Stan you are confusing me when you say...
Originally Posted By: stan
The 10.3 disks of which there are 3. I did not download the 3rd disk last time.

Correct terminology is important to understanding what you are doing. Are you actually downloading the disc images from an internet site or are you using the term downloading meaning installed?
  • If you are actually downloading the disc images from the internet then you are on your own because AFIK Apple has never made their install disc images available for download. So there is no way of telling what you are actually installing.
  • If you mean you are not downloading and instead are installing from the physical discs that came with your Mac, whether or not the third disc is used in the install depends on the install options chosen and I would not concern myself that the third disc was not used.

As to the version of
Originally Posted By: stan
MAIL, ADDRESS BOOK, CALCULATOR and now ACTIVITY MONITOR

When you performed the upgrade install of OS X 10.3 those applications are included in the standard installation and would have overwritten other versions unless you have moved the applications out of the /Applications folder or placed them in another folder in the /Applications folder. In that case you would have two copies of the applications on your system.

Your deteriorating situation does concern me. At this point, and assuming you have the original discs that came with your mac and are not using disc images downloaded from the internet, I suggest you...
  1. Boot from the Install Disk 1 that came with your Mac
  2. Select your language preference and continue with the Install process until you see the menu bar at the top of your screen
  3. When you see the menu bar go to Utilities > Disk Utility
  4. Select your hard drive and then click on Disk Repair
  5. If errors are found re-run Disk Repair until no errors are found or irreparable errors are found. If no errors are found skip to step 7
  6. If irreparable errors have been found you have essentially two options. The first is to obtain and use an industrial strength disk repair utility such as DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, or TechTool Pro and see if they can make the necessary repairs. The second alternative is to backup as much of your system as you can to the external hard drive and then perform an Erase & Install of OS X 10.3.
  7. Quite Disk Utility and continue the installation, but this time choose the Archive Install option. That will yeld a clean system to run from. Skip the remaining steps



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honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to
fill your head with information"
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