Ack! Can't open "Mac Help" at all!

Discussion in 'Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) Discussion' started by sjcaguy, Jan 22, 2004.

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  1. sjcaguy, Jan 22, 2004

    sjcaguy macrumors regular

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    Nov 24, 2003
    #1
    Hello all. I'm having a vexing problem. I can't open the plain-old "Mac Help" from the help window. The help windows will pop up in other apps-- iTunes works fine, for example.

    But from the desktop, I can't open "Mac Help". If i go up to the menu and click on it, it opens up what looks like a blank "help" box and then closes it very quickly. Basically, the help viewer for standard mac help (from the help menu in finder) quits right away.

    Please help me!
     
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  2. sjcaguy, Jan 22, 2004

    sjcaguy thread starter macrumors regular

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    Nov 24, 2003
    #2
    more info: i checked the console and noticed a HelpViewer crash on 1/10/04.

    Now I need to know how to fix it. Please Please help. Thanks.
     
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  3. sjcaguy, Jan 22, 2004

    sjcaguy thread starter macrumors regular

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    #3
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  4. bousozoku, Jan 22, 2004

    bousozoku Moderator emeritus

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    #4
    Thanks for sharing that information with us.

    I'm surprised that .Mac users haven't had the same problem since they all have Virex.
     
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  5. mainstreetmark, Jan 23, 2004

    mainstreetmark macrumors 68020

    mainstreetmark

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    #5
    I almost always have more luck with Google than with the built-in help systems. Help always seems so terribly slow.
     
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  6. yamadataro, Jan 24, 2004

    yamadataro macrumors 6502

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    #6
    Yeah, I agree. Why is that help program soooooooo slow? My first instict always tells me I should open help, but it's so slow that I always have to force quit and go google.

    Is it unusually slow on just my Mac???
     
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  7. Beechside, Aug 15, 2004

    Beechside macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2004
    #7
    Mac Help problem resolved

    Greetings all.

    Thanks for your help since I had the same problem.

    Tried repairing permissions, moving help files from my own signon (since other sign-ons on my machine worked OK), checking crach reporter logs and so on.

    in the end, I moved all the help files from the Computer/Macintosh HD/Library/Documentation/Help folder to my desktop and moved them back in again. Not sure of the exact process since I was trying to diagnose but I think the key steps might have been:

    Move all file from system help folder to desktop
    Clicked on desktop
    Started help (Cmd-?) - naturally, window was empty but at least it started
    Moved all the files back again.

    Bingo! Help worked for all apps.

    Regs,

    Pete
     
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