[G4] Spinning Beach Ball for Everything - HELP ! ! !

[J.R.Rosen]

GOOD AFTERNOON LISTERS !

I have a G4-1gHz-MP (2002 Quicksilver), running 10.4.11 (8S165) with  
1.5GB RAM.  I performed the security updates last week, along with  
the iTunes 8.0 update so I could load the latest iPhone software update.

All was great until this morning... for no certain reason everything  
came to a screeching halt when everything I clicked on turned into a  
beach ball!  The beach balls are spinning from 15 seconds up to   
minute - this is very frustrating!  Just scrolling down an email  
causes a beach ball!

I am in Houston where we just finished with a hurricane, and our DSL  
is kind-of "iffy" right now.  I unplugged the computer and moved it  
to high-ground during the storm, and there was no damage whatsoever.   
When I plugged it back in on Monday (9/15), it told me that the date/ 
time was not correct, but it performed very well up until today  
(9/17).  I do not turn-off the computer, I just log-out in the  
evenings.  Yes, it's on a surge-protector.

I have restarted into single user mode and run Applejack - all OK.   
Then no changes, so I went into single user mode and just ran a "fsck  
-f"... once again A-OK!

Pulled up Activity Monitor... "kernel_task" is the memory-hog @  
109.41mb of "real" memory and 1.05gb of "virtual" memory.  I did a  
google-search for kernel_task and got a "geek-report" that actually  
said nothing in layman's terms.

Could this be a battery problem?  If not, any ideas would be  
appreciated.

Please help... I'm pulling out my hair at an alarming rate... this is  
very frustrating!

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP ! ! !

J. R. Rosen
Armadillo Press-Printing & Graphics
305 Wells Fargo Dr., Suite 4
Houston, TX 77090
281-586-9383 (phone)
281-586-9876 (fax)
281-467-5366 (cell)
jrosen82 at sbcglobal.net
dilloman at armadillo-press.com
www.armadillo-press.com