I've lost my CD Icon

[Vanilla]

I've noticed that when I insert a music CD I no longer get a CD shaped icon on the desktop. I'm sure I got one before, unless my mind is playing tricks on me.

Instead I now get what looks like a sheet of paper with the top right hand corner bent over (like the PDF file image) and a circle image in the middle like the Safari icon, complete with red/silver pointer, but bisecting a curved arrowed line going in a clockwise direction rather than the compass N,E,S,W pointers

The title of the CD still appears below and it still plays in iTunes, its just the icon that has gone.

Strangely, if I insert my Myst Revelation games CD it DOES get a CD(well, DVD actually) icon....

Vanilla
PS: I've no clue how to load an image of this icon into this posting unfortunately! Hopefully my description is good enough.

 

[scan300]

You may have some directory corruption that needs repair.
Do a safe boot, which will run the disk repair program 'fsck'.
Then restart your computer back into normal mode.

To do a safe boot, shut down the computer
>start up and immediately after hold down the shift key till the grey apple logo and spinning progress indicator appears.

Fsck will run -- you won't see any interface -- and when it's complete you will see a start-up screen with the words SAFE BOOT.

Safe mode is a trouble shooting mode and loads limited extensions, so it's preferable to restart your computer again, which will get you back into normal mode.

In most cases you icons will be fixed, but this doesn't always happen.

 

[Makosuke]

Before you panic and try what scan300 is suggesting, a question: have you restarted your computer recently? (Meaning in the past week, give or take.)

If not, try that, and I'll bet it fixes the issue. 10.3 has an issue that's been around from 10.3.0 that causes things in the Finder to display the wrong icons, corrupted icons, or occasionally no icons at all, after the computer has been running for a while. This always bugs me when I'm sleeping the computer instead of shutting it down.

It's well established, I have no idea why Apple hasn't fixed it yet, but in any case it's totally harmless.

Oh, and by the way, if it turns out you DO have a more serious problem, there is a less intimidating way to run a directory check: start up from the MacOS install CD you've got (preferably the newest version), then select "Disk Utility" from the menu instead of installing anything; from there, you can run a disk check using a graphical interface that does the same thing as the command line version.

 

[Vanilla]

Thanks guys.
Due to timezone differences I've only just seen your replies!

I HAVE restarted recently, well the weekend actually, but I will have a go again at work today and see what happens. If that fails I'll have a go at this fsck thing, though it does make me a little nervous...

I'll update later on today.

cheers
Vanilla

 

[Vanilla]

Hmm well the next issue I experienced was that it wouldnt shutdown. I clicked Shutdown but it just hung on the blue screen with the spoke circle icon thingy circling at the bottom.

So I pressed and held down the power button, which turned it off.

Next I powered back up normally and then immediately ran repair permissions in the disk utility, which made a couple of corrections. God knows what that actually does but its the only thing I know to do other than run pilot in cocktail, which as I had done that on the weekend seemed overkill (hey I wonder if that was the cause of my problem??)

I then for the hell of it shutdown completely again to see if it actually would this time and it did..hurrah....

I then powered up again normally, crossed fingers and inserted a music CD...

and I got the CD Icon back!!!

So next weekend when I run Cocktail again I'll keep a beady on events to see if that is the source of the problem, or maybe as you say Makosuke, it could just be a 10.3.5 bug...I do tend to leave my PowerBook on all the time for days, sometimes weeks at a stretch, just closing the lid and waiting for the little white glowing light when I want to move it so that ties in with your comments re: the OS bug.


Thanks for your help guys.
Vanilla

 

[Makosuke]

Well, if it fixed itself after a (problematic) restart, sounds suspiciously like the Finder bug I'm thinking of, but indeed best to keep an eye out.

A freeze on shutdown doesn't sound good, but I've also seen those on rare occasions, so it might not mean anything. One related tip: If the little spinner thing is still moving, give it several minutes even if you think it's stuck trying to shutdown; I have, for no readily apparent reason, seen OSX take a ridiculously long time to shut down once in a while. Maybe a service doesn't want to stop or something.