Unstable mac -weird things going on, losing preferences

[Yigit]

Hello everyone,

i read the forums but it may be my first time posting here, so excuse me if this is the wrong part of the site that im posting.

I am having some weird problems on my computer since a few days. I am going to post only some examples from the problems I faced in these days.

When I turned on my the other day these preferences were lost:

- my desktop background picture,
- the way my files were organised in Finder (for example they were supposed to be arranged but they were floating around)
- then I turn on Mercury messenger and it says that the global preferences are lost and it starts with the regular first time settings.

Then I don't remember the order, but everytime I arrange, when i restart the mac, some of the prefs are kept but with some of them having the same lost preference problems again.

And then new ones were added each time i reset, including:

- lost some preferences in Firefox like home page, theme,
- some preferences lost in Adium,
- dock item reduced to the regular first time programmes only,
- (latest non beta) Safari, constantly unexpectedly quitting after a few seconds i try to open the application (until i update to the latest beta, now its ok)
- some add-ons in Firefox including Gears and Forecastfox not working now,
- forecastfox had reset itself the other time, then i re arrange my preferences, then I could not even click on OK after doing the settings anymore, now I cannot even choose the location (buttons like OK, apply, Find Code) does not respond,
- lost some settings in iCal


There are some more problems I faced and also some more that I discover one by one while I turn on the applications. But basicly, I think this shows that there are some serious problems going on my mac. These cannot be all individual cases going on by coincidence i suppose?

I firstly wonder, Why this could happen? And second, what should I do now? re-install mac os x? i don't know if it will solve it so I didnt bother to try it yet.

As there are no viruses in mac, I do not really think it could be some files that i downloaded cause ths problem, no?

My only suspicion, which could be a serious one or not:

I am using Filevault. Sometimes I skip the 'save space' menu while turning off the computer, sometimes not, depending on how much time I have. The other day, I decided not to skip it and while waiting, I turned off my bluetooth mac keyboard... and it stopped and went back to the log in menu. Totally out of my control.

Could this be the problem? Is there a rule that if you turn off your bluetooth keyboard, Filevault space recovery stops? And all my weird problems are happening because of this?

It has been a bit long, but thanks for reading until here at least....

I would appreciate any kind of help or idea. I tried to google a bit but it looks like a very specific problem so I decided to post here. And excuse my english if im not clear at some points...

Cheers


I am using the latest versions of Tiger, Firefox, etc. on an iMac G5 without a camera (revision B as i remember) with 2 ghz and 1.5 gb ram.

 

[Yigit]

is it too early to bump?... i just dont have any idea, it looks really unusual.

 

[snowmoon]

Did you upgrade your ram with 3rd party memory?

Have you run OSX diagnostics looped overnight?

Run disk utility from the install DVD to verify your HD?


Yes, a crash during a 'save space' operation could have slightly corrupted your filevault. The things above will help to rule out any hardware involvement.

 

[applefan69]

Honestly I actually think filevault could be the culprit.

I dont use that feature of OS X, but I HAVE heard that filevault can cause some major f*** ups. I remember even hearing of a case where filevault did too good of a job protecting the files, because it even kept the admin out of the files with no way to recover them, that user ended up losing all his data

hmmm try dissabling filevault... although it might be to late for that.

Try making a new user account and just try using that user account for your regular day-to-day basis (sorry fr the hassle of reinstalling your apps) and then tell us if you still have troubles in the new user account.

Also maybe try repairing permissions... i dont see this step making mcuh difference, but give it a try anyways cause it cant hurt.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

If your computer crashes when Filevault is active, you sometimes lose a few preferences (e.g. Little Snitch settings and rules.) I've never had anything like what you've had happen, though.

Does it happen if you let Filevault recover disk space?

Is your computer shutting down properly?

Run the Apple Hardware Test, too.

Filevault with 10.3 had some bugs, 10.4 was pretty good, I don't think it had any major bugs, but I never used it on Tiger, so I'm not 100% sure, 10.5 works fine.

 

[vansouza]

This happens to me all the time... especially the Finder thing... drives me nuts so if someone knows for sure.. do tell.