OS X Start up : Menu bar missing

Hi,
MacBook Pro mi-2010, OS X 10.8.2 (clean install).
For some start-ups, the menu bar is missing! (with the apple menu item, at the top of the screen).
The place for it is reserved, the menu bar seems to be invisible.
When you lauch any application from Dock the menu bar is definitively restored (until you restart the system).
It's not happening each time.
Everything is up to date.
If you can help, thank you...
Frank

What is in your Login Items folder?
- What do you mean, my login home folder. There is only standard folders.
Does this behavior persist for a different user, e.g., Guest?
- Yes it does
Does this behavior persist when Starting up in Safe Mode?
- I don't know because starting this mode is very very very long to boot. And I need to boot and reboot many times to be sure whether it happens or not in safe mode.
Third party
- Yes, SSD drive, firmware freshly updated. TRIM is activated with Trim Enabler.
- Yes, 8Go of RAM.

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Applications won't start, no menu bar...

Hello all, and thank you your time.
I own a 2008 Macbook running on OSX 1.5.(whatever the last version of 1.5 is)
My problem started this morning. I had just started my computer up in the morning, and i found that safari was barely working (i.e., not loading the pages for several minutes) and that my iTunes had an error, stating that there was a component missing, and I needed to re-install iTunes. Finally, I found that adobe photoshop would not start. The icon would bounce, but instead of starting, would only stop bouncing. I tried a Software Update, and upon installing and restarting, i found that i had a Dock, but could not launch any apps. There are no icons on my desktop, and no menu bar.
Also, as an added bit of information, I put a new hard drive in in the past two or three months. I had a mac-certified repair shop install it.
I'm wondering what sort of problem this is, what I could do to fix it, and how this might have occured.
Thankyou.

Usually it means your system is corrupted. Try the following:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

My apps won't launch & menu bar missing all top left icons!!!

A strange concurrence of multiple problems:
I am a pretty advanced user and have an iBook G4/1.33 GHz running Tiger 10.4.8, but I am having trouble with my PowerMac G4/500 MHz running 10.3.9 right now. I keep my PowerMac in Panther since it is almost 7 years old and I only have Tiger on my iBook disc.
Suddenly a few things started to happen at once yesterday:
1) NONE of the top right menu bar icons (OS 9 status, modem status, iChat, monitors, AirPort, Volume, clock, etc. show up upon log-in or restart.
2) Virtually NONE of my apps will launch from the Dock or the Finder. They bounce a few times then give up, with no error message.
I peformed successful repairs booting from both the OS X Panther disc and TechTool Deluxe. Although recommended, I can't create a TEST User because System Prefs won't launch, can't repair permissions from the problematic drive because Disk Utility won't launch, and I can't clear out caches because Cocktail won't launch.
I made sure the Application Support Folder in my Home Library had read/write permissions for me and applied to all enclosing folders as suggested. I tried trashing the com.apple.ActivityMonitor.plist preference in my Home Library also as suggested. However, it wouldn't allow me to remove the Launch Services file in the Caches folder of the main Library Folder as I also read here in the discussions.
Aside from successfully running disc repairs from the startup disc and TechTool, I tried repairing permissions from the startup CD as well (since couldn't launch any apps like Disk Utility from regular startup drive). Every time I try to repair in this manner though, after a minute it tells me "Disk Utility lost connection with Disk Managment" and I must quit and relaunch Disk Utility. However, same thing happens when I do, for both my drives running copies of OS X 10.3.9.
Only thing I can think of is to do an Archive/Reinstall of one of the two OS X systems on two different drives. But does anyone else have a clue what is causing this or what I need to try??? I read similar stories on here but nothing will all these symptoms at once.
I would REALLY appreciate some input, thanks!!!
PowerMac G4/500 MHz (1 GB); iBook G4/1.33 GHz (1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.3) (still using 10.3.9 Panther on PowerMac)

Menu Bar Problems ..........
Check the following link for OS X troubleshooting steps. When doing so, following all steps in the order provided:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html
1 If resetting permissions doesn't help, you may have a corrupt preference file... Delete....
Delete ~/Library/Caches (folder)
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.systemuiserver.xxx.plist
where 'xxx' is a 12 digit (hexadecimal) numeric string
• Then log out and back in again. You may need to go to System Preferences to put back the menu items you need to display.
• Removing systemuiserver.plist will cause the right half of the menubar back
its original pristine default state.
2. Check Preferences Thoroughly;
- Navigate to ~/Library and drag the "Preferences" folder to the desktop.
- Restart and test your applications.
• If this does not work, move the "Preferece" folder back to ~/Library
• If this works, delete the old preferences folder. (You'll have to go through some of your System Preferences and apps to set the preferences back to how you like them).
3. Navigate to ~/Library and drag the "Fonts" folder to the desktop.
- Restart and test your applications.
- If they work start adding the fonts back few at a time.
( A likely suspect is Time RO, also if you do not use Classic you can trash the classic fonts.)
4. Check Permissions Inside Home Folder
- Navigate to ~/Library.
- Get Info (Command + i) on the "Applications Support" folder.
- Open the "Ownership & permissions" flippy 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.
• Create a new User.... go to System Preferences/ Accounts and click on "+" at bottom left of window..... and test the apps in this new account if they work the problem is isolated to your User
(~ means your home directory)
george w

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Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Please take this step regardless of the results of Step 1.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of Steps 1 and 2.

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Its getting pretty frustrating. Anyone have any ideas please?

Hello OCMacMerlin
If the OnyX Rebuild services didn't or won't fix it, then have a look at the following:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060203133729554
http://jann.is/daily/archives/807-Recover-missing-menu-bar-icons-in-OSX.html
Dennis

OS X Start up : Menu bar missing

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