I used SuperDuper to create a mirror image of my SSD boot drive on one of the partitions on the external drive. Thinking it wise to actually check to see if the partition would boot, I used System Preferences to point to the new boot drive and restarted the ol' 2008 8x2.8 Mac Pro.
All seemed well with the startup from the new boot device. But when I tried to go to System Preferences on this system, the app failed without ever initializing a window.
I'm not talking about the System Preferences app itself, I'm talking about the settings within the app. So for instance, the security settings, and the mouse settings, energy saver, etc.
Where can I find the settings files on my Mac so I can back them up?
could not be sure whether the Admin user - password reset with the CD would be the solution to my question as suggested in previous threads I searched - and have no idea where my start up install CD is
So my question-
I was trying to put parental control to ask for password when my computer starts up. I did something I guess and messed up the info.
I can log in with my own account when I restart my apple - which says now it is a standard account (must have messed that up)- but can not make any changes on system preferences or anything else that requires login and password. It requires Admin info. My own login that I use now used to be my admin so do not have any other info set.
now on system pref - accounts - an account titled "test" seems to be admin but can not even access that and reverse myself to be the admin since I can not unlock system pref. Or cant click on "Login Options" for the same reason.
There are no other users on this computer than me.
I recently took the plunge and installed Lion after being content with Snow Leopard....well now I have quite a few issues. When I open system preferences for some reason it automatically opens to Network...why I'm not sure. When I click show all, then click sharing, I can't make any changes in the Sharing preferences without my entire system locking up. I can't force quit or anything. I can still use the mouse but all I have is the rainbow wheel!
I have searched and searched and haven't been able to fix it. I have tried booting into the Guest account and the same problem happens there. I have trashed all the plist files everyone says to try. I have tried repairing permissions etc. I feel like I have tried everything. Is there anything else that I can do without have to do a clean re-install. I'm hearing if I do this that I won't be able to migrate my files from by backups due to permission problems?
I also took a look at my system log and it is full of this! Jul 3 22:24:26 jessica-imac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service[1307]): Exited with code: 1 Jul 3 22:24:26 jessica-imac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds .....
I have just loaded the new operating system snow leapord on my Imac and now am having MAJOR problems with my Quickbooks 2009 for mac. Is anyone experiencing a high frequency of Quickbooks quitting during operations and getting a crash failure?
My primary MacBook is suddenly now powering up - Tried the power management reset....removing battery/power and attempting restart after 12 hours and so forth. Does this sound like Logic board? Is there a chance the HD data can be retrieved if it would be installed in another MacBook or...if Logic board is repaired?
I have a 1 TB LaCie Big Disk Extreme 2 that is actually made up of 2 500GB drives. It failed on me. I have most of it backed up but there are a few things I would like to recover. I tested another power cord and it didn't work. So I talked to a few people and they said that if I bought a new seagate controller board that matches my 500GB drives identically I would be able to get the data off one drive at a time. There is some good and some bad. When I tested the new controller board on each drive (one at a time only because I only have one new controller board) they both started up normally! Success I thought.. but no.. Both Leopard and XP said "drive needs to be formatted" or "initialized".
when power pressed to boot, it will go into boot, but then the screen starts flickering from dim to bright a clicking sound is heard, the power cord on the side changes from dark to light amber. the screen then goes to black. some times am able to get to log in then it just goes black.- More information- my harddrive had been making erratic noises for about... 3-4 months. some loud clicking... in thinking that the hd failed i bought a 160gb WD Scoirpio blue IDE drive... These problems still persist. even when i option to start up with my external drive, which i have mirrored my hard drive. it will boot up for the external then this clicking noise as noted above.
My IMac crashes sometimes very suddenly, like in a power failure. It doesn't force quit or shut down, it just goes like somebody pulled the plug. It's usually possible to start it up again after 30minutes or an hour. The plug and lead seem to be fine. I tested it on another mac. The obvious suspicion would be overheating, but how can that be caused so suddenly (and how can I fix it)? It's an IMac Intel core duo, 20", 2 ghz, 2gb ram from 2006. I'm running Mac OS X (10.4.11) 2006.
I have a macbook a little over a year old. It's my first mac and I love it. Yesterday though it started acting really weird. I first noticed that it was really, really hot and the fan was running. I turned it off and back on and here's what I found out:
Applications are being deleted from macbook. ITunes, IPhoto, iChat have clear question marks over icon. There are 8-10 blank spaces in the Applications folder where applications have been deleted. However, data is still there (ex. pictures still there, but no iPhoto).
Internet= Says I have internet but wont connect.
Cannot open " System Preferences" or "Internet Preferences".
If connected to home computer will connect to internet and allowed to open internet preferences but still no system preferences.
If shut down....takes a while to come back on and starts up 2-3 times.
Also "Preview" is gone. Now " ColorSync Utility" opens.
Is this my hard drive dying? I'm tech challenged, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
It looks like the hard disk in my 1.5 year old iMac (24" 3.06 C2D, running 10.6) suddenly failed today. I woke the mac up from sleep and pretty much immediately I got a spinning beach ball. The system was totally unresponsive so I did a hard reset. Unfortunately the blinking "?" folder came up on the gray screen, instead of the familiar Apple logo. Booted off the OS X disk and ran Disk Utility. The hard disk comes up as "media" and unrecognized by the system. So no First aid or formatting possible. I'm guessing the hard disk has given up but before purchasing a new one I want to rule out anything more serious like motherboard issues.
I have an original MacBook Pro 15" (A1150) that randomly shuts down. Seems to be running very hot. I've already had to replace a bulging battery, and TechTool Pro has indicated a temperature-related S.M.A.R.T. failure with the HD.
If I downgrade the HD from 7200 RPM to 5400 RPM, will that help with the heat issues? Any other heat-related fixes? I know the 13" MacBook Pro suffered a random shutdown syndrome, but I didn't know if the 15" was affected too.
Macbook Pro won't boot. Symptoms preceding failure included failure to open Firefox. When trying to cold boot I can get as far as the start-up sound, the Apple logo, and the spinning whieel (spins for a bit but not for very long) and then major failure. Not running Liom.
Info: imac 10.1, Mac OS X (10.6.2), also have macbook pro running os 10.5
When I go into system preferences a screen comes up saying my network settings have been changed by another application. I can't delete this or get into system preferences.
When I try to change the keyboard system preferences or the bluetooth system preferences, the 'application' locks up (Doesn't bring up any details, force quit gets out of it). I've tried leaving it for ages to see if it eventually opens but it doesn't.
This means I can't use any bluetooth devices or change the keyboard shortcuts.
It only happens on one of my otherwise identical Mac Pros; the other is fine.
Any clues as to how to repair it? I tried reinstalling Snow Leopard but that didn't help. I didn't do a clean install though as I'd rather put up with it than make a clean install work with all the apps etc.
In System preferences > Security> Firewall> Advance, I see two iStatLocalDaemon. How come there are two? Is this normal and if not, what is the problem?
I'm trying to do some work in the system prefs, and the app. just won't open. Sometimes it just bounces in the dock bar, and other times it does nothing.
I just bought a new iMac on Aug. 7. When I enter System Preferences and they Display/Screensaver the program opens and then immediately crashes. The Display/Screensaver opened the first time I tried. I selected a picture for my background. Ever since then all it will do is crash when I try to open.
My System Preferences is gone. I definitely did not delete it so I can't understand where it has gone. Nonetheless, I'm traveling at the moment and won't have access to my installation discs for 9 more months. Do I just need the SystemPreferences.App file? I'm running version 10.5.5.
Every time I restart my iMac, my desktop wallpaper reverts back to the default and my mouse configuration is reset so the buttons no longer do what I demand of them (Button4: Expose, I say!)
It seems to be just those two issues but it happens pretty much every time the system shuts down (although not every single time). Energy saving is fine. My dock is fine. Nothing else seems to be touched.
I've reset the PRAM. I've deleted the system preferences file from the library (com.apple.systempreferences...). I've repaired permissions.
I still have this problem.
Any ideas or solutions, aside from reinstalling OS X or not restarting my iMac ever?
I should mention that I'm running 10.5.5 on an Aluminum 2.0 Core 2 Duo Intel iMac. My system is all-natural. No fancy hacks or system modification programs installed here.
I just installed iLife '09 on a fresh install of OS X 10.5.6 and my system preferences icon is gone the spot is there i can still click on it but the icon is gone.
I just got a new uMBP today. Really nice machine. I have a Time Machine backup of my old system that I used to restore onto the new system using Migration Assistant. I must say it was very easy to use, and it took all my information and data from my old computer and migrated it to my new system with ease. It saved days of software installation and resetting preferences and everything. Tested software and everything opens fine as if it had been installed on this system itself.
Slight problem though with System Preferences though, specifically the Screen Savers portion. It is very clunky and will eventually lock up System Preferences as a whole. I have to Force Quit it and reopen it again. It does not do this anywhere else in the System Preferences. I have removed the com.apple.systempreferences.plist and even the: com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine.plist from: ~/Library/Preferences
Both individually as well as together and rebooted the machine, but no luck, System Preferences still locks up when visiting the screen saver section. I even went in and manually deleted the screen savers that I had installed and rebooted and still did not have any luck. At this point I went in and did an archive and install of the OS as well thinking that maybe there was a conflict with the OS during the migration. It still locks up in the screen saver panel.
I haven't been able to open System Preference. And when I'm on a different account, other than the Administrator, there's an icon on the dock saying "System Preference" but it's a ? as the icon. How do I get it back so I can open it?
I accidentally (somehow) put system preferences in the trashcan and now it doesn't work. I've checked google, but I'm using OS Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and can't find anywhere how to fix it on this OS, anyone have a fix?
I tried the applications disk that comes with the computer as well, but no luck.
I went to go change my desktop background, and every time i open system preferences I get the pin wheel. System preferences opens up in the desktop/screensaver section, but automatically gives me the pin wheel. How can i fix this?
