system preferences won't launch

[charles ababa]

A strange one this.

My system preferences just won't launch. I installed deskeffects (screensaver as desktop prefpane) and everything was fine for a while. when I restarted, the deskeffects module loaded 2 different screensavers and played one transparently over the other, whilst also dimming my display.

I've tried removing the prefpane, deleting all associated plists from "~/library/preferences", repairing permissions and fsck but all to no avail. many reboots later and it still will not work.

can anyone help?

OS X 10.2.6

[King Cobra]

Have you tried opening the System Preferences from your Applications folder? Have you tried to open your System Preferences from the Apple Menu either?

What error message are you getting?

Also, have you tried logging in under a different user (root user (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106290), for instance) to see if the problem persists?

[charles ababa]

tried launching from everywhich way - apple menu, applications folder, dock, cmm on desktop for "change desktop background" - none work. The system prefs icon just bounces once and that's it.

I've logged in as another user - still didn't work.

I've followed apples instructions to enable root user, but I'm not having any luck there - it won't except password - (maybe I've misunderstood "non-trivial password" which looked like this b7an5te1N)...

maybe it is system wide problem.

i'm pulling my hair out tho.....


:confused:

[mnkeybsness]

have you looked to see if it was also installed in the system-wide directory, (first level in the hard drive)
/Library/Preference Panes/

[charles ababa]

nope - not in there....

:confused:

[mnkeybsness]

i don't know what else you could try other than an "archive and install"

[FredAkbar]

How bout:
/Library/Application Support/

and
/Library/Preferences/

and
~/Library/Application Support/

?

Anything related to deskeffects in there?

[PixelFactory]

Have you removed the files from

~library/screen savers/ ?

[tjwett]

Originally posted by PixelFactory
Have you removed the files from

~library/screen savers/ ?

better yet, have you removed Deskeffects altogether? get that crapware out of there! it obviously wacked out your system. when i'm in that situation i remove the app and everything related and move on.

[charles ababa]

FredAkbar - all those locations are clear from any deskeffects rubbish.

In fact there is nothing left of deskeffects on my machine.....

:mad:

the term "crapware" seems to be the best way of summing up this whole situation.

An archive and restore is a long and painful road - there must be a way....