Front Row, Desktop/Screen Saver system pref pane won't open

Question

Level 1

5 points

Front Row, Desktop/Screen Saver system pref pane won't open

Ever since I did the most recent MacBook firmware update, and setup a Windows partition on my machine, both Front Row and my Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane won't load.

Attempting to load the D&SS pane just results in the window title saying "Loading..." with an error message poping up saying it couldn't be opened.

As for Front Row, attempting to access it via the menu button on the remote, or by double-clicking the application itself results in the typical error message with Ignore/Report/Retry being my options; no matter what I select, the error message repeatedly pops up then every 10 seconds after clicking (even hitting Ignore gives me another message, as if it's trying to retry loading the application anyway).

I don't care so much about Front Row, but I'd really like to be able to access my desktop/ss pref pane, as I'm starting to grow tired of my desktop rotation, and can't change/stop it without getting in there.

Anybody experiencing the same problem, and/or know how I could fix it without having to do anything drastic like reformatting my HDD completely? (In that, if I had to, I'm assuming my Windows partition would remain in tact, correct?)

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM

Posted on May 14, 2008 4:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

May 14, 2008 7:09 PM in response to Joey Garver

Try uninstalling Windows. Could be that you did not install Windows properly.

Reply

Answer 2

Joey Garver Author

Level 1

5 points

May 14, 2008 7:30 PM in response to I-love-my-macbook

I'm not experiencing any problems with Windows, and since it's on a completely separate partition, uninstalling it (especially without anything to backup my documents onto for the time being) is a last resort, basically. But I can't really imagine that being the problem, considering it's far apart from the OSX partition.

Reply

Answer 3

May 14, 2008 8:58 PM in response to Joey Garver

Are you having problems with other applications? If that's so, reinstall Mac OS X. That could be the problem. If that's not the problem, then do a scan on all your applications. By the way, what is your definition on "won't open"?

Reply

Answer 4

May 14, 2008 9:16 PM in response to Joey Garver

Use the Accounts System Preferences to create a brand new user. Log out and log in as the new user. Does the new user encounter the same two issues? If not, then you don't need to re-install anything. The problem is only inside your original user's home folder. If this is the case, we'll need to troubleshoot your user's preferences folder. If the new user does encounter the same types of issues, then you have a system-wide problem and then re-installing Mac OS X might be necessary. Let us know what you find out with the new user.

-Doug

Reply

Answer 5

Joey Garver Author

Level 1

5 points

May 15, 2008 12:35 AM in response to I-love-my-macbook

By "won't open," I mean it doesn't load. The system preferences window clearly says "Could not load Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane."

No other applications aside from this preference pane and Front Row have been affected though.

Reply

Answer 6

Joey Garver Author

Level 1

5 points

May 15, 2008 12:38 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Done that, and gives me the same problem for the preference pane at least (I didn't test Front Row just out of the sheer lack of fearing the same fate, and ultimately having to reboot my computer) so it seems like it's going to need a fresh install of everything unless someone knows a way where I could just as easily replace one/a few files and have it running like it use to?

Or, if it does come to having to reinstall everything, would I at least be correct in assuming that my Windows partition would be left in tact, or would that be affected as well because OSX is the native OS on this machine or anything like that? Because if it comes to it, I'll end up having to use my Windows machine as part of the backing up process, since I lack an external HDD/iPod and blank CD-Rs at the moment.

Reply

Answer 7

Joey Garver Author

Level 1

5 points

May 15, 2008 12:46 AM in response to Joey Garver

Now that I go back and re-test everything, a few other preference panes won't load up as well, including (but not limited to) Energy Saver and Spotlight.

I think my best option at this point is to just back-up and re-install everything, I guess.

Reply

Answer 8

May 15, 2008 2:06 AM in response to Joey Garver

Your Windows partition should be left intact as you have installed it and it is a separate partition altogether.

Reply