cannot install programs on startup disk

[goldaline]

this is what happens when i try to install itunes 7 and quicktime 7.1.3, respectively. i thought maybe the itunes error message was because i didn't have quicktime 7.1.3 (i have quicktime pro 7.1.2) installed and apparently it requires it. so i tried that, and can't install quicktime either. i went into disk utility and ran verify on my hard disk...found a header problem, booted from the cd and ran the repair, also did repair permissions...didn't help.

now that i hear about all the itunes 7 bugs, i don't care about installing it anymore until it's been updated once or twice... but i'd rather solve this mystery sooner than later.

next step is calling customer support. i have applecare so it's not a big deal but i'd rather not call if it's something stupid and easily fixable, like 99% of all the weird little things that have happened to my mac.

the only issue i can think of that is preventing me from installing quicktime is that i ran one of those language deleting programs awhile ago...i think this one was called delocalizer and it gets rid of all space hogging language support files except for english. but in the hundreds of feedback comments on versiontracker, there are no bug reports and in checking around on the net, i haven't found anything describing my issue, and i can't be the only person who has run that program and tried to install quicktime or itunes since. anyways, when i saw the 'language' error message on the quicktime install, i reinstalled all the languages from the os x cd. still nothing. and then, just for the hell of it, i downloaded an older version of itunes (6.0.4) and got the same error message. so it can't be because of quicktime... for itunes 6, you only needed quicktime 7.0.3 or higher, which i have.

pretty sure this must be apple-specific too, because i've had no problems installing third-party software.

hmph.

any ideas?

oh yeah...i'm running 10.4.7 on a G4 powerbook, 1GB RAM, 1.67GHz blah blah blah.

thanks for any help!

[DeltaMac]

You should try the standard troubleshooting suggestions:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ (see the "My Mac needs help" section)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

In particular, be sure to try logging in as a different user to see if the problem exists there. (Create a new user via the Accounts preference panel if you only have the one user account so far.) Try both installs when logged in as that new user (be sure to make the account an admin account)

[goldaline]

thanks! those links will help for future reference, definitely...but did not provide a solution for my current situation. i was hoping it was something easy like that. i zapped PRAM, reset PMU, ran single user mode disk repair, etc, etc, etc. the problem persists on my two other user accounts (one admin and one standard). no dice.

so i just wound up doing an archive & install this morning...something i wanted to stay away from since i'm neck deep in a bunch of time-sensitive projects in photoshop and illustrator and didn't want to deal with whatever problems might crop up. but figured no point in waiting around, i'd just have to do it anyways, not just to cure the installation issues but some other wonky things that have been going on.

the actual process went fine, but as expected, i did run into a few issues with applications not working afterwards. had to reinstall photoshop and aperture. everything else seems to be ok though. it took care of whatever was preventing me from installing quicktime and itunes...i'd like to know what the problem was, but meh...guess it doesn't matter much.

thanks for the help!