I remembered installing the 10.4.2 update on the PowerBook that had eventually had the problem while backing up with Deja Vu (which uses psync). On the PowerBook that worked, I installed 10.4.2 without anything running. I decided that perhaps something got munged during the install on the problematic PowerBook. Unfortunately, I couldn't trace anything down that was easily fixed.

I was able to fix the problem, but it required a reinstall of 10.4 (I did archive and install), then upgraded to 10.4.2. I archived so that I could move everything back, except the haxies, which I also reinstalled. Now everything works fine.

Wish I had an easier fix (I tried everything I could, but nothing worked), or a clue as to why the haxies had problems.

Good Luck!