My software applications were unexpectedly quitting (i tunes, pages, skype) so I upgraded to Lion OS 7. It took 2 days to download, 14 hours and counting to install so I switched it off and on. The only result is a screen asking for my password. I key in

Question

My software applications were unexpectedly quitting ( I Tunes, page, skype) so I downloaded Lion OS 7. It took 48 hours to download and 18 hours to install (and counting) so i turned it off and on several times. All i get now is a screen with the Apple Icon asking for my password with option to switch off or restart. tried both but it just brings me back to the same screen
what do i do?
thanks

Answer 1

When you decided to upgrade because you were having serious problems, you jumped from the frying pan into the fire. If the problem was the system, then reinstalling the current system is the way to go. But you had several application quiting, some from Apple and some not. so the quitting was something affecting all of them, and of course the system could be the culprit, but the system is not the only possible culprit. Replacing the system when it was not the problem only buries the problem under a whole new pile of problems.
Before reinstalling a system you need to make your Mac as trouble free as possible and back up as much as you can. There is a wide variety of problems that can affect many applications. Here is a short list:
Font problems. Use Font Book to verify your fonts. Delete or disable bad fonts.
Disk, permission, or cache corruption.
Incompatible Startup Items, Login Items, interface modifications or menu extras.
Corrupted preferences other than those of the affected applications. Check preferences system-wide using the freeware applications Preferential Treatment or AppleJack
Insufficient RAM or lack of free disk space.
Programming errors. Bugs in application code are not uncommon. For third-party applications, check the vendor's Web site for updates to the application, reports of known bugs, or for information on how to contact the vendor for support. A bad program might be grabbing up too much RAM and causing the other applications to fail as well.
Corrupted application. Check the logs to see where the crash occurred.
Other software problems or conflicts.
Corrupted Mac OS X installation. Perform an Archive and Install of your current Mac OS X.
Hardware problems. Run the Apple Hardware Test that came with your Mac.
Try to discover the culprit:
Open Console, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
Check the Console and System logs for messages that may be related to the problem.
To open these logs, in Console choose File > Open, then choose:
Open Console Log and Open System Log
Messages in these logs are time stamped when the message was logged.
Scroll the log windows to the approximate time when the problem occurred.
Details of the messages may provide additional clues you use in troubleshooting.
Do not post an entire log to a forum. Post only the messages referring to the function or application causing a problem.
AppleJack is a free program you run in 'Single User Mode.' Install it. When you want to run it, press Command s until you get a black screen with text. Type 'applejack' and run the repairs.