# Strange Leopard behavior



## chemistry_geek (Feb 18, 2009)

I just upgraded my PowerMac G5 to Leopard last month, successfully integrated all information from a corrupted hard drive that could not start up.  Every was working fine until a few Leopard upgrades.

System startup used to take just a few seconds, now takes almost a minute.

I cannot move icons to new locations in the dock.  I cannot add new icons to the dock by dragging and dropping.  I can keep icons in the dock once the application opens.

OpenOffice for X11 no longer works, however, the GIMP does, as does GKrellM.

I have Time Machine activated, however, I do not completely understand 'what' happens if I use the 'Go Back' feature.  Will I lose any files that I have since placed on my computer, will I lose email?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.


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## Satcomer (Feb 18, 2009)

Trust me when I say IMHO you did a standard Upgrade and have a bunch of old code fighting with the new code. When a Mac user goes to a new OS x then they should have used the Archive & Install. This way you would have started with a fresh system while keeping your saved User information. 

Now I also have a dual G5 and had two drives go south in the last year. It seems either OS x is harsh on hard drives or manufactures are not making drives as robust as they used to just a few years ago. So did you boot with the Leopard install Disk and then used Disk Utility to see if you can repair the disk. Then buy a external firewire hard disk case and a new drive and then transfer your personal info back over from the firewire (that has you old disk in it).

Lastly I highly suggest you get IMHO the best OS X disk fix program called Disk Warrior.


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## andychrist (Feb 19, 2009)

For what it's worth, chemistry_geek, my install of Leopard on a G4 has also become much slower to boot since the last couple of updates.  But it sounds like your Dock and Office problems might be from having copied data over from a corrupted HD-- have you tried reinstalling OpenOffice or creating a new user account?


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## xserve@home (Mar 26, 2009)

AS far as the time machine question goes... You can "go back" and pull forward individual files.  If you boot from the Leopard installation disk you can do a full system restore from time machine from the utilities menu.


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## chemistry_geek (Mar 27, 2009)

Just wanted to clarify that the installation I performed was not an upgrade.  It was a fresh installation, and the dock behave normally for the first few point fixes.  OpenOffice worked fine too, then on the last upgrade, the strange behavior started.

Last night I the computer simply locked up, which it has never done.  I turned off the power and restarted, and for 1.5 hours, the computer would either turn on with the startup chime and do nothing, or it simply would not turn on.  That sounds like a hardware issue to me.  Two years ago I had to replace the power supply - that made the loudest 'pop' I ever want to hear from a computer.  I eventually left the machine off and unplugged from the power for about 30 minutes, started it and it seems to be working fine now.

I'm not as concerned about hardware but I NEED my data, essentially, my life is on that computer.

I think it's time to buy another Mac, prolly a Mac Mini, since Pfizer just laid me off.


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