system preferences wont open

A

aife

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Hi , I'm a recent convert to macs and dont have much technical knowledge so any advice welcome ...
I'm running osxtiger on a second hand powermac G4 which was fine until yesterday when I found I couldnt open system preferences - nothing happens when I click on it in the menu, dock or applications . I checked the info. panel and 'read only' is shown in permissions but I can't change it as it's greyed out . Tonight I still cant open it and now Safari wont launch either, although explorer will . I had a software update downloaded last night , could this have anything to do with it ? ( although I think the systems preferences problem was before that ) . Any suggestions or will I have to reinstall OSX ? Would prefer not to as Im not sure how to ...

Aife
 
Well don't reinstall just yet. Try these steps to try to fix the problem.

1) Download Yasu and run the program. See if that fixes it.
2) Reset your PRAM.
3) Try to launch the program from the location /Applications/System Preferences . Tell us if that works. If it does, drag that to your Doc (after dragging out the old shortcut in the Doc).

This may help.
 
'... had a software update downloaded last night , could this have anything to do with it ?' - yes, if you did 'not' perform a 'Repair Disk Permissions' operation.

To 'Repair Disk Permissions' ...
01. Run 'Disk Utilities' (in the '/Applications/Utilities/' folder).
02. Click on the boot drive in the left hand side list.
03. Click on the 'First Aid' tab.
04. Click on the 'Repair Disk Permissions' button. When the process is finished, click on the 'Repair Disk Permissions' button again.

Now try launching your problematic applications. Any success?
 
Thanks for the quick reply !
Tried all of the above except Yasu ( downloaded it but cant get it to run ) ,
nothing seems to make any difference . Do I need to reinstall ?
Dont know if Yasu not opening is connected to the same problem , any thoughts ?
Thanks for the advice anyway
Aife
 
I'm having the same problem on a customers computer. They don't know what they did to make it happen. Don't mean to hijack your thread but the other problems on the computer that may be related to this are:
- Under the main persons account (a kid) the wireless icon in the top-right that allows you to select a network and shows signal strenght is missing. He can't get online wirelessly.
- Under a different persons account, somebody that barely uses that computer, the icon is there and she can get online.
- Under niether account does the Network Configuration program open up, instead is just a folder with a single file in it, I think it has the word 'panel' ub ut.

And of course the System Preferences doesn't open at all. It also does not appear under /Applications/Utilities and I did a search for it but couldn't find it.

I'm not a Mac user but I have fixed quite a few and I use linux, I'm pretty lost when it comes to troubleshooting something this low level.

Right now doing some research online for how to possible run a repair as is possible with Win XP. Also have found: http://homepage.mac.com/jonn8/as/html/pt.html which is a script that's supposed to find and fix corrupt preference files.

Will monitor this thread and update if I find more info or get a fix, I plan on going back to the customers today or tomorrow to try some things.
 
Thanks .
I now have a worse problem ... as I wasnt getting anywhere I decided to reinstall OSX , it seemed to be going ok until the point where you restart the computer , when it restarted I got the grey screen with apple logo and nothing else . Tried safe mode etc. with no luck then tried restarting in single user mode - got a couple of pages of various messages inc. 'failed to load extension ' couldnt alloc. class' RTC did not show up etc , then ' still waiting for root device ' ad. infinitum tried typing in the text youre supposed to enter but it didnt seem to register ( didnt appear on screen ) also tried just waiting but gave up after an hour
Is there any point leaving it longer ? anything else I can try or have I inadvertently done some kind of irrepareable damage ?
 
I actually fixed the problem by copying the System Preferences.app from the OS X DVD to his Applications folder using Pacifist. I also copied over the Mousepref.pane (I think that's what it was called) because it was missing.

*The wireless icon was not showing up because it was ticked off in the Internet Connection app.

Don't know how to help you with your installation issues. Perhaps start a different thread regarding that.
 
Aife,

Welcome to MacOSX.com!

Though I'm not sure I would have recommended you reinstall your system, since you already did, try this:

1. Back up any critical data such as your documents in the Documents folder that is in your home folder--if that's where you save your documents. Back up anything you wouldn't want to lose.

** Warning ** Installing or reinstalling can possibly cause data loss. You may lose important files. Be sure to have a backup plan. Consider buying a backup program such as Dantz' Retrospect for Mac. Roxio's disc burning software called Toast can now back up files by spanning stuff across CDs or DVDs.

2. Put your OS X system disc (disc 1) into the drive and restart the computer. If your machine won't boot, you will probably have to hold down the (left or only) mouse button as you turn the machine on. The drive should open. Put in your system disc. You may have to hold the power button down for several seconds to turn the machine off. When you turn it back on, it should close the drive tray.
3. As soon as your Mac restarts, hold down the C key to boot from the cd.
4. Select the "archive and install" option. This will back up your old OS install and install a new one.

Let us know if that fixes your problem.

Doug
 
Ive tried reinserting the disk but nothing happens ... I bought the mac 2nd hand so only have a copy of osx 10 ( which was supplied on 1 dvd ) , but do have the original apple system restore & software restore disks , no luck with them either .
Im using a Lacie firewire dvd drive as the superdrive broke ( wouldnt open and after a few times using forced eject I think a band came loose or something ) Does pressing C during start up still work with an external drive ? Tried reinstalling the Lacie software for the drive but doesnt seem to recognise that either
Thanks again to everyone who replied , have posted as a new thread as its a different problem now ...
 
[*** EDIT: When I typed this, I forgot that you aren't able to OPEN System Preferences. So, obviously, if that's still true, this won't work for you.***]

You may be able to set your external DVD drive as the startup disc. Put your OS X system disc into the external drive.

Go to System Preferences, select Startup Disk, and wait until all disks are recognized. Click to select the system disc in the external drive.

Finally, click restart.

Doug
 
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