Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Thanks for your reply yea its in the applications folder, the system preferences all work fine its just the apple menu.
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,413
1,041
Bergen, Norway
Edit: Gotta start reading ALL the post before replying... :eek:

Edit2: New thought: Can you try loggin in as another user (make one if necessary), and see if the problem stays the same...? Helps narrow down where to look... if it works for another user chances are very good that it's a preference problem... then, of course, it's tho issue of finding the right one...

And, related question... Anywhere know the location of the "About This Mac..." window...? Cannot find it among the .nib's (and the window is slightly different than standard about windows, so I suspect it is a bit different)... nor inside the Finder package... it should be possible to open it by running a command named "abtm" but as I don't have path for that command I'm stuck... :confused:
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Are you running antivirus on it? I read something ages ago about some antivirus software doing something like this to a much earlier OSX but it was well before Panther. I'll try finding it for you but it wasn't on the net so I might take a while. I haven't actually ever run into a similar problem myself, but it might be worthwhile getting rid of the AV momentarily... Assuming you have it of course...
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Edit: Gotta start reading ALL the post before replying... :eek:

Edit2: New thought: Can you try loggin in as another user (make one if necessary), and see if the problem stays the same...? Helps narrow down where to look... if it works for another user chances are very good that it's a preference problem... then, of course, it's tho issue of finding the right one...
:

its the same on all users (even root)
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
mad jew said:
Are you running antivirus on it? I read something ages ago about some antivirus software doing something like this to a much earlier OSX but it was well before Panther. I'll try finding it for you but it wasn't on the net so I might take a while. I haven't actually ever run into a similar problem myself, but it might be worthwhile getting rid of the AV momentarily... Assuming you have it of course...

yea i have norton installed

I have turned off norton auto protect is there anu other way to turn norton off? as this has made no differnrce

thanks every1 though for your ideas :)
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Long shot: Try deleting (or maybe better move and rename) /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.6B.csstore then reboot...

sadly not :( ...... any other ideas? :rolleyes:
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,413
1,041
Bergen, Norway
I actually have found the "About This Mac" box. It's located inside the package "loginwindow" in CoreServices, full path: /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/AboutThisMac.nib

If you hold the cursor over the greyed box, do you get a tooltip message saying "This button launches Software Update to check for updated software." or "This button is disabled because there is no Software Update application."?

And you haven't, by accident or on purpose, moved either of the apps "loginwindow" or "Software Update" out of the /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder...?

And have you installed any skins, enhancers or other system changing 3rd party software...?
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I actually have found the "About This Mac" box. It's located inside the package "loginwindow" in CoreServices, full path: /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/AboutThisMac.nib

If you hold the cursor over the greyed box, do you get a tooltip message saying "This button launches Software Update to check for updated software." or "This button is disabled because there is no Software Update application."?

And you haven't, by accident or on purpose, moved either of the apps "loginwindow" or "Software Update" out of the /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder...?

And have you installed any skins, enhancers or other system changing 3rd party software...?

doesnt show any tooltip on either button

both files are in the folder as shown in attachment

dont think i have any system changing software as such.... can you give me a few examples if possible?
 

Attachments

  • core services.pdf
    40.2 KB · Views: 102

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,413
1,041
Bergen, Norway
jackl79 said:
doesnt show any tooltip on either button

both files are in the folder as shown in attachment

dont think i have any system changing software as such.... can you give me a few examples if possible?
If you have to ask chances are good you don't have any... ;) ShapeShifter is one example, there are others, e.g. most things on http://www.resexcellence.com

As the about box is located inside "loginwindow" there is a chance that deleting (or the usual move and rename) the systemwide pref file (you did say the problem occured for all users, right?): /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

Note that there is no ~ in front this time, i.e. it is not in your home folder (where there actually is another com.apple.loginwindow.plist file), this is the Library folder directly in the root directory (your HD).
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
jackl79 said:
yea i have norton installed

I have turned off norton auto protect is there anu other way to turn norton off? as this has made no differnrce

thanks every1 though for your ideas :)

Nah, sorry, it wasn't Norton. It was some brand that I'd recognize if I saw it but I can't think of it off the top of my head. No luck in finding the old journal either, but it sounds like the antivirus isn't your problem anyway.

Good luck with it though. :confused:
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
If you have to ask chances are good you don't have any... ;) ShapeShifter is one example, there are others, e.g. most things on http://www.resexcellence.com

As the about box is located inside "loginwindow" there is a chance that deleting (or the usual move and rename) the systemwide pref file (you did say the problem occured for all users, right?): /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

Note that there is no ~ in front this time, i.e. it is not in your home folder (where there actually is another com.apple.loginwindow.plist file), this is the Library folder directly in the root directory (your HD).

sadly removing that file (and restarting) has made no difference :(
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
mad jew said:
Nah, sorry, it wasn't Norton. It was some brand that I'd recognize if I saw it but I can't think of it off the top of my head. No luck in finding the old journal either, but it sounds like the antivirus isn't your problem anyway.

Good luck with it though. :confused:

thanks for looking mad jew
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,413
1,041
Bergen, Norway
jackl79 said:
sadly removing that file (and restarting) has made no difference :(
Then we are getting closer to a reinstall, I'm afraid... Apart from replacing the loginwindow.app (can be extracted from the OS X installer using Pacifist)...

Sorry I couldn't help you... :eek:
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Then we are getting closer to a reinstall, I'm afraid... Apart from replacing the loginwindow.app (can be extracted from the OS X installer using Pacifist)...

Sorry I couldn't help you... :eek:

ummm think i will wait till 10.4 is out
 

jackl79

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
20
0
ITS WORKING!

How odd this function has started working again since i installed the newest security update (Security Update 2005-003) !!!

Thanks again to all that helped
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.