Safari/iChat launch problems ?

(I believe I should have posted this question here rather than in
<comp.sys.mac.apps>, thus this is a double post with a different subject
name)



Need advice: I can't launch Safari or iChat. Or they launch after 5-10
minutes.

This started after I was trying to do a secure erase on an external
firewire hard drive.

I think Disk Utility hung because the progress bar wasn't advancing
after an hour and it never completed the process. So I had to do a Force
Quit of Disk Utility.

Thereafter, I've had problems with doing a normal Restart. That now
seems OK after a Force Restart and a couple of tries.

But what is still a problem is Safari and iChat won't launch or launch
after 5-10 minutes. This happens either from the dock or from their
original location. They either show the arrow below their icon in the
dock or they do the bouncing thing but they don't launch.

Any advice as how to repair. I've run DU and Disk Warrior but all was OK
and still doing it.

Thanks for any advice.

--
Please send email to: nwhiii at yahoo dot com

In article ,
Norm wrote:

> (I believe I should have posted this question here rather than in
> <comp.sys.mac.apps>, thus this is a double post with a different subject
> name)
>
>
>
> Need advice: I can't launch Safari or iChat. Or they launch after 5-10
> minutes.
>
> This started after I was trying to do a secure erase on an external
> firewire hard drive.
>
> I think Disk Utility hung because the progress bar wasn't advancing
> after an hour and it never completed the process. So I had to do a Force
> Quit of Disk Utility.
>
> Thereafter, I've had problems with doing a normal Restart. That now
> seems OK after a Force Restart and a couple of tries.
>
> But what is still a problem is Safari and iChat won't launch or launch
> after 5-10 minutes. This happens either from the dock or from their
> original location. They either show the arrow below their icon in the
> dock or they do the bouncing thing but they don't launch.
>
> Any advice as how to repair. I've run DU and Disk Warrior but all was OK
> and still doing it.
>
> Thanks for any advice.


Solved. But how/why???

OP Responding to my own post.

I set up a second User account. Logged In and tried to start Safari.
Same problem. I logged out. I logged back in to this second account and
tried again and Safari started right up as did iChat.

Went back to my account, they both worked.

Now I'm curious. Any ideas as to what was wrong and why now fixed by
this method. Hopefully a permanent fix.

Thank you.

--
Please send email to: nwhiii at yahoo dot com