Blue Screen when logging user out

[tsellon]

The last few days we've had the blue screen freeze whenever one of us logs in or out, which forces us to shut down and restart the computer each time we need to change users (there are 4 in my family using my mac).
The internet cable guy said this is the "blue screen of death". I'm technically challenged so have no idea what this means but it certainly doesn't sound very pleasant.
I'm OS 10.4

 

[Satcomer]

The internet cable guy is not trained nor uses any Macs so he has zero clue what is going on. The blue screen upon login or logout means something (an application or third party plugin) is hanging.

Log in with a administrator account (check your accounts in System Preferences->Accounts) and in the Accounts pane check to see what are the Login Items.

Plus have you done any maintenance ever on that Mac? You can regularly run cleaning programs like Yasu or Onyx and run the cleaning programs. Once they restart your Machine manually restart to rebuild the shutdown caches.

Lastly check out what you Mac is telling what is wrong by looking at the logs by using /Applications/Utilities/Console and see what is hanging up you Mac.

Good Luck.

 

[tsellon]

Thank you! I'll give those a try. I just have a feeling my teenage daughter's downloads are probably getting my Mac in trouble. Wish I had more technical know-how, but I operate nearly entirely out of the right side of my brain. The left is foreign territory to me.