System Preferences opens to a blank, white window

I erased my drive when I set up a Dual 2.7GHz G5 tower for sale, and installed Leopard. Updated to 10.5.4. Then found that when I open System Preferences, I get a blank white window. I can go to the dock item and click to select a particular tab, but it only changes the window size. It is still all white.

The menu bar items also display only white. Any ideas??? I'm stumped. Also sold the G5, so must get it fixed ASAP.

PowerMac G5 Dual 2.7GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 4.5GB RAM

Posted on Aug 20, 2008 6:13 PM

23 replies

Gary P

Level 4

1,418 points

Aug 29, 2008 12:27 PM in response to Charles Lindauer

MacFixit posted an article on this issue today.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080829075511984

Aug 29, 2008 12:55 PM in response to Gary P

I saw the MacFixIt article... it was in reply to a post of mine. Their suggested fix is good, I've been doing a lot of testing, and will also replace the drive with another to see if that may be an issue. It's a weird one.

myjay610

Level 1

0 points

Nov 4, 2008 9:47 AM in response to Charles Lindauer

Is there a copy of the article that you don't have to pay for? It's absurd that I can't find another copy and they expect $30 for this.

Nov 18, 2008 9:28 PM in response to myjay610

So has anybody found the source ??
I reinstalled the system 3 times, replaced the HD with a brand new one, PRAM resets, Disk Utility's etc.. it used to work fine till I installed Leopard. The OS disk works fine on my other Macs.. I'm flabbergasted.

Anybody any resolution ?????????????

thanks in advance !!

Nick DC

Level 1

0 points

Nov 20, 2008 11:21 AM in response to Charles Lindauer

I've got exactly the same problem - though it's not just the system prefs that appear as a white box on the screen. I can't view pdf files either (same white box on the screen).

I use my mac in the studio running logic pro 8, so I'm panicking. I upgraded to Leopard from Tiger just before starting recording and I'm not sure what I should do to sort out the problem.

Any help or advice would be very gratefully received. Also. is it easy to revert to Tiger? and if so how?

Cheers,

Nick

Nick DC

Level 1

0 points

Dec 9, 2008 8:28 AM in response to Charles Lindauer

I've managed to sort it out. I had a dual monitor setup and hadn't attached the second monitor. Now I have, the system preferences are back, as is the preview window. All seems back to normal, thank goodness!

Jan 8, 2009 8:49 AM in response to Nick DC

That's interesting re the two monitors. I run a two monitor system and was experiencing the same problem as described above. When I would open System Preferences it would open as a blank white window on my second monitor. When I would hit the window it would resize and then change from white to distorted colors. After reading the two monitor post, I dragged the System Preferences window over to my primary monitor and all is well.

Feb 20, 2009 5:44 PM in response to Charles Lindauer

Just encountered the same problem after installing ATI display drivers to get full functionality out of a "Radeon mac edition" card. I was trying to use it in a dual head configuration. Problem went away when I plug only 1 display into ATI card.

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System Preferences opens to a blank, white window