[nycbug-talk] Problem with Mac OS X

[Brad Schonhorst]

On 3/16/06, Scott Robbins <scottro at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
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> I know this isn't a Mac list, but I know there are some Mac gurus here,
> and I feel more at home here.  :)
>
> Anyway, one of our graphic designers recently developed a problem with
> her machine.  She's running Tiger, and a day or so before that, we
> upgraded her Adobe Creative Suite to CSII.  However, a day passed before
> this issue arose.
>
> Now, when she starts Safari, or some other programs, including Disk
> Utilities, Activity monitor, iPod (yes, it's allowed, the designers get
> what they want), top will show (the terminal isn't one of the apps that
> causes this) 0.0% CPU idle time and the application will simply hang
> with that revolving colored ball.  If I log on the same machine as
> another user, this doesn't occur, even if I open up Illustrator and
> Photoshop as well as several other applications.
>
> I tried the suggestions that I found while googling, repairing file
> permissions, booting from the install CD and repairing disk, forcing
> periodic, and running update_prebinding.
>
> I don't know enough about Macs to know if I'm missing something obvious,
> and I'm not quite sure what other information will help here.  If anyone
> could give me suggestions, I'd be grateful.
>

My first guess would be corrupted preference files for the app. 
Especially if the same app works for other users on the same computer.
 Preferences are stored in a few places, for an individual user check
here first:

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/
/Users/<username>/Library/Application\ Support/<name_of_program

I would first quit the app (or stop it from trying to start), then
move the preferences or folders you find to a temporary folder, and
try to launch the app again.

If you use managed accounts you should also check the  local copy of
the user's prefs that gets copied at login time.   These get recopied
when the user logs back in so just trash the users folder here:

/Library/Managed\ Preferences/<usernaem>

I see this alot with Micorsoft and Macromedia products, usually not so
much with Adobe but you never know.

-Brad