I can't open ANY of my System Preference panes.

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Your Mac's Specs
Mid-2007 20-inch iMac, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 // Mid-2007 13-inch MacBook, Lion 10.7.5
This is a cross-post from https://discussions.apple.com/message/19558192#19558192. I will be sure to keep each thread promptly updated with any news from the other.

——————

I can't seem to find quite this exact problem in the archives anywhere, so here goes. I am using a 13-inch Mid 2007 MacBook running OS X Version 10.7.4 (Lion).

I can open the System Preferences application just fine. But I cannot open any of the individual preference panes. This is no matter how I try to access them: by clicking on an icon in the main System Preferences window, through Spotlight, via specific menu items like "Open Network Preferences..." in the WiFi menu...

Whenever I try to open a preference pane, the System Preferences title bar reads "Loading [Whatever]..." and the window just sits there. It's not frozen, per se; I can still hit the red (X) to quit without difficulty, for instance. I also get the following 3 messages in my Console:

Code:
[B]09/13/12 2:49:27.339 p.m.[/B] System Preferences: +[NSPrefCrossFadeView createCGImageOfView:rect:superview:windowRect:]: unrecognized selector sent to class 0x7fff733d1570
[B]09/13/12 2:49:27.339 p.m.[/B] System Preferences: +[NSPrefCrossFadeView createCGImageOfView:rect:superview:windowRect:]: unrecognized selector sent to class 0x7fff733d1570
[B]09/13/12 2:49:27.344 p.m.[/B] System Preferences: (
  0   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880e0fc6 __exceptionPreprocess + 198
  1   libobjc.A.dylib     0x00007fff8bfc0d5e objc_exception_throw + 43
  2   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff8816d1ee +[NSObject doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 190
  3   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880cde73 ___forwarding___ + 371
  4   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880cdc88 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 232
  5   System Preferences  0x000000010ab14383 System Preferences + 37763
  6   System Preferences  0x000000010ab12d32 System Preferences + 32050
  7   Foundation          0x00007fff838e41aa __NSFireDelayedPerform + 392
  8   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88095c24 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_TIMER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 20
  9   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88095776 __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 534
  10  CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88076001 __CFRunLoopRun + 1617
  11  CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88075676 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 230
  12  HIToolbox           0x00007fff8954e31f RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 277
  13  HIToolbox           0x00007fff8955551b ReceiveNextEventCommon + 181
  14  HIToolbox           0x00007fff89555456 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 62
  15  AppKit              0x00007fff85580e31 _DPSNextEvent + 659
  16  AppKit              0x00007fff85580735 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 135
  17  AppKit              0x00007fff8557d071 -[NSApplication run] + 470
  18  AppKit              0x00007fff857f9244 NSApplicationMain + 867
  19  System Preferences  0x000000010ab0cb30 System Preferences + 6960
)

Can anybody tell me what's going on / what I can try to fix it? Let me know what I can clarify or what additional information I can provide.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Think you mean Preference as found in Computer > Hard Drive > Library and there you will find Preferences, not in System Preferences.
 
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thecommexokid
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Your Mac's Specs
Mid-2007 20-inch iMac, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 // Mid-2007 13-inch MacBook, Lion 10.7.5
Think you mean Preference as found in Computer > Hard Drive > Library and there you will find Preferences, not in System Preferences.

Um, what? I'm talking about
screenshot-13Sep.png
 
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Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
Then try this. Finder then Go menu Hold down Option and select Library>Preferences>com.apple.systempreferences.plist

Trash this .plist and this will RESET System Preferences and see if that works If it doesnt then you can either Put Back that .plist from the Trash or continue troubleshooting

Cheers
 
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thecommexokid
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Your Mac's Specs
Mid-2007 20-inch iMac, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 // Mid-2007 13-inch MacBook, Lion 10.7.5
Then try this. Finder then Go menu Hold down Option and select Library>Preferences>com.apple.systempreferences.plist

Thanks for the suggestion, but I trashed the file to no effect.

Go to the Apple web site and download the latest Lion Combo Updater and see of that helps.

However—hooray!—this, much to my surprise, did the trick! Thank you very much for the suggestion.
 

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