Some programs crash but not in safe mode or for guest user

Question

Hoping that some talented and kind Mac wizard will help me solve a bizarre problem: Some but not all of my programs have started crashing immediately upon launch, but not in safe mode, nor when I log in as a guest user.The problem began on February 5th, right after I installed an update to my OS (bringing it up to version 10.7.3), which included an update to the firmware for my computer, a Mac mini from mid-2010. The programs that began crashing upon launch *may* be those that were open at that time, but I can’t be sure. They include Adobe Reader, Picasa, Word for Mac, and a sweet little utility called uCalendarX.Specifically what happens with, say, uCalendarX, is this:  After I launch it, nothing appears on screen for a few seconds, and then comes a message that it is trying restore its windows, with a choice of whether to attempt restoring them or not. After a few more seconds comes the news that it has quit unexpectedly. The first several dozen lines of the crash log appear at the end of this posting.So far my troubleshooting has revealed the following:(a) When I reboot in safe mode, the programs that crash now work normally.(b) When I boot the usual way but log on a guest user, the programs that crash now work normally.(c) Fully emptying the trash made no difference.(d) The problem was not solved by restoring my hard drive (via Time Machine) to its state the day before I downloaded that update to the OS and the firmware. (This was a drastic step, the intervention of last resort, and I was sure it would work. But no. Perhaps I did not go back far enough for the restoration.)(e) Deleting the plist files and plist.lockfiles made no difference.(f) Deleting the files for the app under Saved Application States made no difference.(g) Disabing the user’s font cache (as happens in safe mode) made no difference.(h) Uninstalling Adobe Reader, emptying the trash, downloading the latest version, and installing that made no difference – this latest version newly installed continues to crash (but not for a guest user, nor for me, the administrator, in safe mode).(i  ) Repairing permissions on the hard drive made no difference.I will be mighty grateful for a solution to this perplexing, vexing problem!B.t.w., I don’t know Unix but was able to do all those (fruitless) interventions listed above.Gordon BearRamsey NJ  U S AThe log from one of the many crashes of uCalendarX begins as follows:Process:         uCalendarX [750]Path:            /Applications/uCalendarX 3.2.3/uCalendarX 3-2-3.app/Contents/MacOS/uCalendarXIdentifier:      com.riuz.ucalendarxVersion:         3.2.3 (3.2.3)Code Type:       X86 (Native)Parent Process:  launchd [289]Date/Time:       2012-02-20 00:38:48.931 -0500OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50b)Report Version:  9Interval Since Last Report:          2463 secCrashes Since Last Report:           3Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  30 secPer-App Crashes Since Last Report:   3Anonymous UUID:                      0CA8DA26-8927-4AC3-B35F-3B2E9FD65A8ECrashed Thread:  4Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000008bcc45abExternal Modification Warnings:Thread creation by external task.VM Regions Near 0x8bcc45ab:     CoreServices           0000000004fd0000-00000000051ee000 [ 2168K] rw-/rwx SM&#x3D;COW--&gt;     __TEXT                 000000008fe52000-000000008fe85000 [  204K] r-x/rwx SM&#x3D;COW  /usr/lib/dyldApplication Specific Information:objc[750]: garbage collection is OFFThread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread0   libsystem_kernel.dylib            0x920136e6 __open + 101   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b403 TFileDescriptorContext::TFileDescriptorContext(char const*) + 772   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b1c5 TFileDataReference::TFileDataReference(char const*) + 653   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b056 TFileDataSurrogate::TFileDataSurrogate(char const*, bool) + 1364   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc59af3 TFont::CreateFontEntitiesForFile(char const*, bool, TSimpleArray&lt;TFont*&gt;&amp;, bool, short, char const*) + 25815   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc58a7a FPFontCreateFontsWithPath + 1936   libCGXType.A.dylib                0x950164b0 create_private_data_with_path + 267   com.apple.CoreGraphics            0x95349ecf CGFontCreateFontsWithPath + 338   com.apple.CoreGraphics            0x95349b09 CGFontCreateFontsWithURL + 4429   com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1c1aa TCGFont::TCGFont(__CFURL const*, bool) + 9010  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bfb2 TCGFontCache::CopyFont(__CFURL const*) const + 9211  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1be6c TBaseFont::CopyNativeFont() const + 5012  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bd6f TTableStore::CopyTable(unsigned int, TCFRetained&lt;__CFData const*&gt;&amp;) + 8113  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bade TBaseFont::CopyTable(unsigned int) const + 7214  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1ba0f TcmapTable::TcmapTable(TBaseFont const&amp;) + 3115  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b8fd TBaseFont::GetGlyphsForCharacterRange(CFRange, unsigned short*) const + 2716  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b79b TASCIIDataCache::TASCIIDataCache(TBaseFont const*) + 8317  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b70f TBaseFont::CreateASCIIDataCache() const + 4718  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b690 TFont::InitAdvanceCache() const + 4219  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b4ad TASCIIEncoder::Encode() + 4520  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e4433f TGlyphEncoder::EncodeChars(CFRange, TAttributes const&amp;, TGlyphList&lt;TDeletedGlyphIndex&gt;&amp;, TGlyphEncoder::Fallbacks) + 92521  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e19ff6 TTypesetterAttrString::Initialize(__CFAttributedString const*) + 32222  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e19b9d CTLineCreateWithAttributedString + 4723  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d2b2d TCoreTextEngine::LayoutSingleLine(THIThemeTextInfo*, float) + 2324  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d2a9a TCoreTextEngine::Layout(THIThemeTextInfo*, float, float, TextLayoutType) + 6425  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963ad2c9 TCoreTextEngine::VerifyLayout(THIThemeTextInfo*, float, float, LayoutIntent) + 30926  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96410b0a TCoreTextEngine::GetThemeTextDimensions(float, THIThemeTextInfo*, float*, float*, float*) + 5427  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9640fc51 DataEngine::GetTextDimensions(void const*, float, HIThemeTextInfo*, float*, float*, float*) + 28328  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1fc5 HIThemeGetTextDimensions + 18729  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1ca3 HIMenuBarView::MeasureMenuTitle(MenuData*, unsigned char, float*, int, unsigned char*) + 45130  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1a49 HIMenuBarView::MeasureAppMenus() + 26131  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963abb5d HIMenuBarView::EnsureBarLayout() + 48932  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963ab152 HIMenuBarView::DrawSelf(short, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 52033  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963aac22 HIView::DrawCacheOrSelf(short, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 8634  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963aaa42 HIView::SendDraw(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 12435  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x964395c7 HIView::RecursiveDrawComposited(__HIShape const*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*, unsigned char, float) + 75536  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x964398b9 HIView::RecursiveDrawComposited(__HIShape const*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*, unsigned char, float) + 150937  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643a86b HIView::DrawComposited(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*) + 122738  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643a9b3 HIView::Draw(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, unsigned long) + 8139  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643ad7b HIView::Render(unsigned long, CGContext*) + 4540  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d084f WindowData::PrepareForVisibility() + 13741  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cf893 _ShowHideWindows + 35542  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cf728 ShowHide + 4443  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96399b09 _GetMenuBarWindow + 87244  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96399765 GetMenuBarView(MenuData*, unsigned char) + 7445  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963a2f3a MBarMenuRgn + 2646  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963a2d27 _ZL7ShowBar21MenuBarAnimationStylehhh + 28147  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cd42a _ZL21UpdateAggregateUIMode21MenuBarAnimationStylehh + 77248  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963e38e5 ShowMenuBar + 16349  com.apple.AppKit                  0x001a9cad -[NSApplication finishLaunching] + 133150  com.apple.AppKit                  0x001a9374 -[NSApplication run] + 14251  com.apple.AppKit                  0x0043d261 NSApplicationMain + 105452  com.riuz.ucalendarx               0x00001eea _start + 21653  com.riuz.ucalendarx               0x00001e11 start + 4

Frank Caggiano · Answer

I would create a new user and try the programs that are giving you trouble. If they work then you will know the problem is in your environment if the still crash they the problem is system wide. Post back the results.

Gordon Bear · Answer

Thanks for thinking about my problem. I&#x27;ve already experimented with creating a new user, a co-administrator. The programs don&#x27;t crash when that account is running, just as they don&#x27;t crash when the guest-user&#x27;s account runs. So it seems that the problem is limited to the default user&#x27;s account, which is the one that was running when I installed the updates to the OS and the firmware. Another clue is that the programs that crash as soon as they are launched are *probably* the ones that were open at that time in that account. Yet deleting Saved Application States does not keep the programs from crashing when next launched.So the mystery continues, but these additional facts will help with the diagnosis, I hope.Thanks again for your suggestion.Gordon

macjack · Answer

If your apps functions correctly in Safe Mode and other accounts, go to System Preferences &gt;&gt; Accounts &gt;&gt; Login Items and remove them. Boot normally and test.

Glenn Leblanc · Answer

Quit all programs. Open your Home Library folder and go to the Preferences folder. Select all and drag all files to a desktop folder or the trash (but don&#x27;t empty).This will eliminate basically all preference files at once. Try the applications. If they don&#x27;t work, you can put the originals back to the Prefs Folder.

Frank Caggiano · Answer

That it doesn&#x27;t crash when used by a new user is a good thing, it shows that the problem is not systemic but confined to something in your environment.Both suggestions by macjack and Glenn are good places to start to try and figure out what in you environment is causing the problem.Post back when you&#x27;ve trued them out.good luck

Gordon Bear · Answer

Mr. Macjack of Sunny Southern California, your suggestion has solved this month-long problem. Many thanks! I removed all login items from the default account (the only account in which the crashes occurred), rebooted (normally), and my beloved programs (uCalendarX, Adobe Reader, Picasa) now run fine. Wow. What a relief.A lingering mystery is which of the login items was the culprit. Based only on the names, I suspect "System Events."But now I can get back to full productivity, thanks to your wise idea. Thank you again.Thanks also to the other good souls, Glenn Leblanc and Frank Caggiano, for your help. Hurrah for the community!Gordon of Chilly North Jersey