corrupt files in preferences folder

[azscp]

hi everyone. I need some help today.

Earlier today my dock wouldn't pop-up from its hidden position. This has happened in the past and the only way to get it to work again was to restart my computer.

Since I know something isn't right I decided to call apple for help. But before I did I was navigating around and noticed that my preferences folder(home folder-library-preferences) had a ton of corrupt files in it.

The problem is isolated to the admin user account.

I was told by one of the apple reps to drag the folder onto the desktop and reboot the computer and in doing so this would reset the preferences folder. Well, I did that and corrupt files are still showing up in the new preferences folder. I'm wondering if this is still happening because I still have the original preferences folder on my desktop?

How do I get rid of corrupt files? And how can I keep this from happening?

I'd be very grateful for any help.

Steve

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

What do you mean by "a ton of corrupt files"? How do you determine they are corrupted?

 

[azscp]

What do you mean by "a ton of corrupt files"? How do you determine they are corrupted?

file names like...¸pê?8ø??Ć~a|êŸ

I just opened the "preferences' folder the apple rep asked me to drag to the desktop and I maximized it so I can view 8 files across and 10 files down. A total of 80 files showing and of the 80 all had crap like...¸pê◊8øˇfiĆ~a|êŸ. And there is over 300 folders and 250 files. Not all are corrupt but the majority of them are.

 

[mad jew]

What system are you running? What apps/hacks/plugins do you have running in the admin account? Does there seem to be a recurring theme in the corrupt files naming schemes?

 

[azscp]

What system are you running?

OS X 10.4.8

What apps/hacks/plugins do you have running in the admin account?

can you help me to locate this info? im new to mac.

Does there seem to be a recurring theme in the corrupt files naming schemes?

not sure. they all are just a bunch of jibberish.

the newest thing that happened tonight is that my imac is in some sort of monochromatic mode. the color is off but only on my main account.

are there viruses on macs now that they've changed over to intel chips? im sad because i thought these were pretty tough machines.

thanks for any help
steve

 

[mad jew]

Okay, well I can't really tell you where to look for plugins and so on because they could be anywhere. Do you remember installing anything to modify your system in any way? What apps are you running? If you go to the Universal Access pane of System Preferences, is Grayscale selected?

 

[azscp]

If you go to the Universal Access pane of System Preferences, is Grayscale selected?

you crazy jew you. Universal Access, enhanced contrast was maxed out.

thanks for restoring my love of macs

 

[mad jew]

No worries mate. You just need to give us a lift of third party applications and we might be able to fix this preference thing for you too.

 

[osirisX]

If there are empty folders with names like pê?8ø??Ć~a|êŸ in your preferences folder they are being created by Photoshop. For some reason each time Photoshop starts it creates one of these weird folders. It has something to do with the TWAIN driver. CS3 doesn't seem to do this though.

 

[mad jew]

Interesting... I don't get that with Photoshop 7, but interesting to know nonetheless.

 

[osirisX]

I'm not sure about CS but CS2 deffinatly does it. You end up with heaps of empty folders junking up the place and you have to go in and manually delete them.