Every Day A Program That Once Worked, Stops Working Properly...

Question

Sorry, but don't know whether to post in 10.4.6 forum or the Intel Mac Forum, so I'm doing both.
I don't know what I've installed on my Mac that's making programs act buggy, but programs that worked flawlessly in recent memory are now quitting unexpectedly with the simple selection of a button in a dialogue window or selecting a Menu Item.
These programs (SO FAR) are Microsoft Office 2004, Azureus 2.4.0.2 (Universal) and Graphic Converter 5.8.2.
The only thing I can recall adding to my system recently (because of Office failure) is OpenOffice and X11. Other than that I'm at a loss as to why programs are one after the other, suddenly presenting problems.
Any insight from anyone...PLEASE!!! TIA.
(I'm Intel Core Duo, 1 Gig RAM, 10.4.6)

Answer 1

It tells us this is good news. It tells us the issues are limited to your user account.
Log back into your normal user account:
Here's the whole litany for thoroughly checking your home folder.It doesn't take so long as it looks.
1. Navigate to ~(yourhome/library/fonts - drag this folder to the desktop.
• Restart and test your applications.
• If they work start adding the fonts back few at a time.
(Likely suspects are Times RO & Helvetica Fractions)
2. Check Preferences Thoroughly;
• Navigate to ~(yourhome/library/preferences drag this folder to the desktop.
• Restart and test your applications.
• If this works, save the old preferences folder somewhere else or on disk, name it "old prefs" .
** Note: A very important file is the "com.apple.Mail.plist" preference file located in the Preferences folder which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences (hold this one and replace if your problem is not with Mail).
You'll have to go through some of your System Preferences and apps to set the preferences back to how you like them. (Or if you have the time and inclination, "cherry pick" through until you find the problem one or two.)
3. Check Permissions Inside Home Folder
• Navigate to yourhome/library.
• Get Info (Command - i) on folders for apps you are having problems with.
• Open the "Ownership & permissions" disclosure triangle.
• Make sure you are the owner, with "read and write" access.
• Click on "apply to all"
• If this is correct, open the "Applications Support" folder and do the same procedure (Command+I) for the folders with the names of the applications you are having trouble with.
Note:
The reason to check this is because repairing permissions with Disk Utility doesn't touch permissions inside your home folder.
4. Navigate to yourhome/library/caches and drag this folder to the trash, then log out and back or restart. There is no need to replace this folder.
-mj
[email protected]