Powerbook Applications have trouble opening?

Ok. So I am a student using my mom's old powerbook g4. It was dropped- and right after it would tell you that you need to restart the computer after you logged in. My mom had already had a new computer at that point and no one needed it at the time so we forgot about it.
I pulled it out a few months later to check my email on something that wasn't trafficed ( I had shared with my siblings another computer) and it only did this once or twice (the restart thing) and so it was working fine for a little while- or so I thought.
When I tried to open a few applications, it wouldn't. It won't open iChat, iTunes, Safari, Software Update etc. but will open Firefox, iLife applications and Microsoft Word. It also loses charge in about half an hour- REALLLLLLY annoying for a student.
It's pretty slow as well, and my dad and I tried draining completely and charging completely the battery to see if that would help. But it doesn't. Regarding the losing charge problem, my dad thinks a new battery will fix it. But will it? and what to do about the applications? It's infuriating.
Oh- and the other day I had popped out/in the battery (as I had done this with my small PC and it did the job) when it was being very slow. It actually made it weirder- when I turned it on, a small global icon flashed for about 15 seconds and then flashed the finder icon/? back and forth for about ten seconds, then went to the login screen, then said to restart, then did the icons again and then FINALLY logged in- about a five minute process.
What do I do? I just was hoping to get some help with what is a good computer but needs some tuning...

One of the first things you should do is run the Apple hardware test. Find the original OS X disks that came with the system, and put the first one in (should say 'AHT Version x.x' in small print on the label), and reboot holding the alt key down. Choose the Apple hardware test, and when prompted, choose the extended test. Does that identify any hardware issues?
Next, it sounds like you may have hard drive issues, based on what you described. With that first OS X disk in the DVD drive, reboot holding the C key down, to boot from DVD. On the utilities menu bar, bring up Disk Utility, choose the internal hard drive on the left, then under first aid do a repair disk. Does that complete without error or does it have an error it can't fix? While there, also repair permissions.  Also, what does the SMART status say? Verified or something else.
You might also download Smart Utility from http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php and see what it says about the hard drive. Sometimes they can be starting to fail, but not enough to trip the general SMART indicator. If it says the health is yellow or red, it's time for a new hard drive.
On being slow ... how much unused hard drive space is there? You need at least 10% or more free for systems usage, otherwise it slows way down.  You might want to read through this FAQ on steps you can take to improve performance: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html

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