Missing System Preferences

ok.....so I went to utilities and disk utilities wasn't there, so I just pulled it up in spotlight, went ahead and clicked on 'repair permissions'....I hope I wasn't supposed to do the 'verify' one first.

it's repairing now, working hard, the time lapsed bar says 21 minutes, it's been working for abt 8 minutes and has not lowered itself on the bar but up in the box...ok, it's done. I see system pref on the dock with a question mark behind it. click on it, nothing happens. click on the apple, then system preferences and nothing happens!!!!!!!!

What is going on??? please help!

i have done repair permissions, in which it looked as though there were lots of things that it repaired. still same problem....click on it on the dock, nothing, type it into spotlight, nothing, click on the apple, drop down to system preferences, STILL nothing!!!
HELP!!!
I am so confused. When I got it, late '08, I had leopard, I have since upgraded to SL. Do I need to reinstall everything? I'm not a computer genius, so any assistance given I need my hand held thru the process!!!

thanks

Posts moved to their own thread.

You will ave better results by starting your own thread, rather than tagging on to an old one.

The best thing I can suggest trying first is to download and run the Snow Leopard Combo-update. I'll post a link to it in a bit.
If that doesn't work, post back for more advice.

EDIT: Here is the link, as promised
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399

no system preferences

HI all!!!!
I can't seem to access my system preferences....actually, it appears it may have been deleted. I've searched hi & lo with no luck.
So, I'm guessing I have to reinstall something but not sure what I'm doing~~ do I use the Mac OS X reinstall that came with the computer originally or the Applications disc?? when I do so, is there anything I should do before sticking that disc in?

novice user regarding tech speak....hold my hand please!!!

thank you

OK. Which Mac do you have and which version of OSX?

If you click the spotlight icon (magnifying glass top right by the clock) and type System does System Preferences appear in the list?

Threads merged. No need to start a 2nd thread for the same topic.

Thanks,

- Nick

And I would add to the OP, "Did you ever follow the advice given in the first thread about running the Combo-update from the Link I provided?"

However, providing you have your data backed up and your SL disk, reinstalling the OS is a good option.

Interesting to see what OS the OP has running. The reason im curious is because this is the 3rd thread that i have seen with the same problem.
@OP have you moved or renamed your Home Folder in any which way or form ?? Apart from that, i think the solution is to do a complete re-install of you Mac with either the System Install Disk's that came with your machine OR the Recovery Partition on the newest models, BUT if that is the way that you go, please, please back up to a external drive with Time Machine, or one of the cloning App's like SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner.


Cheers

EDIT : After reading the thread again, i suggest the SL Install DVD and do a re-install. Its 0035hrs here so im allowed a fluffy

pureblisscandle said:

I can't seem to access my system preferences....actually, it appears it may have been deleted. I've searched hi & lo with no luck.

Click to expand...

That's odd, because others have reported that a message pops up if you try to delete SP. The OS won't let you!

toMACsh said:

That's odd, because others have reported that a message pops up if you try to delete SP. The OS won't let you!

Click to expand...

100% true. It comes up with this error msg ~ “System Preferences.app” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.

Hi all,
I'm running 10.6.8 and right now I'm doing the Combo update download. I haven't changed names of anything nor have I come across any error messages.....I dunno!!!!

I appreciate everyone's advice & will let ya know which route I ended up taking. really hoping this combo update will do the trick, I don't have any more room on my external hard drive.

Not sure if this is playing any role at all in my other problem I'm having but I can't seem to burn any music to cd....I've slowed the speed down, (which it then alllowed me to burn 1 but no more) I even bought a lens cleaner, NO LUCK and when it seems like it's burning, it's super loud..... ? ? ? ? ?

doubtful but thought I'd ask anyhow whether the 2 issues could be related???

thanks again

Out of curiosity how large is your internal Hard Drive and how much Disk Free Space do you have?

pureblisscandle said:

I appreciate everyone's advice & will let ya know which route I ended up taking. really hoping this combo update will do the trick, I don't have any more room on my external hard drive.
Not sure if this is playing any role at all in my other problem I'm having but I can't seem to burn any music to cd....I've slowed the speed down, (which it then alllowed me to burn 1 but no more) I even bought a lens cleaner, NO LUCK and when it seems like it's burning, it's super loud..... ? ? ? ? ?

Click to expand...

What do you mean when you say "Its very loud" ?? Also, exactly how much space do you have on your HD left ?? You can find that out via Disk Utility.
As a rule of thumb, for your Mac to run at close to optimum performance you need 20-25% free space on the System HD. If you have less than this you will get the Spinning BeachBall quite a lot, and burning music to CD will struggle to happen too, which could well be your problem ??

Cheers

EDIT : Razor types faster than me

TattooedMac said:

Razor types faster than me

Click to expand...

Only because I kept it short this time.

I've attached a screenshot of istat pro thinking what you're asking is within those numbers....not sure how to read how much I have left....(remember, no tech speak...clueless)

when I say it's 'loud' I mean the burner within the laptop sounds like a bad machine....not sure how else to describe...can you tell from what I've attached whether or not how much space I have left could be responsible for not being able to burn music cd's?

Also, I did that update from the link you provided me and no luck, still no system preferences, even when I type it into spotlight....so, do I use the apps cd or the other one that came with the computer? do I need to back everything up as well? ARGHHH!!!!

thanks so much for everyone's help!!!

also, when I do a reinstall of the OS, do I use one of the discs that came with the computer? I've upgraded from Leopard to SL and wondering if I'm supposed to use the Snow Leopard disc?????

thanks again

Well from the screenshot you are right on the border of free space for the system to work efficiently. Looks like you have a 150GB HD with close to 36GB free space. With a 150GB HD you should be looking at keeping at a minimum of 30GB Free which is the minimum of 20%.
With the Combo Update not bringing it back (which im surprised at actually) then it is time to re-install the OS. You will need to Grey Install DVD that came with the Mac, which you are saying is Snow Leopard. 1 is the OS Install DVD and the other one is Extras, which we wont worry about for now.
BEFORE you do anything Backup, Backup, Backup, and then do a complete reinstall. With SnowLeopard by default it will do what we call a Archive and Install, which means it will Archive the System Files and install the OS, and when its done, all your Files, Folders and Preferences and Settings will be as they where before you started it.
For you because of the lack of free space, i would recommend a complete clean re-install of the OS so you start off with a clean free system, and then bring back those files you work with back to the Mac from the Backup. I cant emphasise enough the urgency to Backup here.

If your ok to go and do the Re-install yourself, back up first then away you go.

1 More option is to use Pacifist to Extract the SystemPreferences.app from the install DVD. If you want to go this way, STILL BACKUP, download Pacifist, and with the Grey Install DVD in the Drive, open Pacifist and navigate to the Applications folder then to System Preferences and Extract it from the install DVD.
Being System Preferences i personally would steer clear of extracting it as all your settings and what not are stored in there and it could turn worse for you, so i still recommend a Re-install, but its ultimately up to you mate

Cheers

thank you so much....only question (well, for right now that is) is this....when I got the computer, it had Leopard and came with 2 discs, one was install other was app install....I have since bought Snow Leopard, which disc should I use??
not sure if this happened because of the Combo Update but my wallpaper is now that aurora (think it's called this) & of course I can't change that because of not having access to system pref...no biggie, just sayin'

so yeah, which should I use, the newer one right??
thank you so much!!!!!

I would be using the SnowLeopard disks to do the re-install. That way you can use the MacApp Store if you feel that way inclined.
Back Up first the use Disk Utility the wipe the HD and re-install SL.
Once you have done that upgrade to 10.6.8 Combo Update ~ Apple and you should be right to go

Cheers

ok I will let ya know after it's done OR whine & moan for some assistance....hopefully NOT the latter!!!
thank you so much for yr help & getting back to me so quickly!!! ; )