Security Preference Pane . . . She Dead!

[Doctor X]

So once again trying to figure out something, I happened to click on my Security preference pain in the System Preferences.

It never loaded.

Never.

Finally the System Preferences will crash.

I tried all of my other preference panes--all work immediately.

Now I clone my Int-HD on not one, but two Ex-HD. Live and learn. So I can screw around a bit without losing my data. Neat. Unfortunately, the Security preference panes are brok'd on my clones as well.

Searching HERE, I trashed the plist for System Preference--no fixee.

I trashed the Preference pane, replaced it with the one from my Snow Leopard Install disk with Pacifist--no workee.

I trashed that Preference pane, used Pacifist to open the 10.6.4 Combo-Update I down loaded, installed it . . . no workee.

So I downloaded the 10.6.4 C-U Preference pane . . . put it on one of the Ext-HD, trashed the Preference pane, then tried to open the Preference pane on the Ext-HD.

I told me it would install it . . . and nothing happened . . . until it crashed.

So I tried again--System Preferences now has a "pane" that is "com.apple.preference.security" that will not actually load. Click it again . . . crash.

So . . . on a lark, I reinstalled Snow Leopard . . . this gave me a nice clean System without any of my settings--yeeeeesssss some programs do not "like" it when you down grade. The Security Preference pane worked.

So I then made the mistake of using Migration Assistant to bring "me" over from a clone--saying "yes, you can replace moi"--resulting in a duplication of me . . .

I have the feeling I am missing something very simple that would fix this. I even repaired permissions.

The odd thing is, that was not the Preference pane I needed and I hardly ever need it.

Suggestions?

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

RESOLUTION!

After some searching, I found the following:

I was having the same problem on my MacBook and MacBook Pro. To fix the problem, try removing all duplicate fonts from your computer. Use Font Book or whatever font management program you are using to identify the duplicate fonts. I suggest using Font Book because it was easy to identify the system fonts (which you do not want to delete or you'll cripple your system). Don't just disable the duplicates they have to be deleted. Once you have successfully purged your system of all dups you'll be able to open the security preference panel. Definitely a pain, but it will help in other areas as well.

Security Preference Pane Freezes

--J.D.