getting the pinwheel every time I launch system preferences.

[fireman13]

For the past month, every time a launch system preferences it takes several seconds to load. Then, when I go into desktop/screensaver it takes a long time to load. So I open activity monitor, and when system preferences is open, its using 22mb but as soon as I open desktop/screensaver, it shoots up to 735mb and goes to 45% on the user usage. I hope this makes sense. Please help. I'm not sure if this is normal or if my ram is going bad. I don't think it is, but I know you guys can probably help. I'm running 10.6.3
Thanks.

 

[Hal Itosis]

For the past month, every time a launch system preferences it takes several seconds to load.

In your user ~/Library/Caches/ folder are 2 cache files which can be deleted anytime (since they will get rebuilt as soon as System Preferences launches):

com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
com.apple.preferencepanes.cache

Also (perhaps), in your user ~/Library/Preferences/ folder is this plist:

com.apple.systempreferences.plist

Then, when I go into desktop/screensaver it takes a long time to load. So I open activity monitor, and when system preferences is open, its using 22mb but as soon as I open desktop/screensaver, it shoots up to 735mb and goes to 45% on the user usage.

You'll probably find some plists with the word "screensaver" in their name in this folder:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

Trashing any of those plists will mean you'll need to re-tweak whatever settings they held.

Sounds to me like you've added a 3rd-party screen saver that's misbehaving (or perhaps incompatible with 10.6) so, i'd look for suspects to remove inside the following folders:

/Library/Screen Savers/
~/Library/Screen Savers/

[where "~" is the path to your home]

EDIT: note, make sure to *quit* System Preferences *before* deleting any of the above items!

 

[fireman13]

Thanks for the response. I deleted all those that you said and got rid of all third party screen savers. My problem still persists however.
Any other takers on what could be going on?

 

[Hal Itosis]

Thanks for the response. I deleted all those that you said and got rid of all third party screen savers. My problem still persists however.
Any other takers on what could be going on?

Have you restarted the machine yet?

Or, how about using Console.app to peruse the logs? Open Console and then launch Sys Prefs and go to the screensaver panel, etc. Any messages?

BTW, which screensaver is selected now? You should probably go with "Computer Name" and see if that helps quiet things down.

 

[JustinVM]

try deleting the 'com.apple.systemuiserver.plist' and the 'com.apple.systemuiserver.D4DCA898-B693-5E2B-A05E-3C719603D39B.plist' files (your numbers and letters will be different.)
then restart your mac.

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.systemuiserver.D4DCA898-B693-5E2B-A05E-3C719603D39B.plist