icons gone missing along with dock and my sanity.

[rug01]

Seems fine in safe mode. Regular boot takes forever and lacks icons, most programs work albeit slowly by clicking on titles. Have tried to restore permissions to no effect. Ran anti virus programs, saphos and others. and machine is supposedly clean. I first noticed that i couldn't move files on the desk top or into other files. Rebooting caused icons to start disappearing, till all I could see was the file name. also lost the dock entirely, except in safe mode. May have started after updating flash player. Now flash player plugin fails in all browsers; not only that, now QuickTime has started crashing. Tried reverting to earlier version of flash player but no help. Even when installing it doesn't end up where its supposed to go. Library/ internet plugins. Any ideas??? short of reinstalling the os as my super drive is on the fritz.
P.S. now I notice my icons are going even in safe mode
p.p.s. not seeing any return posts can someone reply just so i know i'm doing this right.
mac mini 2GHz running osx 10.6.8

 

[toMACsh]

Well, until you said the problem is now appearing in safe mode, I was going to suggest trying a different user account. I'm no hardware expert, but it doesn't sound good. It's definitely not a virus, as none exist that affect OSX.

 

[rug01]

Tried new user to varied results. If not a virus what then? and don't kid yourself about no mac os viruses. Stay away from mac defender! from what I've read online that's one nasty bit of malware. looked to apple for the uninstaller but doesn't seem to exist for 10.6.8. pretty shure its not involved here. but again anti virus says no virus.

 

[MYmacROX]

Have you tried reverting to an earlier Time Machine backup prior to these issues? It does sound like your HDD is failing but going back in Time Machine will eliminate another possible solution and narrow down the true issue.

Please read this thread http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...-official-antivirus-malware-firewall-faq.html.
Not the place for a "virus" argument. Those never lead anywhere positive. Mostly because of disagreements over the definition and usage of the word "virus".

 

[harryb2448]

For starters boot up from your Snow Leopard disc and run repair Disk from there and see what is reported. Next step is running Apple Hardware Test from disc one of the original system discs which trust you still have?

 

[rug01]

Iv'e been a bad boy. Never really got the hang of time machine, and my superdrive is on the fritz. Replacing soon.
But another clue, when i open the desktop file i get jpeg files that have nothing to do with the desktop Images most are images from elseware on the drive. when you try to open these files the machine launches another app. Got safari the last time I tried to open one of these files. ***? What should i see in the desktop? And yes still have disks, just cant use them till I replace the drive.

 

[harryb2448]

Alas you are between a rock and that hard place.

Be aware there are no Mac OS X viruses, however there is a trojan that masquerades as Flash Player asking you to install the program and from there you have problems.


http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_...poses-as-adobe-flash-installer/?tag=mncol;txt