Hello

I have a Mac mini using OS X 10.5.8. Recently I've been having problems that are becoming increasingly severe.

Particular symptoms:

1. Firefox "quits" but the dot on the dock remains. If I try shutting down at this point I can't and have to use the power button. I can't start Firefox either.

2. Significantly higher than normal crash rate for CS4 Illustrator Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

3. If Firefox remains open when sleeping the Mac, on waking up firefox is completely unresponsive and must be restarted. Can cause problem 1.

4. Today I lost all my FTP settings for Dreamweaver CS4

5. Bluetooth switches on when booting despite being switched off.

6. Network password retention is somewhat erractic.

7. Tried running Apple Hardware Test as described in the manual. Cannot access install disk by pressing D at startup.

8. My pen tablet (Bamboo) lost my preferences. Tried unstalling software and now cannot re-install.

I've never had problems of this level outside warranty before so I don't know much about debugging Macs.

Solutions attempted:

1. Disable bluetooth (see problem 5)
2. Disable time machine
3. Run appple harware test (see problem 7)
4. Tried using activity monitor but don't know which processes are normal
5. Tried uninstalling more recent software.

I don't have any idea what to do. It seems like a hard disk failure but I don't have the know how to continue.