Mayden Vane
Level 1
(5 points)
Q: Some websites lose their formattting?!
Weird problem here, where SOME websites (ie. slashdot.org, kijiji) lose their formatting (pictures still show, but the layout looks like Google from the 1980's). Other websites (ie. Huffington Post) render just fine. ....And the problem is not what you think!
It's not a browser issue, as this happens across all browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari). It's not a JAVA issue, I updated Java for my OSX (10.6.8), and Adobe Flash is installed and to date. You might be thinking "maybe it's a permissions issue", as I did. I "Applejacked" the system (repairing disk permissions and other system repairs), and also repaired disk permissions via Disk Utility. Weirdly, sometimes it repairs itself, and I'm thinking "maybe the action I took; ie. disk permission repair, java config, etc, worked". But then upon reboot, those affected websites render poorly once again.
In case you think "Maybe it's a firewall", stopping my Little Snitch firewall has no effect. But, I also have a nagging problem on reboot, where I get "Little Snitch has quit unexpectedly" error on each reboot. Still, the program works regardless. Sometimes another program will display that same error upon startup. I don't know if this is related to my website problem, but I suspect it is.
If this problem sounds at all familiar, please offer a clue!
iMac, Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Eric Root
Level 9
(70,238 points)
Try a restart.
Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
