Re: point me to a list of 'troubleshooting os x'

This page as well as the links off it may help:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25398

The "Missing Manual" by David Pogue is a good resource:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/macosxmm2/

Here's another site:

http://www.osxfaq.com/dailytips/

Apple's discussion boards:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/

And of course you can search the posts here at Creative Cow.

Tony!