lazy or forgetful dock problems

[nickXedge]

Before and after all updates I repair permissions of my Macintosh HD partition (the only one I have) as I was told I should be doing from a Genius. I do however still have an odd problem with my dock. The Genius told me repairing permissions would fix it, but alas it did not. Whenever I restart my MacBook, there is an application on my dock that I removed prior to restarting and every time I do this it comes back when the computer turns back on. It removes with no problem but keeps coming back, like herpes! Aside from that, also on my dock, are my stacks and I changed the icons for them a few times. Every time I restart, along with the application that just won't quit, my icons for my stacks revert to the last ones I used, no matter what I do.

Does anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it? All help is appreciated, thanks so much.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Well as far as the app that shows up on restarts, you need to take a look at your Login Items where you probably find it listed and can remove it to keep it from showing up.

To get to the Login Items, go into System Preferences, then click Accounts. When that pane opens, click the "Login Items" tab at the top (or Startup Items if you are using 10.4 rather than 10.5) and scan the list. If you see the item, highlight it and click the "-" sign to remove it.

Another way is click and hold on the icon after it appears on your dock- and in the list that will pop up, make sure "Open at Login" is not checked. If it is checked and you click to uncheck it, you can then drag it off the dock afterwards and it will not reappear after the next restart.

I'm not really following on your stacks problem to be honest- did you change them via the standard "paste an icon in the Get Info window" of the stack's originating folder (i.e. the Applications folder for the Applications stack) or via some other method (like using CandyBar or LiteIcon)?

 

[nickXedge]

To clarify a few things, the program that is persistent in my dock at startup is HP Director, for my printer. It is unchecked to Open at Login and it is not among my Login Items. When the computer starts up, it's not there, and then the dock sinks out of screen and then refreshes and when it does this, the program is there. Is this normal activity for a dock at startup?

As far as the icons go, yes I pasted a new icon in the Get Info window of the folder. After a while I got bored and deleted a few of them, reverting them back to the originals. However, after the computer starts up, both before and after the dock sinks out of frame and refreshes, 2 of the icons revert back to the last pasted pictures. If I Get Info them it shows the correct icon. In order to shake the old icon I change the display method to Stack and then back to Folder and it works. But it's so annoying to have to do this every time the computer starts up.

Any advice?

 

[sickmacdoc]

Thanks for the clarifications.

No that is certainly not normal dock operation when you decribe it ducking out of the way and coming back with a new icon! Yay HP. That is most curious to be honest, particularly with it not being in the login items.... Another place to look that often get overlooked when troubleshooting things of this nature in your Library folder. I am talking about the Library folder at the root level of your hard drive, not the Library folder in your Users folder by the way.

In the Library folder, there is another folder called "StartupItems" which includes other boot time software that is usually installed by various third party software packages (like the utilities that HP software can optionally install) so you want to make sure to check in there next. I seem to recall some other HP software that came with some of their scanners called "Image Zone" that kept showing up on one of my systems that I found there, so hopefully you will get lucky there. If there is nothing to help there, I would suggest seeing if your HP software disk has an uninstaller option, as it MAY have put a strangely named login item on your system that then calls the HP Director. The fact that it does what it does with the dock after the desktop has loaded give me hope that it will be found in the "StartupItems" folder though, since from what I have observed, those items appear to be executed after the desktop and dock have been initialized.

As far as the icons go that has really got me thinking, as I do a lot of icon developement and such and I haven't got a handle on potential problems that could cause this problem. I agree that the workaround you found is sure not going to cut it! I am going to have to mess with this one- and will post back if I can find anything to shed light. Sorry I don't have a suggestion to try, but this should prove interesting to try to ferret out.

 

[nickXedge]

Okay looks like I'm going to strike out. Went to Macintosh HD > Library > StartUpItems and the folder is empty. Checked out the Uninstaller and it only lets me Uninstall the driver for my printer, which obviously isn't a viable solution. I'm going to swing by my Apple Store on Monday probably and see if anyone has any ideas about this odd stuff. Thanks for your time, I'll post more information if I should come by any, which I hopefully will because I am actively seeking solutions.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hey- some good news! I just thought to do a Google search (usually the first thing I do in weird cases like this) for "HP Director mac" and one of the results on the first page led me to a link that a guy talks about exactly the same problem as yours-- and more importantly how to fix it! Check out the following link and if it should not work try that Google search too---

http://www.twisty.com/bandwagon/archives/2004/04/10/122200

Edit: OK, that link while it has some useful info actually points to this link with a simple fix!

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040213172343524

 

[nickXedge]

Ahh wonderful news!

And it worked perfectly.

I guess maybe I should have just Googled the problem. I guess I didn't because whenever I do that I end up back at MacRumors anyway. Thanks so much for the time you put in, I really appreciate it.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Good to hear that it worked as advertised! I just hate software designed like that!

 

[mulossie]

Aside from that, also on my dock, are my stacks and I changed the icons for them a few times. Every time I restart, along with the application that just won't quit, my icons for my stacks revert to the last ones I used, no matter what I do.

Does anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it? All help is appreciated, thanks so much.

I have exactly the same problem! I just bought a new mac, and changed the icons from for instance documents and applications, using command-i and then dragging the image. Every time I restart my computer, the icons are the standard ones (the blue folders). If I change the display to stack, and then back to folder, they're shown as the new icons. So it sounds like I have the same problem as you. Not a very big problem, but still pretty annoying. Did you find a solution for this yet? And if so, would you like to share
Thanks in advance!!!