General System Troubleshooting

Sometimes the problem isn't iMovie or iDVD, but something in Mac OS X that's not behaving well. Try these steps, especially if you're seeing problems in other applications.

Repair Mac OS X permissions

For whatever reason, some of the thousands of files that Mac OS X relies on wind up with improper permissions. I've found that fixing permissions is often a good general cure-all for when my Mac starts getting flaky.

To repair Mac OS X permissions:

1.	Open Disk Utility, which is located within the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
2.	Select your main hard disk (your "boot drive") from the list at left.
3.	Switch to the First Aid tab.
4.	Click the Repair Disk Permissions button (Figure A.3). The process can take several minutes. Figure A.3. Repair disk permissions using Disk Utility to help improve performance.

Clean house with Onyx

Onyx (www.titanium.free.fr) is a splendid little utility that can perform all sorts of Mac OS X housecleaning chores, such as deleting cache files and performing daily maintenance routines. And it's free!