Clock and Airport icons gone. Sys Pref/date&time and SysPre/Networks freeze. Spotlight is also frozen. 10.8.3 27in 2011 iMac.

saw another post online and I am having the same problem so I am posting it at the bottom. This is my problem though

Clock and Airport icons missing.

SysPref/Date&time and SysPre/Networks freeze when clicked. Spotlight is also frozen when hovered.

10.8.3 27in 2011 iMac.

http://answers.pubarticles.com/56679,os-x-10-8-system-preferences-freezing-any-h elp-1343898768.html

OS x 10.8 System Preferences Freezing? Any help!!

I searched the forum but I couldn't find a solution to my issue. I enter system preferences and click on desktop and screensaver. Once I do that system preferences freezes and I have to force quit out. Upon researching on the internet I found a suggestion to use the disk utility which I did. Didn't solve the problem. Another solution listed was to delete the com.apple.desktop.plist. I can't even find that file in my library to delete. I'm at a loss so any suggestions would be appreciated. Any help for fixing OS x 10.8 System Preferences Freezing?