Weird font problem...i think

[prostuff1]

My firend just reciently got a used 12in PowerBook and it was working just fine. BUt all of the sudden the desktop and stuff has a lot of funny looking A's with boxes around them.

Here is a pic of what i am talking about:

 

[mad jew]

Maybe open up Font Book and select Resolve Duplicates from the Edit menu.

 

[frankblundt]

As with any pre-loved hardware, an erase and install of the OS (presuming you have the disks) might be good idea, if you haven't done it already - you never know what people might have left lurking on there, intentionally or otherwise.
Backup first, of course.

 

[prostuff1]

As with any pre-loved hardware, an erase and install of the OS (presuming you have the disks) might be good idea, if you haven't done it already - you never know what people might have left lurking on there, intentionally or otherwise.
Backup first, of course.

thanks for the suggetions. I made him to and erase and install when he got the laptop so that was not the problem. and i had him do the font book thing but it was kinda hard seeing as he could nto read anything. I thought is was kinda funny but that just mad him more mad.

Anyway, we fixed the problem buy doing an Archive and install. I tried a lot of other ways to get it to work but it would not. It would be nice if apple could figure out a way make it less of a hassle to fix corrupt fonts.

And from searchign the Apple Forums it seems that for right now the only way to fix this kinda thing is with an archive nad install.

 

[frankblundt]

Have you set up an admin and a user account on the machine?

It can be handy for this sort of thing to have an account you can log into that is relatively clean and untouched that you only use for doing software updates and admin stuff, and a user account (without Admin privileges) that you can screw around with. When you activate fonts, do it only for the user account, so you've always got somewhere you can go back to.

It's also a good idea from a security standpoint not to be using an Admin account for web-browsing/downloading etc.

Make a new account in Sys Prefs > Accounts called Admin - it should automatically be given admin priviliges, but just check that the box "allow this user to administer the computer" is checked. Use a good password. Make sure it's running and happy. Then demote your existing account by unchecking the same box.

 

[prostuff1]

Have you set up an admin and a user account on the machine?

It can be handy for this sort of thing to have an account you can log into that is relatively clean and untouched that you only use for doing software updates and admin stuff, and a user account (without Admin privileges) that you can screw around with. When you activate fonts, do it only for the user account, so you've always got somewhere you can go back to.

It's also a good idea from a security standpoint not to be using an Admin account for web-browsing/downloading etc.

Make a new account in Sys Prefs > Accounts called Admin - it should automatically be given admin priviliges, but just check that the box "allow this user to administer the computer" is checked. Use a good password. Make sure it's running and happy. Then demote your existing account by unchecking the same box.

I had him create another account that was not admin and use it most of the time. The problem was in both accounts so i figured it was a system font problem. He is not quite sure how it happened but it did.