Nothing but a spinning beachball!

Question

Everything I attempt to do is met with a spinning beachball!
After running automatic software update for Aluminium Keyboard Update + Quicktime Compatibility Update and iTunes 7.4.2 in one session I'm met with the spinning beachball with every application I try to use.
The mac boots up OK, start up safari OK for instance click a link and it gets halfway and hangs, same as with mail - starts up then hangs - then if it happens with Finder.
Safe boot works OK, I've archived and installed off the disk and that seemed to work OK until I attempt to update to OS 10.4.10! That goes through the process OK, privileges are fine, disk repair came back positive. So now I'm well and truely stumped.
I had noticed that the Date and Time display in the menu bar tends to disappear! - Coincidence?
I've searched the forums has best I can but to no avail.
Anyone with any ideas?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Except for the keyboard & mouse disconnect all devices from your computer.
Repair disk/permissions directly from your System Install Tiger DVD. See what turns up if anything.
Use Preferential Treatment which is a FREE utility that does all the work for you in checking for corrupted preferences.
*To check corrupted fonts:*
Check for duplicate fonts.
Applications>Font Book
Select “All Fonts”
If you see any “black dots” next to any fonts this mean you have duplicates and/or multiple versions of these fonts.
To clean this up, select a “black dotted” font or the Apple + click to select multiple dotted fonts;
Edit>Resolve>Duplicates.
What the above does is turns off the duplicates & multiple version fonts. Not delete them.
More than likely the “extras” were installed by other programs and/or other users.
======================
Font book can examine your fonts for problems.
Applications>Font Book
Select your main main font library.
Then go to:
Edit>Validate Fonts
After selecting the above, any problematic/corrupted fonts will appear with a check mark, a yellow exclamation point or a red X icon.
Check the box for any font you want to remove and click Remove Checked.
TIP: Errors & warnings can be hard to find in the master list. Use the pull-down menu to find them. It's much easier this way anyways.