Logging in problem

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On restarting, my iMac is stuck on the logging in stage and I had the spinning colored disc for about 6 - 7 mintes. Now there is just the background screen image but with no icons/ dock etc. Any suggestions, please?
 
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Hi Kaveman

I have a account called "test" that I set up on the advice of the Apple help line some time ago.
 
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Not yet - I'm waiting for the machine to log me out of the current one. Everyting is happening at a snail's pace at the moment.
 
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Ok, that means there is a problem with either your HD or your install of OSX. Grap yourself a FireWire Drive and do a full TimeMachine backup.

Reformat your Drive.

Reinstall OSX, Create an Admin Account with a different name from your Standard account, migrate back your User Account.
 
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Thanks Kaveman. I'll let you know how I get on.

I turned it on this morning, having shut down last night, and it came on immediately. This is what usually happens and, on past form, I anticipate that it will work fine today and probably for several days.
 
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Hi Kaveman

Sorry I haven't told you how I got on, as I promised. It's because I haven't reinstalled OSX yet because I have been shutting down each night rather than putting the machine to sleep. This seems to have solved my immediate problem as the spinning ball seldom appears now.

Looking at the activity monitor, the green free sector of the system memory gets smaller whilst the blue inactive sector grows throughout the day to the point where it is less than 1GB of my 4GB of memory. If the spinning ball is going to appear it is at this time of day with the smallest amount of free space available that it shows. When I turn on in the morning, after all my usual applications have opened, there is about half of the disc free.

Phil
 
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It sounds like an Application is leaking.

Do you use and Adobe or MicroSoft apps, if so, then ensure you have Quit them and not just closed the last Window. File > Quit (Command-Q)

Another way to try and track down the App is to check Activity Monitor and see what App is taking up more and more RAM.
 
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I do have these apps but I do quit them rather than just closing the last window.

Hi Kaveman
I've been looking at the Activity Monitor again and I can't see anything that takes up a very large proportion of the RAM. Firefox is always at the top of the list but so it is on my Macbook Air with no problem. However, there is some running on the iMac called kernel_task that takes up 374 MB of Real Mem that does not appear on the activity monitor on my Macbook Air (which also runs Snow Leopard). Could this perhaps be the problem?
Phil
 
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Kaveman

Problem now solved: the hard disc died and has been replaced. Thanks for your suggestions. And thanks to my external hard drive and Time Machine.

Phil
 

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