Busted pref pane?!?

[idea_hamster]

Hey all --

I seem to have broken the Date/Time pref pane.

I can start up, log in (clock is accurate), run programs, start System Preferences, and make all kinds of changes.

But if I use the "Open Date & Time..." menu item under the menubar clock, System Preferences launches (the app. name appears at the top left), but no window opens.

Also, if I launch Sys. Prefs. from the Apple menu and then try to, lets say, change my time zone, Date & Time asks me to authenticate (appropriate) -- and then after I type my admin user and password, it hangs (beachball).

If I force quit Sys. Prefs. and re-start it, I can open the Date & Time pane, but the little lock icon is missing and the pane still says "Authenticating...". (In other pref panes, it is shown unlocked.) Then if I click anywhere in the pane, it hangs.

If I force quit and restart Sys. Prefs. again, it will hang if I even click on Date & Time.

I've tried restarting, permission repairing, PRAM zapping, "fsck -fy"-ing, and com.apple.systempreferences.plist trashing -- all to no avail.

Any help would be greatly apprciated!

 

[mad jew]

Have you tried it in a different user account? That'll help narrow it down to whether it's a problem in your Home folder.

 

[idea_hamster]

Rats...

...I thought I had tried all the basic-user things!

As it turns out, the pane is disfunctional in my admin account as well.

So, it seems that it runs deeper than just my general-use account....

 

[mad jew]

Okay, do you have any apps, widgets, peripherals or hacks that might be connected to this? Does the crash report have anything to say on the matter?

 

[idea_hamster]

Hmmm...

The only login apps that I have are Snapz (a screen recorder) and Mail -- so those are the only apps that were still running after all those re-starts.

No peripherals connected. And no widgets, since I killed Dashboard a long time ago (never used it) -- but I guess that counts as a "hack."

That said, I think the Date & Time pane worked since I killed Dashboard, so I really doubt that's it.

I did have Power Controller installed and recently uninstalled and trashed that, since it was a left-over from my G4 PB-to-MacBook migration. Do we think that something went out with the bathwater in that operation?

 

[mad jew]

Dunno... Have you tried it in Safe Mode (boot holding SHIFT)?

 

[idea_hamster]

Oooo...Magic!

Well, safe boot (which I didn't even know about after umpteen years of Mac-user-ness) seems to solve the problem!

So, um, what does that mean...

(I was starting to think that I would have to wait for Leopard to change the time!)

 

[mad jew]

Excellent! That means we can narrow it down to a startup/login item, a kernel extension, a font or perhaps a font cache (unlikely). I'd start by reading this support page about Safe Mode (for a little more background) and then disabling all startup items (in the StartupItems folder in your Library) and Login Items (System Preferences). Since the problem is occurring in the admin account too, it's probably the former.

 

[idea_hamster]

Sweet! Thanks!