Process Viewer won't launch

Question

Using OS 10.2.4 on 933 MHzG4 1.25 GB RAM
I have been using Process Viewer to check memory use and CPU use whenever I get the spinning beachball.
About 2 weeks ago it first failed to launch with "Error 100" message.
Now, I'm not getting that. Nothing happens when I click on it and I don't see any activity on Console Log
I've used Disk Utility to fix Preferences on the partition with the OS on it and then repeated this to make sure nothing has been missed. No other applications show launch problems. I can launch Console Log and Terminal OK and run PhotoShop, browsers, email Eudora.
I did recently upgrade "A Better Finder Rename" and have not tried to disable this or revert to the prior version to see if this is a problem and will do this and will add to this post when I have results.
Meanwhile, any ideas?

Answer 1

Bingo! The pref trash didn't work and logging on with
another account WAS able to launch Process Viewer
with no problem.
This result indicates that the problem is somehow related to your account. It might be some preference file in your account, something in your startup items or something else unique to your account that is causing the problem. Since Process Viewer works in another account, we can conclude that the software for that app is okay.
I'm a fairly regular user of DiskWarrior to check
files/rebuild and even more prevalently use Disk
Utility to repair permissions (what's the sense of
verifying, I'm going to fix it anyway) and they
didn't find any problems. I guess there are internal
code problems that these don't access/check.
These are good things to do and can catch a variety of problems. One other thing that you might consider is to clean the caches in your account. Software that you can use for that is discussed in Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption.
I had to redo my OS a few months ago and moving
prefs from old OS to the new install was tedious to
say the least. I felt that I had to do this to
regain prefs and setup mods I made to various
utilities and applications.
If your problem had started right after this, I would suspect that it was related to this move. However, you said that the problem started a few weeks ago, so I see little reason the move as a cause of your problem.
Wiil I run the risk of contaminating the new
account with whatever was the problem with the old
one? Any ideas on how to avoid this?
By the new account, I assume that you mean the one that you tested Process Viewer in as discussed at the start of your message. This is a tough call. Sometimes, files in a user account become corrupted and cause bizarre problems with an app. If that is what happened to you, then you will not be contaminating a new account by starting to use it. However, the problem might also be related to some software that you are using only in your own account. If you start using that software in another account, you would probably start having problems again. So, if you have any software that falls in this category, my advice would be to start slowly - add one item at a time and see if you can run for a while without a problem. Also, you said that you did recently upgrade "A Better Finder Rename". If this was done shortly before your problem started, I would definitely urge you to remove this code from your system and see if the problem goes away.
A couple of other things to try if there is no joy at this point:
- try a Safe Boot as described in Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode. That disables certain extensions to your system. If you can run Process Monitor okay after a Safe Boot, then there are some directories to check for problem files. But, we can cross that bridge later. Also, even if a Safe Boot works, you probably will not want to run that way for very long, because it disables some things that you probably need - such as printing, perhaps wireless capability and more.
- Try disabling your login items as set in System Preferences > Accounts > Your Account >Startup Items (or perhaps Login Items). If you have items shown there, you can disable them by selecting them with the mouse and then clicking the "-" sign.
I hope something here helps you,
Rich