12-13-2009, 05:27 PM
My cousin in another state has an iMac running OS 10.4.10. He cannot access his System Preferences. When he clicks on the Dock icon, it bounces, but nothing appears. Nothing happens when he selects SP from the Apple menu, either. And he cannot access individual Preferences from the top right menu options.
He think this may be coincident with looking at a picture on a website and clicking a button that said something like "Make this your desktop picture." Somehow it did install the picture on his desktop, without his going through the Desktop/Screen Saver Preferences (I didn't know any website could do this on a Mac). His normal desktop icons still show up all right, and the computer works all right.
I had him repair Permissions, and was about to suggest he boot from the Tiger CD—but then I wasn't sure what to suggest next. Could this picture be hiding the Preferences screen? Other applications apparently work normally.
Any suggestions? Sounds a little like a malware infection, but I've not heard of any on Macs.
/Mr Lynn
He think this may be coincident with looking at a picture on a website and clicking a button that said something like "Make this your desktop picture." Somehow it did install the picture on his desktop, without his going through the Desktop/Screen Saver Preferences (I didn't know any website could do this on a Mac). His normal desktop icons still show up all right, and the computer works all right.
I had him repair Permissions, and was about to suggest he boot from the Tiger CD—but then I wasn't sure what to suggest next. Could this picture be hiding the Preferences screen? Other applications apparently work normally.
Any suggestions? Sounds a little like a malware infection, but I've not heard of any on Macs.
/Mr Lynn
