One user account freezes on startup; others fine

A

Audiomajik

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I'm on a G5 in OS X 10.3.9 running a few user accounts. The main one (aside from the system admin account) has quite a bit of software on it and it freezes on startup while the others work fine. I don't think its a RAM issue because I also run an external drive from time to time and it works perfectly. Something I've installed is freezing the system under the one user account but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions?
 
On that Account run /Applications/Utilities/Access Monitor to see if any program is running wild. Also check System Preferences->Accounts, Log In tab to see if has bad Startup program.
 
The comp freezes before the login is finished. I can't even access that account. That account is an administrator. I can only login as system administrator. Access Monitor turned up thousands and thousands of files.
 
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On that account login via Safe mode via that account. Once in there go to /Applications/Utilities/Console and see what is holding up logging into that account earlier that day by viewing the logs. Plus remove any third party startup applications I mentioned earlier.
 
My comp is not letting me boot into safe mode for some reason. It just loads and then restarts. I'm not able to log into the account that's giving me trouble without it freezing up first. It freezes before the hard drive icons even appear.
 
This has to be a bad/incompatable software issue, right? None of the other accounts are having issues or problems with log ins. Could it be a bad font installed in photoshop? What could cause a freeze that occurs before the icons even appear on the desktop?
 
Could be something that's set to auto-launch at login.

Try logging in holding down the Shift key (that should prevent any login items from launching)... enter the username and password, and hold down the shift key while you click the "Login" button. Keep shift held down until one of two things happens:

1) The desktop appears normally, or...
2) You experience the freeze.

If you can log in normally, check what login items are set for that user account.

Also, when you say the computer freezes, how long have you let it sit there? Perhaps it's not totally frozen, and just logging in r... e... a... l... l... y... slow... if you let it sit there (for an hour, two hours, etc.), and the desktop eventually appears, then you can check the login items for some offending program.
 
Well, it definitely freezes - TOTALLY. I can't log in via holding shift. It just restarts. I'm sure its some sort of corrupt file somewhere because I'm in the system administrator's account now and two other people use the computer and have no problems logging into their accounts. I'm at my wit's end here. I really need to get back into my own account and I'm out of ideas. What software will test a specific account (if any)? Also, is there a place where i can look and see what startup items are for that account? (I'm on 10.3.9). The other account is an admin account.
 
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