Odd problem

b3t4

Hey people,

Well Im not sure how to word this so I hope ye can help all the same.

Mac OS X

I click the apple icon located top left hand corner of the screen.
I click on it for the drop down menu.
Then I click on the System Preferences but it doesn't launch.
I have the icon for System Preferences in the dock and it will
launch from there.

Any ideas on why it wont launch from the drop down menu??


Rgrds,
A.

Dr_Teeth

No idea.. it's always worked for me. I don't keep the preferences app in my dock, I always launch it from the apple menu. Does the same thing happen if you choose "Network Preferences..." from the "Location" sub menu?

Teeth.

timod

also, make sure that System Preferences is in /Applications on the same disk as /System

Tim

b3t4

Teeth,

I tried launching network preferences as you suggested and it worked fine.
So Im still at a lose as to why the systems preferences wont launch when
I click it.

timod,

Yes everything is where it should be.


I recently installed some software that uses the System Preferences so Im
thinking that this may have caused the problem. Rather than just uninstall
the software and have the problem "fixed" that way. Id like to know why
it might have happened. If I could get some ideas from yeerselves I could
Google(TM) to find out what caused the problem.

Rgrds,
A.

Gordon

Was asking a friend about this. He says that he has heard of the problem before on the apple site. Make sure you don't have a duplication of sys prefs. If you are running 10.2 repair your permissions - this may help also. Goto "disk utility" in the Utilities in the applications menu.

If that doesn't work go to Apple website and do a check up. Don't forget Sherlock's applecare search facility (if you have 10.2). God Sherlock is great now, I can translate into Greek, German, Russian.

Gordon

TITLE

Mac OS X 10.1: Preferences Do Not Open From Menu Items


TOPIC

You may encounter a situation in which a preference pane does not open from a menu bar item.


DISCUSSION

Symptom

Preference panes do not open from Menu bar items.

Examples of Menu bar items that open panes in System Preferences:

• You choose Open Date & Time after clicking the clock in the menu bar.
• You choose Open Energy Saver from the battery menu bar item (available on portable computers).

Products affected
• Mac OS 10.1

Solution

This resolution to this issue may be found with additional symptom information in technical document 106557, "Mac OS X 10.1: Mac Help Cannot Open System Preferences Panes After Installing an Update".

Gordon

TITLE

Mac OS X 10.1: Mac Help Cannot Open System Preferences Panes After Installing an Update


TOPIC

After updating to Mac OS X 10.1 from versions 10.0 to 10.0.4, Mac Help no longer automatically opens the System Preference panes when it normally should.


DISCUSSION


Symptom

1. Any Mac Help link that would normally open a System Preferences pane, for example "Open Login preferences for me," does not work. This only affect users created prior to updating to Mac OS X 10.1.

2. Preference panes do not open from Menu bar items.

Examples of Menu bar items that open panes in System Preferences:
• You choose Open Date & Time after clicking the clock in the menu bar.
• You choose Open Energy Saver from the battery menu bar item (available on portable computers).

Products affected
• Mac OS X 10.1

Note: This affects build 5J34 when installed onto a disk already containing Mac OS X versions 10.0 (Build 4K78) to Mac OS X 10.1 (Build 5G64). You can see which build you have by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu and clicking the "Version 10.1" text. This symptom occurs only for users whose first language preference is one of the following:
• Swedish
• Norwegian
• Finnish
• Danish
• Brazilian-Portuguese
• Korean
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Chinese (Simplified)

Other language versions of Mac OS X 10.1 are not affected.

Solution

This issue occurs when the preferences bundles are no longer associated with System Preferences. To resolve this issue, re-associate the preferences bundles with the correct application. Follow these steps:
1. Choose Go to Folder from the Go menu.
2. Type: /System/Library/PreferencePanes/
3. Click Go.
4. Select one of the Preferences (it does not matter which one).
5. Choose Show Info from the File menu.
6. Choose Open with application from the pop-up menu.
7. Click the application selection menu, which is located immediately below and to the left of the menu you just set to "Open with application."
8. Choose Other from the menu (Figure 1).




Figure 1 The Info window

9. In the navigation dialog that appears, choose All Applications from the Show pop-up menu.
10. Use the navigation dialog to locate the Applications folder in your Mac OS X disk. From this folder, select the System Preferences application.
11. Click Add. An alert box with this message appears: "You don't have privileges to change the application for this document only. Do you want to change all similar documents to open with the application 'System Preferences'?"
12. Click Continue.
13. The Info window should now show System Preferences 2.0 as the application used to open preferences (Figure 2).




Figure 2 Choosing System Preferences in the Info window

14. Close the Info window.

System Preferences should now open to the appropriate pane when selected from menu items.

b3t4

Thanks a million Gordon for going to so much trouble. I really do appreciate it.
Thing is that after doing everything that you said to do it still aint working.

Im working with Mac Os X 10.2.2, version 2.1 of System Preferences and the
first language is French ( dont ask ).

Least now I have a starting point.

Thanks again,
A.

Gordon

Not a bother, I was using Sherlock's Applecare ability and just copy and pasted the results

Well, if French is the main language then it may point to the problem talked about in the first above post, maybe there is something in that. Good luck.

b3t4

After much searching and taking on board the ideas which have been thrown at me, it appears that there is no solution to this problem.

It will simple "fix itself" or so Iv been told.

Quite an odd little problem if I do say so.

Rgrds,
A.

Gordon

Silly question maybe but have you done an os update (from the apple menu?)