Fed up with my Mac

[wowser]

Today things have just annoyed me. Suddenly Safari decides to change to all the default settings without warning, then I noticed that the icons for Music, Movies and Pictures are all gone. I restarted and things didn't change - except now the dock had completely changed to the default one. All this time I have been on the same Admin account and I am getting fed up with it today. How can I get my icons back? I think I have buggered things up more - each app I open seems to think it's the first time I have opened it. Maybe I trashed something important?
Thanks

 

[IJ Reilly]

Corrupted preferences somewhere perhaps? What have you tried so far?

 

[wowser]

Seem to be something like that. You see, I tried to copy some (Documents icon) icon or other and I think that's when things went pear shaped.

 

[redAPPLE]

tried repairing the permissions?

maybe you installed a "freeware" or "shareware" program, before it happened?

 

[wowser]

No, but i did dpownload some icons. I tried to copy the Documents icon over to some other one. I think that's when things got lost. How would i do a clean install?

 

[Mechcozmo]

Use Google, find and download software called "Preferential Treatment" and use that to check your preference files.

I'd also force cron scripts to run, as well as update prebindings. You can use MacJanitor or Cocktail (personal favorite) but either one will work.

I think it sounds like you trashed a ton of preference files. Something that ends with .plist is more than likely a preference file. If everything goes back to the default, and apps think they haven't been open before, thats a sign that they have no preference file and so the apps think they are being opened for the first time.

My advice: Don't play with things in the "Library" folder... even if you didn't, thats still good advice.


Can you tell us more of what you did before everything went screwy?

 

[wowser]

It's hard to say what I did, as I didn't rash any files as such. I think the Safari thing was just unexpected, but I suppose there has to be some cause. Is it not worth a reinstall?

OK, i ran Mac Janitor and repaired permissions. I then ran Preferential Treatment and it said User Prefernces were 'fine', but listed system prefernces as follows (if this means anything):


Preferential Treatment v1.1.1 by Jonathan Nathan
http://homepage.mac.com/jonn8/as/

system preference report
Saturday, January 8, 2005 8:21:31 pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/ContactsNodeConfig.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/ContactsNodeConfigBackup.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/DSLDAPv3PlugInConfig.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/SearchNodeConfig.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrupt Preference File:
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/SearchNodeConfigBackup.plist

Problem(s):
You do not have permission to read this file, it is owned by root. Try authenticating with your administrator password (click the “lock” button).

 

[wowser]

Right, after clicking the 'lock' button, Preferential... says that all things are fine. Maybe they are, but my icons are looking very tatty and my library folders are all over the place

 

[IJ Reilly]

Your problem is more than a bit odd. (I'm sure that makes you feel a whole lot better.)

My favorite shotgun solution to unexplained problems is a script called Applejack. (Download from versiontracker.) It's run from single user mode. It performs fsck, permission repairs, preference checks and log rotations all in one. It's helped me out of more than one jam.

 

[wowser]

Applejack seems beyond me. How do i open it?

 

[wowser]

Scratch that - eMac restore it is

 

[IJ Reilly]

Scratch that - eMac restore it is

I take it Applejack solved your problem?