Yet another problem...Crashing Macs! <gasp>

[simontarr]

Hi all. Starting to feel slightly embarassed now having yet another problem but this time I don't think it's my fault.

I went to change my screensaver yesterday to the iTunes screensaver. In the settings, it was initially set to 5 rows of album art, then I moved the silder up to 8 to see what it looked like. I then tried out 7, 6, 5...etc. but when I got to 2 rows, systems preferences crashed for no reason. The error message simply says: 'The application System Preferences quit unexpectedly'

Every time I now go into 'Desktop & Screensaver' in system preferences it crashes so I now cant change the background or the screensaver!! Has anyone else had this problem & do you have any advice of fixing it?

I thank you for your patience in tolerating my n00bness.

 

[Osarkon]

I also get this problem with system preferences, no idea why. mostly happens with Date and time, and happens when i go directly to something in there via spotlight. getting there via the system prefernces docklet thing works sometimes, but it just loves to crash No idea what causes this, i haven't done anything that could have caused it to my knowledge

 

[simontarr]

I also get this problem with system preferences, no idea why. mostly happens with Date and time, and happens when i go directly to something in there via spotlight. getting there via the system prefernces docklet thing works sometimes, but it just loves to crash No idea what causes this, i haven't done anything that could have caused it to my knowledge

yep same here, but (so far) this crash only happens with desktop & screensaver. I thought macs were 'crash-resistant'? I've tried the software update just now but theres nothing new to download (and therefore to possibly fix it)

 

[Killyp]

www.repairdiskpermissions.com



No.1 rule!

 

[simontarr]

www.repairdiskpermissions.com



No.1 rule!

Have done!
And no luck as a result

 

[Osarkon]

Have done!
And no luck as a result

i'll second that.

 

[patrick0brien]

Gents

Try trashing "com.apple.screensaver.iTunesArtwork." yadayadah....

It's located in USERNAME/Library/Preferences

And don't go to two rows until 10.4.8

 

[simontarr]

Gents

Try trashing "com.apple.screensaver.iTunesArtwork." yadayadah....

It's located in USERNAME/Library/Preferences

And don't go to two rows until 10.4.8

Good thinking. I'll try it now.

EDIT- Works a treat. Genius. Thank you for the the help!

 

[Unorthodox]

Gents

Try trashing "com.apple.screensaver.iTunesArtwork." yadayadah....

It's located in USERNAME/Library/Preferences

And don't go to two rows until 10.4.8

If that doesn't work trash "com.apple.systempreferences.plist"
It's in the same place.

 

[patrick0brien]

Good thinking. I'll try it now.

EDIT- Works a treat. Genius. Thank you for the the help!

-simontarr

Glad it worked!

If that doesn't work trash "com.apple.systempreferences.plist"
It's in the same place.

-Unorthodox

Oof! Well, yeah, as a last resort

 

[apfhex]

I thought macs were 'crash-resistant'?

It's impossible to make anything 100% crash resistant. I don't know if anyone ever claimed that Macs are; they're not.

That said, an application crash is quite a different thing from a whole system crash! Applications crash all the time. The point is that the OS is modern and these apps will not bring down the rest of the system with them, like what used to happen in the old days.

But yeah, generally if you're having problems with a specific app, trashing the preferences file is a good first trouble shooting step (NOT repair permissions, though there's nothing wrong with that either).

 

[simontarr]

It's impossible to make anything 100% crash resistant. I don't know if anyone ever claimed that Macs are; they're not.

That said, an application crash is quite a different thing from a whole system crash! Applications crash all the time. The point is that the OS is modern and these apps will not bring down the rest of the system with them, like what used to happen in the old days.

But yeah, generally if you're having problems with a specific app, trashing the preferences file is a good first trouble shooting step (NOT repair permissions, though there's nothing wrong with that either).

Nah, I know nothing is crash resistant, but I've noticed that mac apps seem to crash FAR more often than WinXP ones.

 

[dsnort]

Nah, I know nothing is crash resistant, but I've noticed that mac apps seem to crash FAR more often than WinXP ones.

Really? You're having that experience? I switched to Macs 8 months ago. Only app crashes I've had is Excel locking up and giving the BBOD when I try to quit it sometimes. Nothing a good force quit wouldn't solve.

The WinXp box I had before then felt like I was in a demolition derby all the time. "XXYYZZ Application has performed an illegal operation, ( running 20 minutes consecutively), and has been shut down."

I hope it gets better for you.