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Menu Extras Vanished

I updated 10.4.9 > 10.4.11 with the combo updater.

All the Apple Menu Extras promptly vanished. They won't come back when turned on in the individual prefPanes.

Repaired permissions, repaired with Disk Utility, yadda, yadda, yadda ...

An earlier thread of this name, now archived with no solutions that worked, suggested deleting:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

... but it doesn't help. Ditto logging into another account.

Has anyone out there ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED THIS PROBLEM and solved it?

Thanks!

PowerBook Pismo 500, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Mar 15, 2008 8:04 AM

Reply
3 replies

Mar 15, 2008 9:08 AM in response to George Machen

I'm guessing you updated over an already corrupted system. The only solution is to Archive and Intall provided the drive is OK and has sufficient space:

How to Perform an Archive and Install

1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.

Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.

3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.

4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.

5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.

6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Mar 15, 2008 9:48 AM in response to George Machen

Perhaps you should read about the Archive and Install first. It could result in a fixed system and not take any time to get it back the way you had it. You're making an uninformed assumption. On the other hand it could easily take you a month to locate one corrupted pref file assuming that was the problem. In fact you've tried a new account which didn't work - that sort of eliminates the bad pref file idea. And, exactly how would you identify a corrupted system file?

Of course what you do is your decision. I've only been doing this for 20 years, so what do I know?

Menu Extras Vanished

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