Sys. Pref, Safari, Help, Utility Progams, Installers not working!

Question

Help! This is what's been going on for the past couple of days
1) Safari opens to the home page, loads for a few secs and then gets stuck
2) System Pref. window opens, but clicking on any icon doesn't do anything but give me a beach ball (can't change users to see if it's just my account)
3) Help Viewer is just blank--more beach ball
4) Disk Utility won't respond so I can check permissions
5) Installer for 10.3.9 Upgrade doesn't work--more blank screens and beach balls
6) Suitcase launches when the computer restarts. Sometimes it gets stuck and I force quit; sometimes it works fine
6) Probably more stuff isn't reponding that I haven't even tried yet.
Does any of this sound familiar?
What does work: Explorer, AOL, Airport (but not the Airport Utility), most of my apps like IPhoto, System 9 programs, Font Book, QuickTime
I recently installed the ITunes/Quick Time upgrade. Could that be it? I have trashed every Internet/Safari/HelpViewer/System preferences (p.list) and caches that I could find. Didn't help.
OK, while I was typing this, I opened ITunes to see if it would work. It paused, didn't respond, then when I was about to Force Quit, it came on. Now all my issues seem resolved. Whew!
What's that about? When you upgrade software, you should open it, so that preferences and stuff upgrade, too?
I'm going to post this so that if anyone else encounters similar problems, they can try opening ITunes, if they just downloaded it.
Boy, that saved me from reinstallation and Apple Care expense.
Powerbook G4-15 inch   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

Answer 1

I can not imagine why you did not have the ..ical.plist, did the other files
recreate themselfs look to see if they have, you did not empty the trash as i asked did you. If they have not, put them back.
This is from Dr Smokes[ thank you] site- I hope it helps you & gwhite
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/resetlaunchservices.html#Anchor-Reset-11481
Reset Launch Services under Panther
1.) Quit all running applications.
2.) Trash the com.apple.LaunchServices.6B.csstore file in the Macintosh HD
Library > Caches folder. Type your Admin password if prompted to
authenticate the deletion of this file. See Note [1].
3.) Restart your Mac.
4.) Log in to the affected account.
5.) Empty the Trash.
6.) Verify that the problem is solved. If not:
a. Trash the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file in the Home > Library > Preferences folder of the affected account. See Note [3].
b. Repeat steps 1-5.
do see the notes on his site.Make sure you understand the directions before you apply, as with all directions