Mail and Safari fail to open

Question

Hello,
I'm having problems with Safari and Apple Mail;
Mail does not load at all, and Safari partially loads then gets stuck.
Disk Utility also will not select the hard drive... It just beach balls.
I have found that if I erase HD/Library/Caches and restart there is no problem at all.
However when I shut down and restart again the problems are all back again.
I have tried erasing preferences and caches, resetting etc with no good results.
I run OS 10.3.9 on a g4 tower (mirrored drive doors) and have all software updates. (Also I run flip4mac)
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hi
Welcome to Apple Discussions
It seems there may be hard drive directory corruption at play.
Run the "repair disk" function in Disk Utility. Insert your Panther Installer DVD disk. After it loads, restart the system, holding down the C key when the screen turns dark. Once the grey Apple screen appears you can let go of the C key.
When the DVD is fully loaded, select Disk Utility in the Installation Menu. A window will open showing your HD on the left. Single click on your HD, then select "repair disk" in the lower right of the screen. If errors appear during the "repair", rerun the utility until you get a clean pass. Then quit the Utility and Installer, letting the computer restart. Let me know if errors appear (also if they were repaired).
After the restart, go to your Applications>Utilities folder via the Finder and again select "Disk Utility". This time, rather than repairing disk, select "repair permissions".
Finally, again trash the Caches folder and restart the computer.
Try Safari and Mail.
Post back