Start up issues in snow leopard

I've erased and reinstalled my MacBook pro 2011 original osx snow leopard disk twice, (running Yosemite last) Everything was good again, but when I tried to download updates and restart, it comes back to desktop with nothing else. Didn't really restart at all. I can't do anything but shut it down, and that takes a few seconds holding the button. Before the last time I tried the erase and reinstall, it just stayed on the blue screen until I shut off. That's gone now, but still.....
the mac has been restarting, (with no chime ever) but will not restart when downloading updates. Another thing I've noticed is that when I start up manually I don't get the sign in page. PS I have managed to download the Combo update thought.
I'm trying everything I can before I call Apple.
Should I try resetting NVRAM? Haven't done that yet. If I upgrade to Mountain Lion or if start up isn't working I doubt it.
I also wonder if I'm reinstalling incorrectly. When I choose the disk I want to use for startup disk, I have to rename it. So it is disk 1. I created it from the top drive on the far left. I hope someone has the answers.
L

Yes, try resetting the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
About NVRAM and PRAM
This is the Mac Pro desktop forum. I requested your post be moved to the MacBook Pro laptop forum.

Similar Messages

Continuing font encoding and tag issues with snow leopard and CS4oI

I am looking for help with a font handling issue with snow leopard and cs4 Indesign. Despite numerous calls and hours on the phone neither Apple nor Adobe has been helpful. I have had this issue open with Adobe since oct 5 but they remain totally unresponsive to date. I need to be able to use Type 1 fonts and do the following , export a pdf from Indesign with the following attributes: 1) xml tags for stories and objects. 2) have the fonts encoded as ansi and embedded.
Some additional information - exporting to ps is not an option as it destroys the xml tags. and doesn't guarantee that the fonts won't become CID or some other odd encoding.
As it stands now,
Leopard (10.5.8) and CS3 creates ansi encoded fonts with xml tags.
Leopard (10.5.8) and CS4 creates ansi encoded fonts with xml tags.
Snow leopard and CS3 creates ansi encoded fonts and xml tags
Snow leopard and CS4 creates custom subsetted fonts and some xml tags.
If any one has any advice on how to force specific font encodings from CS4 pdf exports so that i can preserve the tags and get the correct fonts I would be grateful.

The font encoding is not a function of the OS version, but rather of how a font is internally encoded and the content you are representing with the font.
If you are seeing a difference between MacOS 10.5 and 10.6 with the same Adobe software, it probably has something to do with use of a system font that is somehow different from one version of the OS to another. InDesign does not use any of the OS' font handling software.
Assuming that the fonts are embedded, subset or not, what is your issue with whether a font is ANSI-encoded, custom-encoded, or CID-encoded? It should make no difference for purposes of workflow beyond InDesign for software that adheres to the PDF specification (including all versions of PDF from 1.3 and up to 1.7 plus ISO 32000-1 PDF and all versions of PDF/X and PDF/A).
Neither InDesign or any other Adobe application provides user choices for the encoding since it shouldn't make a difference. The encodings chosen by Adobe's core technology components are for a combination of optimization and to support proper text search, copy, etc.
- Dov

Fstab causes .dmg mounting issues in Snow Leopard

I am having this odd issue is Snow Leopard with fstab. If I use valid partition UUIDs in fstab to regulate mounting, then .dmg volumes do not get mounted properly (or at least get mounted in such a way that Finder has issues). After mounting, the .dmg volume is greyed out in Finder, but any subdirectory of the root directory of the volume can be accessed using the Go To option. After mounting, there also appear two alias for the volume on the desktop neither of which do anything.
Looking at mount after mounting a .dmg I get:
/dev/disk1 on /Volumes/Pacifist 2.5.2 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, read-only, noowners, quarantine, mounted by yarmola)
Which is normal.
I can access the volume through terminal without any issues as well. If I unmount the volume (via hdiutil or Disk Utility for example) it unmounts, but the two aliases on the Desktop remain and do not disappear.
My fstab simply looks like this:
UUID=6B12B7BA-4469-3344-8121-1939A6B0219F /Library/Mounts/Protected/SCUBA hfs rw
If I remove that, or change it to use LABEL or to a non valid UUID (i.e. one that is not a non-root partition UUID) then .dmg volumes mount fine. The actual partition filesystem does get mounted.
In system log I get the following error messages:
Oct 23 15:05:18 rdev-cl-19-imal hdiejectd[642]: running
Oct 23 15:05:20 rdev-cl-19-imal com.apple.KernelEventAgent[52]: KernelEventAgent: sysctl_queryfs: Operation not supported on socket
Oct 23 15:05:20 rdev-cl-19-imal mds[50]: (Error) Volume: sysctl_queryfs failed: Operation not supported on socket
Any ideas?

It's possible the dmgs are not compatible with your verson of SL or even with SL. The latest version is OS 10.6.7.
Did you read the system requirements of the files you are trying to download?

On start up my Mac Book Pro shows a white screen with a spinning wheel. I have tried starting up with the Snow Leopard disk - all I get is a blue screen. I guess that this is a major repair job??????

On start up my Mac Book Pro shows a white screen with a spinning wheel. I have tried starting up with the Snow Leopard disk - all I get is a blue screen. I guess that this is a major repair job??????

If you have the exact same problem - take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you. If you have AppleCare call them!

If you are having WIRELESS issues with SNOW LEOPARD.. update your software

the latest osX update seems to have fixed the wireless issue with snow leopard

I never had an issues with wireless before. Still don't. What was the problem?

How to free space in start up disk in Snow leopard... please give step by step process

how to free space in start up disk in Snow leopard... please give step by step process someone help me ......

What's taking up all your space? To find out, click finder in your dock, the select your home user. This will display your user folders. Start by selecting your music folder by clicking it once, then the space bar on your key board. This will open a window display this files size.    Take note of the size of the following folders:
     1. Music
     2. Movies
     3. Pictures
     4. Downloads
This will help you determine where you space is going.
Once you have determined that.... deside what you want to delete or move in order to save space. Moving Library's to external drives is often the best way to free up space.
For iPhoto Libraries, see - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1229
For iTunes Libaries, see - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
For iMove Events, see - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026 and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iMovie/8.0/en/19555.html
NOTE - With iMovie events, ensure you "move" the events, not just copy them as shown in the second article
Also go through your applications folder, and delete any unwanted applications.
Ensure your downloads folder is empty or unwanted downloads deleated
Ensure your iPhoto Trash is empty http://www.ehow.com/how_4501773_empty-trash-iphoto.html
Finally ensure your Trash is empty by clicking "finder" in the top menu directly beside the apple, and selecting "empty trash"
Hope that helps

MAC Pro start up problems ( Maybe Snow leopard issue?)

I can't get to start my Mac Pro,
My mac started working slow and then I had a white screen, I went to apple Geniuis and the reinstaled Snow leopard. and then it work but with a diferent hard disc.
But after a few days it starts to go slow, and then uploading bar shows up at starup and takes long. After a day after the wheel starts turning at start up and my macpro won't work it keeps on wheeling. I tried to reboot with the disc but it won't reboot.
Now I put my old hard disc it works but slow. My hardrives are new and have plenty of space.
Any idea what it could be?
THX.

What I always start off with:
SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner
Disk Warrior or another disk maintenance tool
Then start resolving like any other issue: one at a time.
cables, printers, devices - unplug them all and add back after the problem goes away one at a time
SMC Reset
Safe Boot
Apple Hardware Test
Why do you think 10.6?
Does all your software and drivers meet SL?
Clean install vs update in place
Did you import old prefs data and files and applications?
You have the old X1900 with its problems?
Or you have 7300GT OEM also old, and failing.
Or you upgraded to a new video card (but then you wouldn't be using Tiger).
You might be runnning programs in the background or processes that are corrupt or not compatible?

Aperture Upgrade Issues (since Snow Leopard Install)

I upgraded the OS on my 2007 iMAC7,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz to Snow Leopard a couple of months ago. Afterwards, when I tried to start Aperture, I got a message that my version of Aperture (1.5.6) was not supported under the new OS.
So today, I went to the Apple store and bought an upgrade to Aperture 2. The upgrade version is 2.1.1. I installed this and when I start Aperture, the app appears to start, the "intro" white screen comes up with the version / serial number, etc, and then the Welcome Screen starts up.
No matter what I choose from the Welcome Screen (Usually I pick Start Using Aperture), the SW appears to be stuck. The welcome screen disappears as expected, and the command bar across the top of the screen appears, but that's it - the normal aperture screen that shows your projects, etc. never comes up. Most of the commands in the sub-menus on the command bar are grayed out.
To make matters worse, when I try to quit, nothing happens. No message, no nothing, it just sits there. I have to do the Option-Cmd-Esc sequence and kill Aperture.
I checked for SW update and updated everything that was available (OS and Aperture to 2.1.4), rebooted, etc. However, there was no change in behavior.
Everything else on this machine works fine, no other issues or even behavior changes in my machine. The only problem is with Aperture.
To summarize: Aperture 1.5.6 quit working after I installed Snow Leopard. I bought the Aperture upgrade and installed, which allows me to start Aperture but doesn't let me do anything further.
Has anyone else seen an issue like this? Any suggestions for what may be wrong?
Thanks.

You may want to try rebuilding the library or doing a consistency check. Hold command-option when you launch Aperture and choose the relevant options.
Note that Aperture 2.x will have to upgrade the library from 1.x to run. You should get a dialog box to kick this off (and it does take some time), but it sounds like you haven't even gotten that far.
You do need to be running Aperture 2.1.4 on Snow Leopard, but from your description it sounds like you're already on that version.

Trackpad Sensitivity Issue After Snow Leopard Upgrade

I have a Late 2008 MBP/2.53 Ghz and prefer to use tap to click/2 finger secondary tap.
After upgrading to Snow Leopard (to v.10.6.6 as a clean install), linked webpages and files/folders often open when a second finger touches the trackpad accidentally even when pressed very gently.
The same happens if a third finger touches the trackpad if I am scrolling through a page with 2 fingers. Sometimes when pausing/hovering over a link, part of the page surrounding the hyperlink will highlight and can sometimes the link will activate without any additional accidental touch. I have slowed down the tracking and double click speed in preferences, but this makes no difference.
The funny thing is, some days the problems are worse than other days, the trackpad seems to have a mind of it's own! These issues never happened with Leopard, and it is very frustrating.
Post SL upgrade, I have also noticed that the Magsafe adapter sometimes needs a little wiggle before it will start charging, and occasionally, the red 'close' symbol at the top left of the page does not always activate and I have to start tapping elsewhere before trying to close the page again.
My parents have SL installed natively on their MBP (Spring 2010), and their MBP does not encounter any of these problems.
Disk Utility shows Javavirtualmachine differences, which I trust can be ignored as the differences are non critical, or could these issues be having an effect on SL?
I have AppleCare which expires in November and I want this sorted out asap. I could just revert back to using Leopard, but as I have paid £30 for Snow Leopard it would be a waste of money.
I'm not sure whether my AppleCare cover these issues seeing as SL wasn't natively installed on the Mac when purchased?
If anyone can help with these issues it would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks

After installing SL, i cannot get wellsfargo "account login" to work for any account of mine, other financial secure sites work fine, i.e. fidelity or vanguard, I can access the main screen of wellsfargo but login fails ... screen i get says Safari can't connect to the server and as follows: "Safari can’t open the page “https://online.wellsfargo.com/das/cgi-bin/session.cgi?" plus some more gibberish stuff.... i tried switching to firefox and it works fine .... never had any trouble before ..... tried safari reset, safari empty cache, and maintenace that applied ...... still no luck!! hope they get this bug fixed , my other computer an older mac mini works fine. any help????? never had any problem before SL

IMovie Viewer issues Post Snow Leopard install

Hi,
I just fired up iMovie (09) after upgrading OS to Snow Leopard (newer iMac bought 4 months ago). I no longer see the project video in the viewer. The "raw" movies in Event Library play fine, but when trying to play the movie in the project library, I only get audio. If viewing in full screen mode, all is well. If i go back and press space bar from project Library, only audio.
All worked fin prior to the snow leopard upgrade. Anybody know what is happening and how I can preview my movies from the project library again?
Thx !
Glenn

Yes, we've been having quite a few issues since the upgrade, too. Now correlation does not equal causation, so I can't say for sure that Snow Leopard is the problem. All I know it that all this stuff started happening afterword.
Here is the thread in which I posted my issues, some of which are quite similar to the those of Jay_S:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2141045&tstart=15
Jay, the solution to your problem recommended by an Apple Expert seemed to fix things, so you might want to take a look. It's in the third paragraph.

Iphoto wont start after migration from snow leopard to mountain lion

Hello everyone hope you can help me, I've migrate from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion and my IPhoto (8.1.2) won't start, I cant reinstall from app store because it came with the copy of Snow Leopard already instaled on my Imac...And I cant find the original Disc, so anyone can help ? felling desperate...

You should be able to Software Update and that will bring your iPhoto up to date.
iPhoto was 9.2.3 at 10.6.8, so I don't know why yours was stuck at 8.1.2
However you can stick the #2 10.6 disk into your machine and should be able to run the bundled app installer.
If that doesn't work there is Pacifist from CharlesSoft that you can extract iPhoto and replace your corrupted one, then run Software Update to bring it current.
Once you have replaced iPhoto, rebuild the database
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638
If your still having problems, perhaps a user account or drive permissions issue
..Step by Step to fix your Mac

Laserjet 8000DN issue with Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Hello,
I am having a connectivity issue with a LaserJet 8000DN. The previous iMac was connected to the printer via a D-Link switch, and I assume it was using AppleTalk via Ethernet to read the printer. The OS installed on that machine was OS X Leopard.
We had to replace the iMac, and the unit we purchased is a new Intel iMac 21.5" with 10.6.2 fully updated. In doing my research, I understand the drivers are already installed and need not be updated.
My steps thus far:
1) Print the configuration file from the printer.
2) System Prefs>Print and Fax>Add Printer
3) Choose JetSocket
4) Select IP and enter the IP Address from the configuration file.
5) Click Add.
The dialogue indicates that it's trying to connect and shows a configure or cancel button. I choose configure and the printer appears in my list with a green indicator showing that the iMac sees it.
However, when I send a job to the printer, I continuously get the "unable to connect to the printer, will try again in 30 seconds" message. I have tried every possible combination, i.e. LDP etc., to no avail.
A phone call to Apple did not provide a solution, even when we connected the printer directly to the Ethernet Port which really isn't an option anyway.
Other Information:
a) I suspect my problem is directly tied to the unavailability of Apple Talk in Snow Leopard.
b) I have a static I.P. address assigned to the Mac from our ISP in the 176.xxx range - and The I.P. for the printer shows as 192.xxx - Is this a conflict?
c) I am not using an Airport - We are stuck with a Westell DSL Router that has no ports available.
d) Someone suggested a Print Server connected to the D-Link so that the iMac and the Dell on the network could use the printer.
Any enlightenment will be extremely appreciated - This is a crucial operation for our business, and if it requires that we look for a new printer solution, we will need to move ahead swiftly.
Thanks!

a) The reason you cannot configure as you have been able to do in the past is because of the lack of AppleTalk, but you should be able to reconfigure things to work.
b) If your printer is at an address which is outside of the subnet mask of the router, that is a problem.
c) If you have a router, but not enough ports, the switch provides more ports.
d) The printer is network capable, so you do not need a print server.
So it looks like your problems are from your network setup.
I take it that your ISP has provided you with a fixed IP address. You should have the output of the modem connect to the WAN port of the router. The LAN ports should be connected to your computers and other network devices, and if you need more ports, connect one port to the switch, and connect the other devices to it.
The router should be configured to connect to the internet through its WAN port. From that, it should distribute that connection to your computers, to the addresses it is configured to provide. Those are usually in the 192.168.xxx.xxx range, but could be different. You should be able to change them. If the router LAN address is 192.168.1.0 and subnet mask is 255.255.255.000, the things that you connect to it can have address from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255.
You should be able to change the address on the printer if you need to. The instructions should be in the printer documentation, or available on the HP website.
You probably have all the hardware you need, but you need to look at your network configuration, decide whether it is correct or not, and make adjustments to get this working.
A word of warning: If you have a fixed IP address because you have a server connected directly to the Internet, you need to configure your router appropriately. If you do not understand all of this, you may need someone familiar with network setup to help you.

Mail and Gmail issues in Snow Leopard

I've used Gmail with Mail for years, and it has suddenly stopped behaving. Mostly it takes *forever* for a message to be sent, but downloading messages can also take it's sweet time. I have several Gmail address I check, all are doing this. iPad and iPhone both work fine, so the issue seems to be isolated to the laptop.
I'm running Snow Leopard on a MacBookPro from mid-2009.
Many thanks for help.
marie

Yes. I'm having a whole series of problems with Mail.app and GMail. The problems are pretty well documented (links below), but I haven't seen any good fixes or heard any indication that Apple is taking them seriously.
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/os_x_mavericks’_mailapp_not_playing_nice_gma il
http://tidbits.com/article/14219
In addition to archived emails returning to the inbox, I'm seeing significant delays in new mail appearing in my inbox: sometimes as long as hours after the mail appears on my iPhone and in the GMail web console.

Windows 7 install issue with Snow Leopard

Hey Guys!
Just upgraded my Macbook Pro (Unibody Late 2008) to Snow Leopard and did all software updates. I then partitioned the drive to install Windows. When installing Windows it would only install if I reformatted the partition I wanted to install it on. So I did that. After hours of installing and udating Windows 7 I found that I did not have bootcamp on the bar at the bottom. I tried to upgrade to BootCamp 3.1 but it says Bootcamp 3.0 is needed and not present.
How do I install Bootcamp 3.0 from Windows?
How do I get back to Mac OS? I have been stuck (ugh!!!) in Windows since Friday...
I tried to download the pdf file to read about installing Windows 7 but Windows will not install Acrobat Reader (I really hate windows), fought with it for 1 hour trying to install it.
anyways thanks in advance for the help
KK

Hey Guys
I eventually solved the Boot Camp Problem but then shortly after that had a different problem crop up.
It will not boot my Mac OS, it says the partition is corrupted. Even if I boot from an install disk, it will not mount the Mac portion of the Hard drive. Best info I can get on the issue is that part of my B Tree is too large? Mac Repair utility will not fix it.
Suggestions? Even if I cannot use the partition as a bootable drive I would like to get my data from that disk. Unfortunately I do not seem to have a backup of the data on that drive.
thanks
KK

X11 not starting after upgrade to Snow Leopard

Hello, sorry if this is trivial stuff for all of you, but I am really having trouble sorting this out; I'd be grateful if anyone can help. I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard (10.6.2), did the Combo update as suggested in www.apple.com, but I cannot get X11 to run since the upgrade (I did re-install X11 from the optional installations, btw). The symptoms are that when I try to run any X11 application (such as xmgrace, gnuplot or xfig), or even if I click directly on the X11 icon in the Utilities folder, the X11 icon keeps jumping in and out of the dock; I reproduce below what shows up in the console. Needless to say that I have read through it, but cannot make any sense of what is reported there. I can't believe I'm the only one having this problem, since all I have done is to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard following the standard procedure. Should I perhaps do a clean install?
Thanks in advance.
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X11.app: main(): argc=2
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] argv[0] = /Applications/Utilities/X1
1.app/Contents/MacOS/X11.bin
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] argv[1] = -psn0434282
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] Waiting for startup parameters via Mach IPC.
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 78: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 82: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 86: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 90: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 106: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 112: defaults: command not
found
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.privileged_startx[3800] font_cache: Scanning system font directories
to generate X11 font caches
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X11.app: Listening on socket for fd handoff:
(4) /var/tmp/tmp.0.suSuKO
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X11.app: Thread created for handoff. Return
ing success to tell caller to connect and push the fd.
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] Xquartz: Handoff connection established (try 1 of 5) on fd 6, "/var/tmp/tmp.0.suSuKO". Sending message.
12/02/2010 13:10:23 org.x.startx[3791] Xquartz: Message sent. Closing handoff fd.
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X11.app: dostart_x11server(): argc=2
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] argv[0] = /usr/X11/bin/X
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] argv[1] =
12/02/2010 13:10:23 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X11.app: Received new $DISPLAY fd: 10 ... sleeping to allow xinitrc to catchup.
12/02/2010 13:10:24 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] Xquartz starting:
12/02/2010 13:10:24 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] X.Org X Server 1.4.2-apple45
12/02/2010 13:10:24 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] Build Date: 20090705
12/02/2010 13:10:24 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /usr/X11/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
12/02/2010 13:10:24 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /usr/X11/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
12/02/2010 13:10:24 org.x.privileged_startx[3800] font_cache: Updating FC cache
12/02/2010 13:10:25 org.x.startx[3791] /usr/X11/bin/xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): no program named "/usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc" in PATH
12/02/2010 13:10:25 org.x.startx[3791] Specify a program on the command line or make sure that /usr/X11/bin
12/02/2010 13:10:25 org.x.startx[3791] is in your path.
12/02/2010 13:10:25 org.x.startx[3791] waiting for X server to shut down
12/02/2010 13:10:25 [0x0-0x6a06a].org.x.X11[3782] Quitting Xquartz...
12/02/2010 13:10:26 org.x.privileged_startx[3800] font_cache: Done12/02/2010 13:10:26 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[93] (org.x.startx) Throttling respawn: W
ill start in 7 seconds12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 78: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 82: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 86: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 90: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 106: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] /usr/X11/bin/startx: line 112: defaults: command not
found12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.privileged_startx[3800] font_cache: Scanning system font directories
to generate X11 font caches12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] Xquartz: X11.app = /Applications/Utilities/X11.app/C
ontents/MacOS/X11
12/02/2010 13:10:33 org.x.startx[3906] Xquartz: Starting X server: /Applications/Utilities/
etc etc

A zero size is not unusual, especially if you cannot set any preferences because you cannot get
x11 to start.
Your user account may very well be hosed.
Here is some info on how to replace it:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10730965
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507
I believe the easiest way to accomplish this is to first repair your user account permissions
using the SL install DVD. This won't fix the account, but it will make sure the user data in the
account has the correct permissions before backing it up for transfer later.
Mac OS X v10.5 or later: While started from the Leopard Install DVD, a user's home directory permissions can be reset using the "Reset Password" utility.
I suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner or equivalent to backup and restore your account data.
Kj

Start up issues in snow leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for