help viewer

The backup I did for reinstall of OSX was today.

the HelpViewer function was unchanged when I put "rm -r Library/*/com.apple.help*" into terminal. The only change was in the size of the help box started by any help inquiry. I still get to the page described earlier in any of the help menus that get linked to apple. Several of my softwares do have complete help pages in them and function normally. (Like the Samsung Laser Printer for example.)

Thank you,

Adobe Acrobat NPAPI Plug-in, Version 10.1.4

Adobe® Acrobat® Plug-in for Web Browsers, Version 10.1.4 — from file “AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin”.

Google Earth Plug-in

The Google Earth Plugin allows you to view 3D imagery and terrain in your web browser. — from file “Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin”.

Google Talk NPAPI Plugin

Version 3.5.1.8982 — from file “googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin”.

Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator

Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator version:0.1.44.16 — from file “npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin”.

iPhotoPhotocast

iPhoto6 — from file “iPhotoPhotocast.plugin”.

Java Applet Plug-in

Displays Java applet content, or a placeholder if Java is not installed. — from file “JavaAppletPlugin.plugin”.

MoveNetworks Quantum Media Player

npmnqmp 071701000001 — from file “Move-Media-Player.plugin”.

QuickTime Plug-in 7.7.1

The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site. — from file “QuickTime Plugin.plugin”.

RealPlayer Plugin.plugin

RealPlayer Plugin — from file “RealPlayer Plugin.plugin”.

Shockwave Flash

Shockwave Flash 11.4 r402 — from file “Flash Player.plugin”.

WebKit built-in PDF

Here's the whole list!

Dear Sir,

I hesitate to do yet another OSX reinstall. Just did one yesterday. Perhaps I'll just leave it broken for a while and visit an apple store. The nearest is only three hours away by freeway, but the one I usually visit is 10 hours away, (it is near the home of two of my grandchildren, makes the trip more worthwhile).

I have truly appreciated your efforts and insights. I will eventually prevail over this discomforting silly bug, just not right now.

Very best regards and again thank you for your time.

New news,again.

Upon reconsidering, I decided to stay with it.

*Did a new total back up to Time Machine.

*Did a clean reinstall of OS X

*Did not allow any data recovery

*Did not fix this silly problem----

Sitting here looking at a system without iLife, iWork or any of my previously added APPS or data and when I start safari help I get the overlay start page from "Browse the web" to "Solve Safari problems"

Selecting any of the start page items takes me directly to the previously described "The selected topic

is currently unavailable" page.

Any ideas while I rebuild the mail app and plan that 10 hour trip to my favorite Apple Store Genius bar?

I'm sure some where there's a check box that will make this go away. Please help me find it.

Yes sir, we'll be going near an apple store in a couple of weeks. I've done two more OS X installs including the latest, a clean one with a new Mountain Lion download. Still no joy. It's real fun trying to get acclimated with a new os and no help pages....(the pages from the internet) I still get the pages resident in the various SW packages.

I'm beginning to wonder if the machine has made the approved list in error or if it's got hardware problems. Almost makes me want to bootleg flash player. But, I won't do that.

Your consistent return to this problem in spite of my varying moods is truly appreciated.

Unless the Genius bar has an answer for the help viewer issue, I plan to request that they push this machine back to Lion or even Snow Leopard.

I'll keep looking till then and if it gets well I'll post here.

GrandMa keeps telling me to get a new Air, but I gotta figure this one out first.

Not using iPhoto or Aperture in this machine, so neither is enabled in iCloud. I am really liking the other Mountain Lion features. I've also tried a direct connection to the LAN with no joy.

Thanks again.

(Funny thing is that time machine won't recognize this machine anymore. Keeps treating it like a new guy on the block. Not too bad, but I won't do any back ups or recoveriy until (and if) the help viewer wakes up.)

Mea Culpa

Mr. Linc,

I'm now convinced that this issue is with the ISP, ViaSat's Wildblue Exede.

Used the time machine to retrofit to Lion, congratulated my self and went about smiling. Now I've determined that the same help viewer issue happens in Lion, it's just several more steps down into the help heap. Getting the life saver "not connected to the internet" just takes a little more effort. So sorry that I missed this when it was Mountain Lion. My wife's Lion iMac is the same. So I'm out of here to the ViaSat forum. Their data centers have a special software that prepackages a user's routine internet inquiries to limit delays due to the satellite hops. It doesn't seem to have learned how to dial MS Help viewer yet. Meanwhile, I miss lots of the ML features, but will stick with Lion a while. You are very helpful and thoughtful. Come on down and go fishing with me.

New news. Returned to Mountain Lion, clean start. Rebuilt contacts and calendar from iCloud. Reinstalled APPS from Apple. Reinstalled iWork. Delayed the trip to Birmingham for a while. Still wondering if the web based portion of help can be accessed by using the browser? Several Apple users in exede forum confirm that web based portion of help is not accessible while on the Exede ISP. Exede seems to think the "Apple" users are relatively insignificant. (Less than 10% of users) Admonish installers that just because a user has Apple product is not an excuse for incompletion of install, "take along a Windows machine to complete provisioning!"

I recently had to connect a Windows machine directly to the modem in order to reestablish proper dchp function. Once done, the Airport Express was able to regain function.

Many Windows users are reporting similar dchp failures and a general SW upgrade to the servers is promised. I'll report here after that is accomplished.

So far, except for the web help viewer, I'm very satisfied with Exede Satellite 12. Very much better than any other ISP I've tried out here in the country in the past 15 years. Even with the required Go$$le plus functions.