New desktop Icons pile-up and more

Question

All of a sudden every new icon that appears on the desktop including CDs drops in the exact same spot in the lower right corner instead of the first open spot.
Desktop view is set to snap to grid. I know it doesn't happen with "sort by name" but I don't want that and didn't used to need to do that.
Please advise
Thanks

Answer 1

Wow!
I wonder if there are a whole bunch of invisible icons taking up your desktop and all new ones have nowhere else to go?
Try running this Applescript to reveal invisible icons. See what appears on your desktop. Run the script again to set icon visibility back to normal.
Copy and past the script into Script Editor, and press the "Run" button.
Click here to launch Script Editor.
-- if no such value exists, create it
try
do shell script "defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles"
on error
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles '0'"
end try
-- toggle the existing value
if (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles" as string) = "1" then
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles '0'"
else
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles '1'"
end if
delay 1
-- quit and reactivate the Finder to use the new preferences.
tell application "Finder" to quit
delay 1
tell application "Finder" to activate
  Mac OS X (10.4.7)