Tiger's Slow and Painful Death

Question

I love Apple and always trust it but recently every time I use it things are doing the "Unexpectedly Quit". It used to happen every once in a while, but now It's becoming rare that I can open an application and keep it open for the entire time I want it to. I am also getting the spinning rainbow and having to force quit many applications. It's gotten to the point where I can't use it anymore! PLEASE HELP!
Flat Pannel iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

I suggest you restart, and run the Unix File System Check Utility (FSCK).
Actions:
Restart
Before you hear to tones of restart, hold down two keys:
Command Key and S
This should boot you into UNIX.
Once the code stops, type the following commands precisely as below:
sbin/fsck -f -n
This should begin running the FSCK routine. Depending on the speed of your machine this may take a couple of minutes.
If it says "Your Mac needs repair," then
redo the FSCK commands. Do this until it reads
"Your Mac appears OK"
Then type:
reboot
on the command line and you will be back in GUI.
See if that doesn't help. If it doesn't, then download Clam and see if you have picked up some sort of a virus that may be causing problems (unlikely but not utterly out of the question).
It costs a bit, but you might consider purchasing either Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro. These are what the Apple Geniuses typically use at the Apple Stores to try to software fix your machine. I always keep a copy of both, and always upgrade, because they really come in handy when problems such as the one you describe occur. Diskwarrior is faster.
Another thing you should consider is to reformat your hard drive. I do this about once every year or so on all my machines. The reason is that the hard drive (and CD/DVD) are the only mechanical parts on today's computers. The hard drive is almost always spinning at 5400 RPM, thus they physically wear. This can cause directory structure problems. Simply make a copy of your system to an external USB or Firewire drive (I recommend SuperDuper for this, because it makes a bootable exact copy of your previous system). Then use DiskUtility from your bootable external drive to reformat the Macintosh Hard Drive. Then clone from your external back to Macintosh Hard drive, and any wear problems should have disappeared. Like I said, I do this every year or so on every machine. You can buy 100 Gig or more externals for a very limited amount of money. I recommend La Cie drives due to their quality and durability. (I back up everything I am working on every day).
One Final Suggestion. If you have Tech Tool Pro, and you didn't reformat your drive, then Optomize it. Files get our of sequence as you use them, and particularly so if you have limited Hard Drive Space. The parts of files get fragmented, somtimes all over a drive due to being rewritten in space that is available. Optomizing resequences the files, which usually results in a huge time gain.
There are probably good freeware Optimizers or Disk Utilities available, but since I have been using Warrior and Tech Tool for perhaps 10 years now, I always have the most up to date versions.
If none of that works you might want to take your machine to an Apple Store or a Mac repair place. Tiger shouldn't be acting like that, it is quite a robust system.
Why they suggested MacJanitor
It is because you use sleep. Usually your system runs its routine maintenance between roughly 1 AM and 4 AM in the morning, but if it is in Sleep, then this maintenance won't occur. I also use Sleep and use MacJanitor about once a week or so to clean up.
Good Luck