Weird and annoying problem: Apps not opening

[greystre3t]

Since yesterday, I've been having this strange problem. I have an 07 15' MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard. What has been happening is my application don't open (Mail and Safari are the only ones that do). So, I repaired permissions, held option, command, p, and r on the startup and now I just re-installed Snow Leopard (before I did, I booted from the disc, ran Disk Utility, and erased my hard drive). Now, after all that, Mail and Safari are still the only applications that open. So what is it that is causing my apps not to open?

I re-installed the OS again, but this time not restoring my Time Machine backup and everything went well. So, I'm assuming there's something in my backup that is causing this. Could it be a system file that is causing this? Should I re-install everything again? (including software) and just copy the documents I need (ex. school reports and portfolios) Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[earthsaver]

My first guess would be corrupt preferences. Anyone want to chime in with something more specific? Do you have AppleCare? If so, are you convenient to an Apple Store or authorized service provider who could help?

 

[greystre3t]

I do have Apple Care and I know I should definitely just call them, but it's always good to get some outside opinions. I guess I would be better off just calling them?

 

[djackmac]

If its a software problem which it sounds like it most definitely is, Applecare won't cover that. What might be best is to create a disk image of the drive and save to an external then load a clean OS. After loading the clean OS create a dummy user, run software updates, then go to applications/utilities/migration assistant and just migate the applications over. Test with dummy user account and if everything works use migration assistant again to migrate the user back in.

 

[greystre3t]

Including a problem with Snow Leopard? I didn't even install anything before it happened. Just turned it on one day to check my email and nothing was opening. The first time I called he asked me if any changes were made to the system. I guess i'll just try re-installing everything (and just restoring my school stuff and multimedia files).