Finder Crashes regularly

Fred Flinstone

Fred Flinstone

XP Divorcee - Mac Virgin
Hi I did try to find a threat that related specifically to the problem I have before posting this but couldn't find one. What I did find related more to g4's and not Intel.

On other forums there was advice to look in '~/library/Contextual meno items' and all I find there are 3 plugins - no suggestion as what to do next so I came back here for help.

Specifically when I right click in finder to cut and paste perhaps 6/10 the Finder Crashes and relaunches..... I didn't have this problem up to about a month ago.I am now wondering if it is perhaps a memory-related issue.

I use both disk warrior and system prefs to reset preferences and defrag the machine routinely once a week but still the problem persists

I am running 10.4.8 on the standard 1Gb that the machine shipped with. Can anyone please help
 
What did you do with the Contextual menu items you found?

Move them to /Users/Shared temporarily. Log out, then log back in.

Use the machine for a while and try the routines that normally cause your Finder to crash.
Crashing gone? If so, it's one of those Contextual menu items that was causing the crashing.

List the names of the Contextual menu items that you found in case someone has had problems with one of them.
 
Up to now I did nothing with them as the thread on the other forun just said look in the folder - not what the next step would be.

Thanks a lot for the advice - I will give this a shot and report back here
 
Missing information:
Mac model.

'... and all I find there ('~/Library/Contextual Menu Items') are 3 plugins - no suggestion as what to do next so I came back here for help.' - normally, a '~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/' folder does not exist. It can be created by the user and / or during the installation process by a third party application (installer).
Reply with the specific names of three (3) files (which should have been identified, in the original post).

'I use both 'Disk Warrior' and 'System Preferences' to reset preferences and defrag the machine routinely once a week but still the problem persists' - neither 'Disk Warrior', nor any Apple provided utility - listed in 'System Preferences' resets preferences or de fragments a volume.
Not specified was / were the actual 'System Preferences', or stand alone, utility / utilities (and the web site it was obtained from, if obtained in such manner) used.

'Specifically when I right click in finder to cut and paste perhaps 6/10 the Finder Crashes and relaunches..... I didn't have this problem up to about a month ago. I am now wondering if it is perhaps a memory-related issue.' - chances are it is not a memory related problem.
It may still be a contextual menu item problem. You did not mention looking into, and identifying, the name(s) of the '/Library/Contextual Menu Items/' folder contents, if any exist. It is in this folder where many third party software installs related files.

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An example of solving a contextual menu 'Copy' selection and crashing 'Finder':

'StuffIt Deluxe for Mac' version 11.0.2 was installed on a G4, and the user did not log out - log in, nor reset the Mac (as suggested during the installation process). When, in 'Finder', selecting a file or files, and / or folder(s) and then doing a contextual menu 'Copy ...' selection - the 'Finder' would randomly quit and re-launch. Resetting the Mac and repeating the above steps would still result in 'Finder' randomly quitting (and relaunching).

'MagicMenu' was quitted, via the upper right menu bar icons' menu list, and removed from the users' 'System Preferences' 'Accounts' 'Login Items' list. Also, the 'StuffItCM.plugin' file was removed from the '/Library/Contextual Menu Items/' folder and placed into a newly created '/Library/Contextual Menu Items_disabled/' folder.
The Mac was restarted (rebooted), and has not experienced a 'Finder' quit and relaunch since.
 
I did mention originally that it is an intel mac running 10.4.8

Hi I did try to find a threat that related specifically to the problem I have before posting this but couldn't find one. What I did find related more to g4's and not Intel.

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am running 10.4.8 on the standard 1Gb that the machine shipped with. Can anyone please help
Click to expand...

Maybe I have to specify it's an iMac and not a Macbook - lest there be any big difference - the spec is still Intel and the OS is still 10.4.8!

Contextual menu items were moved as suggested to the User/shared directory and I logged out and back in as suggested.

The cmi's are:

File Buddy CM.plugin
Graphc ConverterCMI.plugin
Toastit.plugin

I reset permissions using Disk warrior and Disk Utility (sorry I mentioned System Prefs before)

I then defragged with iDefrag

The problem still persists.

moving the cmi's alone does not solve the problem......

Troubleshooting done (and failing) I have moved the cmi's back to their original location for the time being.

What next?
 
Did you check for Contextual Menu Items in the root Library, too? If there's anything there, drag it out and reboot (I'm not sure if merely logging out will do the trick in this case).
 
Yes. Fred, you need to look also in /Library. That is, at the main level of your hard drive, there is also a library folder that can contain cmis.

Check there. Move any you find to a neutral location (not your desktop).
If that fails to resolve the issue, then I would then suspect a corrupt file on the desktop (/Users/FredFlinstone/Desktop, aka that thing you are looking at when no windows of any kind are open).
It's another possibility, anyway.
 
Gentlemen - thank you all for your help.

Seems the problem was the stuffit cmi which is now sitting in a neutral folder.

Is this the end of the saga or do I need that cmi? Can I delete it? Is there a fix for it now thatthe problem has been identified?

This problem was driving me nuts! Now I can breath again for a while at least!
 
Bobw had a fix for the problem in this thread, but it looks like the link for the plug-in is not working right now. Think you might have to email smithmicro to get the patch.

I recently had to reinstall Tiger and my Stuffit CM plugin was gone after that.
 
Fred Flinstone said:
Gentlemen - thank you all for your help.

Seems the problem was the stuffit cmi which is now sitting in a neutral folder.

Is this the end of the saga or do I need that cmi? Can I delete it? Is there a fix for it now thatthe problem has been identified?

This problem was driving me nuts! Now I can breath again for a while at least!
Click to expand...

I am a little late in stepping into this thread, but in general when having these kinds of problems a fairly easy way of checking preference / plugin problems (especially USER specific) is by creating another user and check if the problem still exists. In this way it is not necessary to change anything to a users configuration.


Good luck, Kees
 
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