Desktop suddenly appears as a photographic negative

I have been a mac user since 1985, but have never run into this problem before. I have an iMac G3 PowerPC 750 600 MHz, running OSX 10.3.9. When I "woke" my sleeping desktop this morning, it appeared in mustard yellow, even though it is set as "aqua blue." Everything appears as a photo negative, whites are black, blacks are white, etc. I ran Virex; I restarted; I shutdown and restarted. I checked all my preference settings. I tried printing a photo from iPhoto (it looked like an old film negative), and the printed version came out in normal colors. I haven't found any references to this problem elsewhere. It's very disconcerting to work in the negative, and I would appreciate any help restoring my desktop to sanity as soon as possible.
iMac G3 PowerPC 750 600 MHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

collegemom --
Welcome to Apple Discussions !
Press these three keys at the same time please:
Apple Key, Option Key & the Letter "8" key.
Does that help???

Similar Messages

Firewire drive wouldn't show up on desktop; suddenly appeared. Why?

Man, it's hard to fit everything I want to say in the subject line.
I recently had a power supply failure on my G5 tower (one of the first 1.8 dual models). After replacing the power supply, everything appeared to be in working order, with no harm done (apart from my bank account). However, the external Firewire drive I use to backup the main drive would not appear on the desktop. Didn't matter if I restarted the whole machine or the drive, hooked it up to either port...the drive simply would not appear. When I turned the drive on, it was clear that it was still functioning in some fashion, as the read/write light on the front of the case was lit. The System Profiler did not see the drive either.
That was the last day or two. This morning, I turned the machine on, and the drive still did not appear. I went through my usual morning websites, when I heard the tell-tale sound of Spotlight indexing a drive. I looked up at the corner and saw the drive icons (it has two partitions) on the desktop, and the Backup partition was being indexed. I checked them briefly (as I had to leave for work), and everything appeared to be as it was before the death of the power supply.
So, my question is...why? What would cause the drive to suddenly appear this morning when it hadn't for the last two days? I did absolutely nothing different this morning when starting up the machine, yet today the drive was seen. I'm happy that it's working again, but extremely curious as to what might have caused this. Thoughts?

Hi Brian Bernardini-
I would presume that the drive is starting to fail. It would be wise to back it up as soon as possible?
What model and make is the drive?
Luck-
-DP

Desktop suddenly appears as a document and cannot be opened

Suddenly desktop is not available - when trying to open desktop the message is that there is no programme to open this document! How did tgis happen and how do I get it right again?

It may be the Desktop folder's "bundle bit" has somehow become set, making it behave like a "package" instead of a folder.
If restarting has no effect, I would try the following:
Download Path Finder, which has a 30-day free trial period. Navigate to the Desktop folder from within Path Finder, select it, then File Menu>Get Info. Normally all the "Attributes" checkboxes should be unchecked. If the "Bundle bit" box is checked, uncheck it:

How do I correct my display which appears like a photo negative (='s colors reversed)

I recently Uniblue's Registry Booster and System Tweaker [bad idea!] . Registry Booster claims to have corrected 150+ errors. But it appears to have also utterly disabled my favorite browser [Google Chrome] and makes Mozilla Firefox appear like a photograph negative.

Thanks Terence. I know about that in iPhoto already. I use it often. However, that is not an option when creating a book. When you click on the photos button in the bottom right corner when creating a book, it shows the photos but there is no "info" selection. The only way I find out the date is to drag the photo into the book, then go back and hover over the page number it was imported to and hope eventually the date shows up. If it's not the date for the chapter I wanted (as my chapters are divided by months), I then drag it back out and try again until I find a photo that does have that date. It's taken hours and is different from previous versions of iPhoto where I have created books before. This is iPhoto 11, trying to create a hard bound book.

Why do all my desktop folders appear to be empty?

why do all my desktop folders appear to be empty?..all of a sudden....If I do an 'open,' I see a little red circle on the upper right hand corner with an arrow. When I click it, it tells me I have number X files in the folder. But...I cannot see them....
Message was edited by: Searlaid

You have done something which change the permissions and your user is not able to access anymore. You can play around and try to correct permissions manually by going to your home folder, right click on the Desktop folder and choose get info and when new window will be open, at the bottom of it, check if your username is listed and if has Read & Write permissions.
Other option is to boot to recovery mode (after starting up your computer press and hold CMD+R), then from top panel click on Utilities and choose Terminal. Once terminal is open, type in it resetpassword and when new window will be open, select Macintosh HD as your system drive, select your password and click on the RESET button which is next to "Reset home folder permissions and ACL". NOTE: do not reset your password, you don't have to.
Second options would be better in case if permissions on other folders been changed too.

Printing from desktop suddenly stopped

printing from desktop suddenly stopped 2 days ago; remote printing still works perfectly; desktop shows printer "uninstalled." Print doctor says the printer and desktop are connected to different routers, but nothing has been changed; the issue simply arose suddenly, so I don't think this is an accurate diagnosis. When I try to install the printer again, it says the IP # is already installed (which it is and it prints from a laptop, just shows "uninstalled" for desktop printing. ) Help!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Sharon,
Welcome to the HP Community Forum.
If I understand what you are saying, it appears that one computer - the notebook - is working correctly to print.
A different computer -- a Desktop computer - does not print, and is showing an error indicating that the printer is not connected properly (or something similar).
Assuming you are using DHCP and not a Static IP address for the Printer, the following might apply to your setup.
You might try / consider the following to try and fix the problem for the Desktop computer:
On the Desktop: Remove the Printer software from Control Panel > set icon view > Programs and Features > Right-Click >> Uninstall
Shut down the Desktop Computer
Optional
Disconnect the extra bits from the Desktop -- USB drives, speakers, other unnecessary devices. Leave the monitor and mouse connected; these are considered necessary.
Unplug the Desktop computer for thirty seconds
Reconnect the Desktop computer to the power (plug in)
Reconnect the Desktop's devices as desired: USB drives, etc.
Shut down the Notebook, using proper shutdown protocols
Shut down the Printer
Switch off the Router - wait ten - fifteen seconds...
Switch on the Router - wait thirty seconds for the Router to boot completely...
Boot Notebook, Desktop computer, and then start the Printer
Install the Full Feature Software onto the Desktop computer:
Install Full Feature Software – Printer
Click the Kudos Thumbs-Up to show you appreciate the help.
I am pleased to provide assistance on behalf of HP. I do not work for HP.
Click Accept as Solution when the Answer provides a Fix or Workaround!
Kind Regards,
Dragon-Fur

HELP! "Other..." Suddenly Appeared on Login Window

i installed to two new pieces of software yesterday: the latest adobe flash "upgrade" and the livescribe desktop. i subsequently deleted livescribe.
here's my problem: when i restarted this morning, a new entry appeared on my login window called "other...". i understand this is there to access the root or other hidden accounts, but why did it just appear? i'm suspicious that something (flash or livescribe) created a new (hidden? malware?) account on my machine that caused "other..." to appear.
i've used the terminal command dscacheutil -q group to list all my users (there are a lot!), and this just brings up other questions.
1. should i worry about how many user accounts are on my machine? or more specifically, how do i know *which* accounts i should worry about?
2. is there a way to see *when* an account was created?
3. anyone know if the account
          name: PenCommService
          password:
          gid: -2
   is an apple account, or did it come from livescribe?
4. and finally, why would "other..." suddenly appear on my login window?
any help greatly appreciated!
mark

Did you get this resloved. I had the same thing happen. I think it may have to do with installing Snow Leopard Server utilities on my mac. I hate thinking it's there for someone else to be able to login. If I use that window and enter my information, I log in. If I make something up, no dice. Any breakthrough on what this is?

Desktop files appearing on phone

Hi,
My wife has a Z3, and this week all her photos (set to save to SD card) suddenyl appeared on internal memory as well as duplicates. I assumed it was a OneDrive sync anomly so moved them all off. Then, yesterday some video files that are on our desktop PC (not in a OneDrive folder) suddenly appeared on the Z3 internal memory. The only sync client installed is OneDrive - also Sony PC companion, has anyone any idea what might cause this?
Thanks

@TheDukeofPrunes
uninstall OneDrive > settings > apps > all > album > clear data > restart the phone > check again.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)

What should I do about an odd icon on the desktop that appeared when I restored my iPhone?

I have an odd icon on the desktop that appeared when I restored the software in my iPhone, and I do not know what to do about the strange file. The scenario is as follows:
Recently I was having some problems with the proximity sensor on the iPhone, and I read that if one restored the software on the iPhone, this often allowed the sensor to be calibrated and it would work properly. Thus I synchronized (backed up) the iPhone and then wiped it out and reinstalled the software. At the point iTunes asked me did I want to restore the phone from a backup, I decided that since I did not to re-import any corrupted stuff from the old installation that might affect the operation of the proximity sensor, then I would start over and just set it up as a new phone. I was able to get what little I wanted of stuff otherwise from the iCloud and my music from iTunes, so everything seems to have gone fine.
However, now I have a file that has an image of a Lego-block with musical notes and an iPod on its sides that appeared on the desktop. The odd file is called "iPhone3,1_5.0_9A334_Restore.ipsw". What on earth is this all about???? When I search the internet, I see people who have jailbroken their iPhones talking about .ipsw files, but to the best of my knowledge, I have not done anything to jailbreak my iPhone, nor would I ever want to do such. Why did this file appear on my desktop? What is this file for for? Can I delete this file?
Thank you.

I forgot to mention also that when I tried to delete this icon, the trash eternally acted like it was emptyint the trash, but the progress bar was not progressing. I suppose that is because the file size is too large (812 MB).

My hard drive desktop suddenly will no longer hold or maintain the icons in place when I shut down and restart. The icons all change positions, alphabetically. Just started happening. Any thoughts?

My hard drive desktop suddenly will no longer hold or maintain the icons in place when I shut down and restart. The icons all change positions, alphabetically. Just started happening. I prefer the icons to a list format. Concerned this might be a symptom of a larger problem. Any thoughts?
revmandan

It's normal for the icons at the top level of the startup disk to revert to the same arrangement every time the Finder is relaunched. If it's important to you to arrange those icons in a persistent way, proceed as follows.
Back up all data.
Open the Info window on the startup disk (labeled "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it another name.) Click the lock icon in the lower right corner of the dialog and authenticate.
In the Sharing & Permissions section, click the plus-sign button to add an entry to the access list. Give yourself "Read and Write" access. This will be a temporary change. Leave the dialog open.
Open the Finder window and arrange the icons as you wish, then close the window.
In the Info dialog, use the minus-sign button to delete the entry you just added to the access list. Don't change anything else. When you're done, it should be the same as when you started. Close the Info dialog.

Bridge suddenly appearing in Russian instead of English

By opening Bridge (CS4) yesterday, it suddenly appeared in Russian, instead of English. How to change this back?
Cascam. (Photoshop CS4 is normally running in English)
Casper Cammeraat

It was my understanding that one could not change the language from the purchased edition, so like I say this is odd.
I would reset the preferences to factory defaults and see if that gets it back to English. To do this close Bridge and then press and hold the Ctrl key and start Bridge. You should get a reset window with 3 options. Choose all 3.

My Facebook has suddenly appeared in a foreign language! How do I get it back to English?

My Facebook has suddenly appeared in a foreign language! How do I get it back to English?

This will solve your problem. Click on this link.
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/2524-how-to-change-the-language-on-facebook

In the midle of a song the screen gets dark, then suddenly appear the home screen of ipod and the song stops.

i have updated my ipod 4g to ios 5.0. everything went great, but something is not right cause sometimes in the midle of a song the screen gets dark, then suddenly appear the home screen of ipod and the song stops. help-me, what should i do?

It occurs with both ripped songs and ITMS songs, but not always the same songs. Just this morning, I had a song skip ahead, then put down the ipod for a few mintues, came back and that same song did not skip ahead at all. I've been on a stretch now of about 20 songs with no skipping whatsoever. Hmmmmmm....
I've used all the five "R"'s multiple times to no avail. It just seems so random, it frustrates me.
Thanks for the help, King

"Black Frame" suddenly appeared

A black frame has "suddenly" appeared on my screen. It is about 1/16 in. wide, rectangular and about 3/4 the total size of my iBook screen. It will move (with my cursor), doesn't go beyond the screen dimensions and doesn't seem to affect usage other than being a nuisance. Wasn't there yesterday. Have worked with the posted "Universal Access" & "Voice Over" suggestions -- but that had no effect. I use OS-X and upgraded to version 10.4.8 which I downloaded today.
Would appreciate any ideas on how to retire my "black frame."
Bob

It's ANOTHER "Universal Access" feature. Go to the "Seeing" pane and click the Zoom "Options..." button. Uncheck "Show preview rectangle when zoomed out".

How do I stop desktop icons appearing from the right?

I'm new to Mac (and loving it!) but when new items (drives, downloads, etc) are added to my desktop that appear on the right hand side (unlike Windows which adds from the left).
Now I like to keep the Twitter app open on the right hand side of the screen so I'm constantly moving it to grab the icons from behind.
Is there a way to tell my Mac to add icons to the left hand side of the screen instead?
Cheers!
Simon

A different way round your problem would be to assign Twitter to just one desktop.
Then when you want to access the icons behind it, just four-finger swipe or use the keyboard hotkey to switch to the next desktop (which will show the icons without your Twitter app in front).

Desktop suddenly appears as a photographic negative

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for