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Strange problem with Panther

YS2003

YS2003

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 24, 2004
2,138
0
Finally I have arrived.....
I deleted Konfabulator from my 15" PB (which runs Panther 10.3.9) as one of their widget (world map which shows daylight and night areas) did not get off my desktop (I clicked desktop in the preference for that widget by mistake). I deleted that widget first while Kanfabulator was running. I ran repair desk and rebooted as well.

Then, my Panther behaved strangely, such as:
1. dock became very slow to pop up (my dock is set "hide" when not used).
2. dock's magnification did not work
3. pull down from the menu bar at the top of the screen automatically runs from the top item to bottom item (ie. new window, new tab, open file, and etc) even though I wanted to pick one item in the pull down menu.

So, I put the plist for dock out of the preference in Libaray and put it back in there. Then, I logged out and logged in again. It seems this fixed the problem.

Does anyone know how this was fixed by what I did?
 
So you literally took the Dock preferences out of the preference library and then put them straight back in again?

If that's the case, then maybe your system just needed the log out/in to reset a few things before it worked properly again. However it could have been a corrupt preference file and removing the PLIST file would have meant instant replacement (since the Dock was probably running)... But the logging out part makes more sense.
 
mad jew said:
So you literally took the Dock preferences out of the preference library and then put them straight back in again?

If that's the case, then maybe your system just needed the log out/in to reset a few things before it worked properly again. However it could have been a corrupt preference file and removing the PLIST file would have meant instant replacement (since the Dock was probably running)... But the logging out part makes more sense.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I did. So, PLIST can be deleted to do a fresh start? I am guessing PLIST is not an essential file and can be deleted without being concerned about systems instability.
 
PLISTs are just the preference files. Removing them from their designated folder will result in their immediate replacement by the app in question. The new file will be the default PLIST file that comes inbuilt in the app. This will obviously mean you lose all of your settings for that particular app since it is effectively the same as reinstalling the app. In other words, it should work like new, literally. :)
 
Thank you for your comment. Trashing PLIST would be one of the methods to offending programs, it seems.

Since we are talking about refreshing OS and applications from their offending behaviors, I would like to post a question if "Log Off" is sufficient or "Restart" is recommended. Logging off cleans up cashes and other junks from OS. I would like to get better understanding on differences among log-off, restart, and cron jobs (the maintenance which OS runs in early a.m. or user-induced maintenance through MacJanitor).
 
My 15" PB with 10.3.9 has again developed this strange behavior. When I pull down from the menu bar (which is located at the left upper corner of the screen) for Finder (or any other programs for that matter), each menu item is been selected from top to bottom without me moving the mouse. This looks like someone is moving an invisible curser on the menu items from top to bottom. Has anyone experienced this type of problem with 10.3.9? Also, Doc is not working properly. But, after PRAM reset, Doc went back to normal; but this weird menu bar problem persists.
 
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