Desktop & Screensaver Pref. Won't load/ Sys Pref Crashes

OS X version?

Quit System Preferences if it's running. In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder... from the menu bar and copy the following text into the box that opens:

~/Library

Press return. From the folder that opens, delete the following item, if it exists:

Caches/com.apple.systempreferences

and move the following item to the Desktop:

Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

Launch System Preferences and test. If you still have the issue, put the item on the Desktop back where it came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the item.

I'm having the same issue, and Linc's fix did not help. I'm running 10.7.5 on a Mac Pro dual core.

I performed the above listed exercise. I'm also seeing::

com.apple.desktop.plist.lockfile

I left that line alone.

I am still getting the following message.

Could not load Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane.

I would move all your ~/Library out - or create a test user account

Finally got areound to trying a test user account. It gives me the same message.

Could not load Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane.

Any more ideas?

Could not load Energy Saver preference pane. Try the solution in that post, look near the bottom. It's the solution about opening system preferences in 32 bit mode. This was the solution that helped me.

Tron2008--

If you have to selectively load some 32-bit stuff, your system is damaged and you should consider a re-Install-in-place (not very disruptive, it just replaces system files that are damaged or out-of-date). Then Software Update back to the latest system version.

Be sure to do a Disk Utility (Repair Disk [directory]) first, or restart into Safe Mode (which does that check and others as it starts up).

Thanks for the feedback. Tried all that before and never worked. Now, I am running 10.7.5 on an old MacPro 1,1 so maybe that has something to do with it. Either way, I know how to get this working for me so I'll just remember the process.