OS 10.4.6 crashes with ipod+itunes....and also without.

Question

My computer was running fine untill I got an ipod+itunes.
When I have the ipod(video) hooked up via USB and i try and play music off of the ipod through the powerbook it will eventually just stop. It seems to be random if it happens on the 1st song or on the 15th...it will just stop playing and give me a beachball mouse pointer when i put the mouse over itunes.
If i try and Force Quit the app it does go off the screen, but the little black arrow stays on under the icon in the launcher bar.
If I try and shutdown, it doesn't work. It almost gets to the end of the shutdown process, but the background color stays up, and the finder bar at the top stays up, without icons or text, and it just hangs.
I have to hold down the power button to shut the computer off and then restart it.
After this started happening i started to get more weiredness....I usually close my screen when i walk away from it at work. When I come back I open the screen and it gives me the password propt. Sometime it will also hang here, giving me the beachball pointer, and the mouse will not move, and the computer will not accept any commands. Again, reboot with holding down the power switch.
Lastly it also just sometimes stops responding when its jsut been sitting for a bit....Except somtimes text appears over the desktop, something to the affect of "darwin login" and a bunch of numbers and such.
So i took it into the Genius Bar. And the guy pulled up a terminal window and did top -u
The updates were very slow to update. And that was all the help he provided.
I came home and uninstalled iTunes completely, and top -u started to update at a normal pace.
I then reinstalled iTunes and the update is sill at a normal pace.
So I went to reinstall the OS, and i can't find my CD. I think i left it in the box when I threw it out.
I'm looking for suggestions on what steps I can take to get this situation remedied.
thanks in advance guys/gals.

Answer 1

Why do you want to play music off your iPod when connected to the computer when you can do so with iTunes?
Keeping the install package that ships with a new Mac purchase in a safe place is always a good idea for a number of reasons. Running Disk First Aid repair on the hard drive and for re-installing an individual application or the entire OS if needed. If you cannot find the install package, you should contact AppleCare about getting a replacement.
As I'm sure you know (and although it appears you've had no other choice), a hard or improper computer shut down is not good for a hard drive under any platform.
As a first step, I suggest Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption for system troubleshooting procedures and when doing so, follow all steps/instructions in the order provided.
Since you cannot find the install package that shipped with this Mac when new, you'll need to use fsck instead in place of running Disk First Aid repair.
Check this link for instructions to run fsck.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214