My System Preferences is missing!!

Please can someone help. My System Preferences has vanished from my application folder! When I try and load it from Finder it just stops loading! Please can someone help because I cannot change any of my settings!

Thanx
PS Please reply ASAP

Are you saying that your system preferences application is missing or it starts to run then quits. Have you tried to repair permissions? Also what was the last change or addition you made before the problem started?

if none of the things rman asked are what happened, or if it didnt happen right after a restart or update, you can try doing an archive and install of os x.

rman said:

Are you saying that your system preferences application is missing or it starts to run then quits. Have you tried to repair permissions? Also what was the last change or addition you made before the problem started?

Click to expand...

Ive already repaired permissions and its still missing, and I cannot remember when the problem started or what I did before it happened.

Man I love Macs, and in the five years I have owned my imac, this is the first problem Ive had. But even after this, I still feel Macs are far superior to PCs, even the older models i.e mine! lol

Macman said:

if none of the things rman asked are what happened, or if it didnt happen right after a restart or update, you can try doing an archive and install of os x.

Click to expand...

How do you do that? (I'm a super noobie :dummy: lol)

insert os x install disc 1, shut down the mac, start up holding down C to boot from the disc, then continue the installation process, when youre aty the step where you select your drive, click options and select archive and install as the installation type,
and install.

uh oh

my mac is in bad shape, i cannot seem to do anything to fix my mac
i do not have the cds for Mac OSX, ive tried some of the things in the basic troubleshooting i.e holding the apple button + s but it doesn't work!

my imac is bout 4 years old, the specs are:
233mhz PowerPc G3 (on the system profiler its says its a PowerPc 750)
192mb ram
8 GB memory

in running os x ver. 10.3.7

Please can anyone help me fix my mac. Also im a complete noob so i need it step by step in simple instructions lol

Can anyone help at all?

Thanx

1.borrow the panther install discs from a friend,
2. install pacifist,
3. extract the installer just for system prefs app
4. install it
5. repair permissions and restart.
just a question, have you tried loooking in applications inside the user home folder for it?

Macman said:

1.borrow the panther install discs from a friend,
2. install pacifist,
3. extract the installer just for system prefs app
4. install it
5. repair permissions and restart.
just a question, have you tried loooking in applications inside the user home folder for it?

Click to expand...

yeh i looked everywhere, it has completely vanished. i have no idea wats wrong... has anyone had the same problem???

Lol. All my m8s hav pcs not macs. I tried to convert them lol but they wont have it. they prefer constant crashing and blue screen errors lol. once mac never go back i always say..

hey can anyone extract system preferences for me so i could be able to download it? is that possible? cos my only m8 that has a mac cannot find his panther disc and i was wonderin if u nice ppl at mac forums cud help me out :mac:

solution to missing system preferences

I could not find my system preferences. I tried everything and then.....I updated with the following:

Jaguar through Snow Leopard updates tables

I don't what it did - but it worked. My computer is back to normal.

Insact same problem

My system prefernces has just vanished too. I looked everywhere and double-checked. I will look into it and probobaly reinstall it. Anyways, thanks everyone who made a step-by step instruction.