Lost Preferences, Dock, Desktop, Expose, Dashboard, Minimize

So I updated iTunes and Quicktime on my PowerBook G4 1.25 last night, followed by the mandatory restart. Then I put my new printer software on and played around with Adobe CS2 and printed some things off. When I got tired I shut down and crashed on the couch. I awoke with a cold. Seems my Mac had a crash of its own and awoke with a cold too.
It worked fine for a while, until I began working in Dreamweaver...it just froze. When I finally forced a shutdown (after a half hour) I restarted to find that my dock missing, my desktop image gone, Expose inactive, inability to minimize and no Dashboard.
I don't know what to do. Please help.

I just started having this same problem after Firefox crashed the Finder somehow. I've tried repairing the disk, repairing permissions, trashing com.apple.finder.plist and systempreferences.plist, and nothing's working. It happens in all the users on this computer. I tried reinstalling the 10.4.9 update and the latest security update, because I think this happened because I hadn't yet restarted from installing the security update when Firefox crashes. However, the 10.4.9 update didn't help, and it won't actually let me reinstall the security update.
Were you able to fix this, or does anyone else have any suggestions? Bit of a crisis here...

Similar Messages

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  • Dock, Expose, Dashboard freeze and macbook won't shut down.

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  • All Preferences and Desktop settings lost!

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  • How do I repair my desktop AND dashboard after everything else failed?

    Hello,
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    I'm using a 2010 MacBook Pro.  I had recently updated to the Maverick OS, and the only real problem I was experiencing was some lag in starting up, loading up programs, switching between my desktops, etc.  It wasn't a bother.
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    My widgets along with my Dashboard has disappeared!  I had some pertinent info regarding my classes in my notes, but I have no way to access them.  Before I would just 3 finger swipe to the far left, hot corned, of F4'd to access my dashboard.  Not anymore.  Mission Control from System Preferences shows Dashboard as "Off" no matter how many times I change it.
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    Relaunched Finder
    Restarted the laptop
    In System Preferences, Dashboard was "Off," switched that to "As Overlay," and "As Space," and it reverted to "Off"
    Moved Dashboard app icon from Applications to the dock, clicked it, right clicked it
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    In Disk Utility: I verified the Disk permissions and then repaired the Disk permissions.
    I updated from OSX Maverick to OSX Yosemite.
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    And many other things like CtrlR/S during rebooting
    Reboot as Safe Mode
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    Additional Info
    When I created a new account, I was able to FINALLY "right click" from my Trackpad (I don't have a mouse), and create a new folder on the desktop!  However, Dashboard would STILL not work.  And of course none of my files and programs are in the second account.
    I fly home in 4 days from med school so that I can finally go to my Mac store in Cali, but I'd like to try get this seemingly small technical error fixed.

    Hello,
    I tried finding a thread with my problem here on MacSupport, but those solutions didn't work and weren't exactly my laptop problems.
    I'm using a 2010 MacBook Pro.  I had recently updated to the Maverick OS, and the only real problem I was experiencing was some lag in starting up, loading up programs, switching between my desktops, etc.  It wasn't a bother.
    However, starting a week or two ago, my laptop would just freeze while I was studying, listening to Pandora.  In which case I'd have to hard reset my laptop.  This happened at least once a day.
    Just yesterday (Dec 6), as I finished taking my exam (using ExamSoft/SofTest - required by the school) my laptop froze.  I again had to hard reset.  The laptop was operational, but I noticed two big problems after I left the test site:
    Problems
    My desktop is unresponsive.  I can't click, drag, select, right click, create a new folder, and all my icons have disappeared.  However, when I spotlight my Desktop folder, all my programs, files, and shortcuts are still there.  It's a bit inconvenient to search, open Desktop, and then open the file I need to.
    My widgets along with my Dashboard has disappeared!  I had some pertinent info regarding my classes in my notes, but I have no way to access them.  Before I would just 3 finger swipe to the far left, hot corned, of F4'd to access my dashboard.  Not anymore.  Mission Control from System Preferences shows Dashboard as "Off" no matter how many times I change it.
    What I tried
    I did as much reading up as I could afford (I still have 1 exam before the end of my term), and the posted solutions both here and elsewhere haven't been satisfactory for the issue I'm experiencing.
    Relaunched Finder
    Restarted the laptop
    In System Preferences, Dashboard was "Off," switched that to "As Overlay," and "As Space," and it reverted to "Off"
    Moved Dashboard app icon from Applications to the dock, clicked it, right clicked it
    Mission controlled (hot corner) from the desktop to add more desktops and hopefully add back Dashboard (I was getting a bit desperate)
    In Disk Utility: I verified the Disk and then repaired the Disk.
    In Disk Utility: I verified the Disk permissions and then repaired the Disk permissions.
    I updated from OSX Maverick to OSX Yosemite.
    Kept the laptop off overnight (6 hours)
    And many other things like CtrlR/S during rebooting
    Reboot as Safe Mode
    One of the things I read about that I haven't done is Archive and Reformat, and I really don't want to do that, especially at this time.
    Additional Info
    When I created a new account, I was able to FINALLY "right click" from my Trackpad (I don't have a mouse), and create a new folder on the desktop!  However, Dashboard would STILL not work.  And of course none of my files and programs are in the second account.
    I fly home in 4 days from med school so that I can finally go to my Mac store in Cali, but I'd like to try get this seemingly small technical error fixed.

  • No dock, exposé, spaces, dashboard or wallpaper menu

    I did a normal install (over my previous Tiger) and nothing strange happened...until the installation ended and the background was just a boring blue screen. I thought that was strange, so I moved my mouse over to the side to get in the dock and the system preferences...but there was no dock. I am able to access dock preferences, and it is not checked to auto hide. Also, whenever I change it from "dock on bottom," it doesn't save my setting and just resets back to bottom.
    It's not just my dock, however. I can't load the Change Desktop Wallpaper menu in my Sys Prefs. It's just a blank grey menu with the Wallpaper and Screensaver tabs on top.
    I'm also not able to access Dashboard, Exposé or Spaces. Their corresponding menus don't respond to changes I make.
    These are the steps I have taken so far: I've reinstalled, this time with "Archive and Install," but it made a practically empty folder called "previous systems" and went ahead and installed itself over my previous operation system anyway. I deleted whatever com.apple.*.plists I could in the Preferences window. I don't have DivX installed, so I wasn't able to do the trick where you rename the folder in Application Support, and I rebooted more times than I can remember. I WAS able to get the wallpaper to change from blue to the default, but I still can't access the wallpaper menu in System Preferences.
    I'd appreciate any help you can give me.

    No, you shouldn't need to reformat. Run AHT (Apple Hardware Test):
    1. Disconnect all external devices from your iMac except the keyboard and mouse.
    If you have an Ethernet cable connected, disconnect it.
    2. Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 that came with your iMac.
    3. Restart your iMac and hold down the D key as your iMac starts up.
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    [email protected]

  • How do I find my lost preferences! (after hard drive swap-out

    I replaced my bay 2/3 mirrored drives with larger drives, then copied over the data from one of the old drives from bay 4. My problem is I now have just a generic desktop, all my: dock and web preferences are missing, my copy of fetch wants a serial number. All my data is there but someone things are mixed up. Here's exactly what i did:
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    /Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder)
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