OS X Mavericks :: Any Operation Involving Finder Hangs - Beach Ball

Friend has 13" MBP mid 2010.  We upgraded to Mavericks about six weeks ago.  Then, about a month ago, any operation involving the Finder hangs, and I get a beach ball that lasts at least several minutes.  Other applications, like MS Office and browsers, are unaffected unless we try to open, save, or close a document.  Attempting to open any folder causes the same problem. 

I replaced his old hard drive with a new SSD and did a restore from TM, and the problem came back after a few days.  Otherwise the machine works fine.  Disk Utility reads fine. 

I created a new account as a test, and did not have the same problem.  So, I'm convinced it is something to do with his account, or with some app that affects his account.  It doesnt' seem to be a system problem because no one else in his SOHO is experiencing it.  And, because the second account works, I don't think it is a hardware problem like a bad cable (I've read lots about this).

I'm going to try to strip down the machine and delete a bunch of stuff like Dropbox, and I'll recreate his NAS access to see if that works.

His keychain won't remember one of two NAS passwords (I mount a TM volume and a production share on boot).  TM mounts automatically but the production mount asks for his password every time.  I've tried Keychain first aid. 

13" MBP, 4G RAM, 2.4G Intel Core Duo, Crucial MX100 256GB SSD (brand new).