install Snow Leopard.
5. Restore your data from the external backup.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive.
Source means the internal startup drive.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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Go to Applications/Hewlett Packard/ click on HP Uninstaller
Click on Continue
Highlight your device on the left pane
Press and hold Control + Alt + Cmd keys on the keyboard simultaneously while you click on Uninstall <<<< This IS the Scrubber Option, there is no button labeled "Scrubber"
There will be a pop up that asks if you are sure you want to uninstall ALL hp software. (At this point, if you continue, any HP printers you have installed will need to be reinstalled)
Click Continue and let it finish
Restart your Mac
Download and install this: support.apple.com/kb/DL907
Now reset the printing system:
- Sys Prefs, Print & Fax
- Right (control) click in the rectangle listing your printers and select Reset Printing System.
WARNING - this will delete ALL of your printers!
Finally, get the latest software for your printer from the "Support & Drivers" link at the top of this page.
Say thanks by clicking "Kudos" "thumbs up" in the post that helped you.
I am employed by HP

MBP 17" mid 2010 Snow Leopard Native: why not possible to install Snow Leopard in some new Hard disk?It appears "impossibile 'cause you have Mac OS X" 23.1.1."

Guys, I want to install SL in some hard disk. It's the native OS, the one came with the MBP. But after having installed Lion, my MBP doesn't allow me to install from the original dvd of Snow Leopard, telling me "impossible because you have Mac OS X” 23.1.1. istaller".
Someone can help me?

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the comunication that appears when I insert the original dvd of SL is something like "impossible to install snow leopard because you have Mac OS X” 23.1.1. istaller".

Hi I am trying to install snow leopard, Hi I am trying to install snow leopard onto my iMac g5 currently, Hi I am trying to install snow leopard onto my iMac g5 currently running 10.3.9. I open disk ,click install- nothing happens. Any ideas? Thanks Dan

Hi I am trying to install snow leopard onto my iMac g5 currently running 10.3.9. I open disk ,click install- nothing happens. Any ideas? Thanks Dan

Snow Leopard requires an Intel-based Mac, so as Niel indicated your iMac G5 cannot run it. The last version of Mac OS X your iMac G5 can run is Mac OS X 10.5.8.
Regards.

Installing snow leopard by target disk firewire

i am re installing snow leopard by target disk fire wire. the installer hangs after the first reboot. it leaves a folder called install data with loads of.pkg files. trying an external dvd drive but that's even slower. any ideas?
thanks
Dave

Can your iMac even startup from a Snow Leopard disc? In order to install Snow Leopard on your MBP you need to boot the iMac from the Snow Leopard installer DVD. The MBP is then started in TDM. Then follow this:
     1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     2. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     3. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation after which
         you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update process
         by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your
         installation current.
When the installation is completed the MBP should restart into the Setup Assistant of Snow Leopard.
I should warn you that the above may not work because if your iMac came with Snow Leopard, then it came with a version that was exclusive to that model meaning it may not work on the MBP, and that may be why you couldn't boot it.
You can order replacement discs for the MBP from Apple:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes
international calling numbers..

Installing Snow Leopard on Macbook Pro 15'' 2.4 ghz

I have a MacBook Pro 15" 2.4ghz Intel Core Duo with 2 Gigs Ram and it comes with Leopard. I'm having problems installing Snow Leopard, keeps giving me the option to Backup or Restart. Is there something I'm doing or missing? Please help.

How to Install OS X Updates Successfully
A. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
Boot from your current Tiger Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and later.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
B. Make a Bootable Backup Using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
C. Important: Please read before installing:
If you have a FireWire hard drive connected, disconnect it before installing the update unless you will boot from this drive and install the update on it. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update. While the installation is in progress do not use the computer.
D. To upgrade:
Purchase the Snow Leopard Retail DVD.
Boot From The OS X Installer Disc:
Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
Wait for installer to finish loading.
E. If updating:
Download and install update(s)
Use Software Update, or
Download standalone updater(s).

Can I Install Snow Leopard From USB On Another Mac?

Hello everyone,
I own a 2010 macbook air that came with a snow leopard usb drive.
I've recently been given a 2008 macbook 4,1 that is running leopard. I'd like to install snow leopard on this and use it as a secondary computer. Will I be able to use the usb stick from my macbook air to update this computer from leopard to snow leopard? If updating won't work would I be able to perform a fresh install of snow leopard from my usb drive? Or is my only option to purchase a snow leopard dvd from apple?
Thanks.

Ah! Thank you, Niel. Forgot about the "weird" Air models without any kind of optical drive. I realize to get the Air models as thin as Apple did required the removal of such a drive, but virtually every user who bought one had to then go out and buy an external DVD drive anyway so they could install their other purchased software.

I am having trouble installing Snow Leopard on my MacBook -it just quits midway through. I have one GB of memory which I think should be enough. Any advice

I am having trouble installing Snow Leopard on my MacBook. It's around 4 years old and has 1GB Memory. The installation just quits around 20 minutes into the process without any error message. My current OS is Leopard.

but it didn't have Mac OS installed, the previous owner was a Windows 7 user, so that was the only OS installed in my Mac.
The previous owner should have given you the discs that originally came with the computer.
Replacement System Discs can be obtained from Apple's Customer Support - US (800) 767-2775 for a nominal fee. You'll need to have the model and serial number of your Mac available.
If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number - http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html

I've just recently installed Snow Leopard. I opened Photoshop CS4 then went to quit it and it won't let me quit. It's greyed out. Any suggestions?

I've just recently installed Snow Leopard. I opened Photoshop CS4 then went to quit it and it won't let me quit. It's greyed out. Any suggestions?

Do you use your Vaio Update for updates, kingdom? If so, check in there to see if you're also up to date on your video card drivers and BIOS. (Your downloads page at Sony UK shows some updates for those there, so we'd better check on them too.)

Lion successfully installed. now unable to get on vpn using cisco, error 51 constantly appears. should have stayed on snow leopard!

ion successfully installed. now unable to get on vpn using cisco, error 51 constantly appears. should have stayed on snow leopard!

Try opening a terminal window (Applications >> Utilities). At the prompt, enter:
>sudo SystemStarter restart CiscoVPN
This will ask you for the admin password and it will restart the Cisco client service. That should fix it. This seems to be a known issue that will eventually be solved with some updates.
DB

I have new hard drive, should I use migration assistant before I install Snow Leopard or install Snow Leopard first?

I just had a new hard drive installed after a hard drive failure. I need to install Snow Leopard, Lion and VMware Fusion. Should I use migration assistant to reinstall my old files and applications first or should I install the new Operating Systems first? Some of the old files do have corrupt data and I will have to pick and choose what back-up files I re-install.

Pondini wrote:
memalyn wrote:
Some files were backed up on another external drive but not all.
How was that done? Drag & drop? An app like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper?
Initially files were backed up on the iMac with Time Machine. I purchased a My Book external hard drive and after doing a full back up on it, I began doing all of my incremental back ups on it using Time Machine. Sometime later, I purchased a Western Digital external hard drive that included back up software on it called "WD Back-up" so I could use it to store all of my Music and Audiobooks on to keep my iMac and My Book free of those file types. The WD Backup software allowed me to pick and choose what files I wanted to back-up. I don't think I had been backing up Music and Audiobooks on the Mac anyway or maybe I was, I don't remember if I can selectively pick and choose files with Time Machine - I have not checked as I have not yet plugged it into my new hard drive. Once The My Book drive became full with regular back ups, around June or so I had to switch over to the WD Back up drive. I recall that I was very concerned that I could not do a full back up on the WD drive because if I did, I would have to reformat the drive and I did not want to do that, so I think I was able to selectively back up some additional files from my iMac but again, I do not know for sure since I have not looked at what is on the drive. I do know that if I was able to back up additional files I had to do it with WD Back up and not Time Machine, if that matters.
I know that the files in the partitioned drive and files associated with VMware Fusion are damaged. If I do a full restore, it will restore the VMware Fusion app and partioned drive
We need some clarification:
Do you mean there were 2 partitions on your internal HD? If so, how was the second one formatted? Was it backed-up?
No, there was only one partitioned drive. The way I understand it is the VMware Fusion software does the partitioning and the app resides on the Mac. After that was done, I then installed the Windows software on the partitioned drive. There is a critical file on the Mac under a Folder called Virtual Machines and in the Virtual Machines folder, the "Windows Bundle" or some such thing keeps locking each time the software crashes due to the problem files somewhere within the files in the VMware Fusion software that (I think resides) in the Windows environment that I cannot access. The Virtual Machine file on the Mac gets backed up so the Windows Bundles files get backed up and that includes all the screen shots (essentially backups) of the Windows environment. The Windows environment includes some of the apps and their data in Windows such as Quicken. Theoretically, the partitioned drive does not get backed up but in reality if the screen shots do, some of the partitioned drive does - corrupt or not. If you have a Quicken file open and a drop down screen in Quicken frozen when the system crashes, that is what gets backed up and there is no way you can get back into Windows or Quicken.
               If I do a full restore, it will restore the VMware Fusion app
If you restore an OSX volume, yes, that will restore all apps, but that's not necessarily bad. If necessary or desired, you can always delete or reinstall a suspect app. That way, all your other apps will be ok. For most users, reinstalling all apps is a considerable project. See Transferring Applications for an explanation.
Well, that is true. To reinstall VMware Fusion, Windows and Quicken would much, much easier than all of the Mac software I have. Plus, the VMware Fusion version I have is not compatible with Lion and my goal is to install Lion, so I will have to upgrade VMware Fusion no matter what. Further, I'm so aggravated with the dual operating system, I've been looking at products to replace Quicken, so if anyone knows of a good home, small business and home rental financial product they can recommend, I'm all ears!
               If I do a full restore, it will restore . . . and partioned drive
If there are 2 partitons, a full restore only restores the OSX partition. If a non-OSX partition was backed-up, it must be restored separately.
               Now that I've said I only have 1 partitioned drive, does that mean it will restore the partitioned drive? I would prefer it did not. It seems now that it would be much cleaner to restore the OSX drive. Would I be able to do that?
So, depending on the exact circumstances, your best be may be to restore the most recent OSX partition, then restore/copy those files that were backed-up on another drive; reinstall VMware if necessary; restore the other partition.
So . . . things may be a bit more complex than we though, but perhaps less dire.
More detail on the various partitions and backups should clarify things.

After installing Snow Leopard the speech application keeps quitting

Hi everyone, I have recently installed Snow Leopard on my 06 iMac, installed all the latest updates.
I then found that when I try to set up voice activation application: system preference–speech.
The application opens for a few seconds and then unexpectedly quit. As I'm studying I use Acrobat reader
to read documents back to myself. I am not sure if it has anything to do with my machine being a 32-bit machine, and Snow Leopard
is mainly a 64-bit operating system. But I also find that the Read aloud option in the Acrobat reader does not work
and causes acrobats also unexpectedly quit.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on?
Thank you
SmileyD64

kjo04 wrote:
After installing snow leopard 10.6.8 my mail application will not open. It says you can not use this version of the application Mail with this OS X. You have Mail 3.6. What do I do? I thought everything would just automatically update... am I doing something wrong?
I suggest visiting the following Apple Support Communities Thread, your problem is similar to the one described there...
Re: Just installed snow leopard but i can't use mail b/c 3.6 version

About to Erase and Re-Install Snow Leopard. Anything I should know?

I'm about to erase and re-install Snow Leopard on my 2009 21.5' iMac. Something got snarled up during the migration process from my old 2006 iMac to this new one and things have been steadily getting more and more "weird" over time, so it's time for a clean slate.
I have a few specific questions and would be grateful for any other tips you may have regarding this operation as I've done it on Windoze computers many times but never done it on a Mac for obvious reasons
My specific questions are as follows:
1. If I archive my various Mail inboxes, can I just put them back after the re-install and have all my messages back again?
2. Does anyone know how to save Firefox Bookmarks, as it doesn't have an export option like Safari.
3. Any other things I should be aware of.
Your help and suggestions will be much appreciated

After what you want to do, you'll still get the same permissions repair report. Ignore it as detailed in http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448 (which doesn't include the recent JavaVM warnings).
Your bootstraps solution doesn't hold water. OK. Since the issue is specific to your original user account, you can proceed in two ways. One is to log into your test account, make a list of the preference files (plists) located in /username/Library/Preferences/, including any in the ByHost subfolder, log back into the original account, move everything on that other account's list from the original account's Preferences folder into a newly created folder on the Desktop, log out and back in, and see if the problem goes away. If so, you can copy the ones in the Desktop folder (one at time) back into /Preferences/, restart, and see if the problem returns. If so, you've identified the corrupt/conflicting one. Continue with all of them until isolating the bad ones. That'll save you the trouble of resetting preferences.
The second way is much more detailed and I'll not burden you with the steps unless the above doesn't fix the issue.

Leopard quite sluggish, should I fresh-install snow leopard?

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