Sharing Preference Pane freezes

[fortfive]

Here's the symptom: the Sharing preference pane will not load. It starts, then freezes. If I wait a long, long time, a few more elements of the pane will load, but it still stays frozen.

Running 10.8.4., '09 MBP 13".

Console reports below.

I have tried:

repair permissions

PRAM Zap

SMC Reset

disabling Lil'Snitch

deleting /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

deleting /Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

deleting some other preference files, I lost track, basically anything that seemed remotely related to sharing

reinstalling Mountain Lion (from apple-R at boot)

restoring a sharepref.prefpane from a while back (can't remember last time it worked)

trying it with a different user--same result.

Mighty exasperated, kindly advise.

6/29/13 10:19:46.061 PM System Preferences[583]: *** setObjectForKey: key cannot be nil

6/29/13 10:19:46.065 PM System Preferences[583]: ( 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad7cb06 exceptionPreprocess + 198 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff94f2c3f0 objc_exception_throw + 43 2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ae0b5b7 -[NSDictionaryM setObject:forKey:] + 135 3 SharingPref 0x000000011471b457 SharingPref + 99415 4 AppKit 0x00007fff8d950fb4 -[NSTableView preparedCellAtColumn:row:] + 416 5 AppKit 0x00007fff8d76dd00 -[NSTableView _dirtyVisibleCellsForKeyStateChange] + 628 6 AppKit 0x00007fff8d76d169 -[NSTableView _windowChangedKeyState] + 280 7 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 8 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 9 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 10 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 11 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 12 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 13 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 14 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 15 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 16 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 17 AppKit 0x00007fff8dcbbd71 -[NSTabView _windowChangedKeyState] + 45 18 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 19 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 20 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 21 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 22 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8ad754a6 __NSArrayEnumerate + 582 23 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b90b -[NSView _windowChangedKeyState] + 154 24 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b7f5 -[NSFrameView _windowChangedKeyState] + 93 25 AppKit 0x00007fff8d89b28e -[NSWindow _setFrameNeedsDisplay:] + 169 26 AppKit 0x00007fff8d8c0f81 -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 4030 27 System Preferences 0x000000010f5d29a8 System Preferences + 27048 28 AppKit 0x00007fff8d7d721a -[NSApplication run] + 636 29 AppKit 0x00007fff8d77bbd6 NSApplicationMain + 869 30 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff89a6c7e1 start + 0 31 ??? 0x0000000000000002 0x0 + 2 )

 

[desertman]

... maybe a long shot, but you could download the OS X 10.8.4 Combo Update and let it run once again. Sometimes this fixes weird problems.

When you say you tried it with a different user - did you mean a newly created user or a different user that already existed?

 

[fortfive]

What I finally did

Was in fact clean reinstall the whole damn thing. Formatted the disk and the whole bit. PITA but it works, so at least it's not a hardware fault. System is a little snappier as a result, was probably due for a clean install anyway.

Used to be, I'd clean reinstall with each system, but somehow since SL it requires a re-format to get the full effect. Alas.

Thanks everybody for your help.