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Ramacher
Jan 19, 2012, 02:12 PM
This is driving me crazy. I've had this for a couple months now and still can't figure out how to solve the problem.

When I click the Help menu item on any app, it is blank. I can highlight and select whatever is supposed to be there, but for some reason they are blank.
http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=320618&stc=1&d=1327003727 http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=320619&stc=1&d=1327003727

I've found numerous posts on apple's discussion page and other sites where people have fixed their issue by deleting the com.apple.help*.plist files and folders in Home\Library\Cache and Home\Library\Preferences. I've done this and removed itunes helper from startup as recommended by one site but my help menus as still blank :(

The .plist files are still gone after restarting so i'm guessing that my macbook is not rebuilding the help .plist files.

It's a 2ghz Intel core duo macbook running 10.6.8. Any help would be appreciated :D


simsaladimbamba
Jan 19, 2012, 02:14 PM
Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?
Ramacher
Jan 19, 2012, 03:42 PM
Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?

Thanks for the suggestion but didn't work :(

I enabled the guest account, logged out and into it and same thing. Also now when i click on the finder help menu, then click in the first and only blank option (i'm assuming it's supposed to say help) a window opens up with "Help Viewer cannot open this content." Can't remember if it did that before or not.

Any other thoughts?
simsaladimbamba
Jan 19, 2012, 04:25 PM
Do you still have your 10.6 Restore or Upgrade DVD? If so, insert it and boot from it (System Preferences > Startup Disk) and reinstall Mac OS X without changing anything in Disk Utility. Damaged system files will be repaired and your personal data and applications will not be deleted. But make a backup anyway, if you haven't already.
Ramacher
Jan 20, 2012, 01:10 AM
Do you still have your 10.6 Restore or Upgrade DVD? If so, insert it and boot from it (System Preferences > Startup Disk) and reinstall Mac OS X without changing anything in Disk Utility. Damaged system files will be repaired and your personal data and applications will not be deleted. But make a backup anyway, if you haven't already.

Man, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that :(

My DVD drive is a bit messed up. The alignment on it is off so if I put a cd/dvd in, it's really hard to get out and usually end up scratching it in the process. Also It'll take me a while to actually find my Snow Leopard DVD.

I just googled for 10.6.8 and i'm currently downloading the update from apple (http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1400). Hopefully that'll do it, if not I'll have to tear my room apart to find this DVD.

Thanks for your help :D

-----UPDATE---

So the update I dl'ed was just form 10.6.7 to 10.6.8 and didn't help.

I reinstalled Mac OS x and that fixed it. Thank you.