"system extension cannot be used" message upon startup
Ever since I upgraded OS 10.3.9 to Tiger on w/my newly purchased OS 10.4.6 from Apple, my 12" Powerbook G4 displays a yellow triangle containing an exclamation mark beside which is the message
*System extension cannot be used.*
The system extension "/Library/Extensions/VirtualPCOSServices.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update.
I assume this refers to something about Virtual PC (which I no longer use) that I had on my hard drive before installing Tiger, and even though I've since upgraded to 10.4.10, the message continues to appear. Is there anything I can do before reinstalling 10.4.6, or is that indeed the best solution, and will that solve it?
Thanks in advance for any help out there. - Rick
If you are looking in /Library/Extensions for this file as your message seems to indicate, you are looking in the wrong place. Go to your Finder's Go menu and select *Go to Folder...* then type in /system/Library/Extensions
Best of luck.
Similar Messages
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System Extension Cannot Be Used message pop-up
I just upgraded from an iMac power pc to a new iMac with snow leopard. I have an HP Photosmart B8850 printer and uninstalled the previous software driver and installed updated software. The problem is that I get a warning box with the message [ System Extension Cannot Be Used. The system extension “/system/Library/Extensions/hp/photosmartb8800series.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the products vendor for an update.] It appears that Library/Extensions is empty. The printer seems to be working properly. Do I need the system extension? If not, how can I keep the warning box from popping up?
If you are looking in /Library/Extensions for this file as your message seems to indicate, you are looking in the wrong place. Go to your Finder's Go menu and select *Go to Folder...* then type in /system/Library/Extensions
Best of luck. -
100's of ' System extension cannot be used ' messages and system instability
Ok, I was trying to change the folder background on my home drive in finder.
I Changed the background in the Home drive and then went to 'Show info' and clicked 'apply to enclosed items' in 'sharing and permissions'
Ive had over 300 messages saying
'System extention cannot be used
The system extension "/system/library/Extensions/*****.kext"
was installed improperly and cannot be used
Please try reinstalling it, or contact the products vendor for an update.
examples include
AppleStorageDrivers.kext/Contents/PlugIns/MKE-SR-8171.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCButto ns.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/BootCache.kext
etc etc
I tried repairing permissions, but that doesnt work. Im constantly getting random permission error messages, my plugins in logic dont work properly and are generating error messages, audio wierdness in logic, all kinds of stuff
oh if i could turn back the clock. What have i done?, and how can i fix it?Hi, thanks for your reply, and sorry if my description was unclear. I started by changing the folder background here:
Then I went here (apply to enclosed items). You can see on the shot ive taken, permissions state 'you can only read' , and under name 'fetching'.
Then, after a few minutes, i got around 300 of this (**** refers to all the 300 different filenames that came up)
'System extention cannot be used
The system extension "/system/library/Extensions/*****.kext"
was installed improperly and cannot be used
Please try reinstalling it, or contact the products vendor for an update. -
System extension cannot be used - rtl8187bl.kext
hi,
sometimes when i use system update i get this error message:
title: system extension cannot be used
message: the system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/RTL8187Bl.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update.
i'm pretty sure its a driver for network device (ethernet or wifi), both of them works fine for me, and i have no idea how to update/reinstall drivers under MacOS.
any idea/tip/guess can help,
thank you.See the following:
Uninstalling Software: The Basics
Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.
Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.
Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.
Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.
Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.
If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, Easy Find, instead. Download Easy Find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.
There are many utilities that can uninstall applications. Here is a selection:
AppZapper
Automaton
Hazel
CleanApp
Yank
SuperPop
Uninstaller
Spring Cleaning
Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software. -
System extension cannot be used - on startup?
Recently, I had to repair permissions after a error cause me not to be able to login. I did a startup from the disc and got in, but now these error messages come up;
System extension cannot be used
"/System/Library/Extensions/SymIPS.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;
"/System/Library/Extensions/SymIInternetSecurity.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;
"/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortCrcm 4311.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;
"/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update...
not to mention now it says I don't have airport card and the internet is running slower!
I have completed further repair disk permissions.
What can I do?
Thanks.HI,
*"System extension cannot be used"*
*"/System/Library/Extensions/SymIPS.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;*
*"/System/Library/Extensions/SymIInternetSecurity.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;*
*"/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortCrc m4311.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... and;*
*"/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext" was installed improperly and cannont be used. Please reinstalling it, or contact the vendor for an update... "*
Is this the results of booting from your install disk and using Disk Utility to Verify the drive, or just repair permissions?
Carolyn -
HP Laser Printer message saying "System Extension Cannot Be Used"
I am trying to install a laserjet printer but while it was installing, a message came up which read, "'System Extension Cannot Be Used' The system extension, "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext' was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update." We tried the printer out and it seems to work, however, the scanner does not work.
When I got this Mac Book Pro, 4 or 5 years ago, I had a HP inkjet printer which I can never use the scanning feature because it did not work. I don't remember what the error message was, but it never worked when I tried to use it. I wonder if the problems with scanning have to do with this particular file that is supposedly installed wrongly.
We tested the printer out and it worked fine. But no scanning. It can't find the scanner.
My computer is Mac OS X - 10.6.8. The printer is HP Laserjet Pro 200 color MFP.
Anyone have any idea what I should do to fix this error? Thanks.Open the Script Editor in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder, copy and paste the entire following line into it, and press the Run button:
do shell script "chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext" with administrator privileges
If it doesn’t work, choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, provide /System/Library/Extensions/ as the path, throw the AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext item away, and reinstall iTunes.
(118910) -
I keep getting an error message when installing new software that says "System extension cannot be used /system/library/extension/IoFireWireWDHID.kext was installed improperly" I have no idea what this means and all of my software seems to install okay
Hello Valerie Anderson,
I'm Harry from Norton Support team. Please check the information provided in a similar thread here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21854775#21854775
Let me know if this helps.
Thanks!
Harry -
I get the error message after updating itunes:
System extension cannot be used
The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBthernetHost.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.
What or how do I fix this?"I get the error message after updating itunes:
System extension cannot be used
The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBthernetHost.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.
What or how do I fix this?"
I have a MacBook Pro running Mas OS X Version 10.7.5
Is this a problem I need to fix? Is there a fix or update? -
Received following message during installation of an iTunes update today (9/16/14): System extension cannot be used. The system extension “//System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update. What is to be done about it?
Thanks for the reply. I'm not experienced in the inner workings of the iMac system and its programs, so please follow my train of thought as I try to find and understand your reply.
You wrote that I should check out "Please see - AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext error on installing iTunes update" and I did so.
There I found your reply of 9/1014 7:06 PM to j'ski stating: "There is a larger thread here which you may want to follow - system extension cannot be used AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext ."
And an earlier Post by Greg Earle of 9/10/14 5:57 PM stating: " You would have been better off doing open /System/Library/Extensions and then finding the AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext kernel extension icon in the Finder window that came up and moving it to the Trash."
And a subsequent Post on 9/15/14 at 2:59 PM by Rob Maurer stating: "This method worked perfectly for me. I am on a Mac Pro running Mountain Lion. Dragged the kext file to trash (I use EasyFind. Found the file, Revealed in Finder, dragged to Trash, entered admin password when requested). Downloaded iTunes 11.4 from the website. Installed from that download. Checked for that kext file in EasyFind again and found it had a creation date of 7/29/14 (the trashed one had a creation date from 2009). No more error messages. ITunes opens fine. Everything good. Will not update on my MacBook Pro until they fix this issue.
All of which leave me wondering - what is your answer/recommendation? Do I drag the kext file to trash, download iTunes 11.4 from the website and install it from that download, check for that kext file again to see if it has a later date than the initial one? And, if so, seed if iTunes opens okay or not? And if so, do not update iTunes again until Apple fixes whatever is wrong? -
"System Extension Cannot Be Used" Pop Ups on Startup
Hello,
When I start my computer I get these three pop up windows with the heading:
"System Extension Cannot Be Used"
The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/SymOSXKernelUtilities.kext“ was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.
The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/DeleteTrap.kext“ was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.
The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/symfs.kext“ was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.
Any ideas how to fix/get rid of these???
Gracias!
G4 Mac OS X (10.3.5) FCP, AdobeHello,
When I start my computer I get these three pop up
windows with the heading:
"System Extension Cannot Be Used"
The system extension
“/System/Library/Extensions/SymOSXKernelUtilities.kext
“ was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please
try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor
for an update.
The system extension
“/System/Library/Extensions/DeleteTrap.kext“ was
installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try
reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for
an update.
The system extension
“/System/Library/Extensions/symfs.kext“ was installed
improperly and cannot be used. Please try
reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for
an update.
Any ideas how to fix/get rid of these???
Gracias!
G4 Mac
OS X (10.3.5) FCP, Adobe
Hi Eric,
Did you resolve this problem, using any of the suggestions posted. I am having the exact same problem. Cannot burn DVDs or CDs is this part of my problem. Drive reported an error. Sense key aborted command. Sense code =0x04 logical unit not ready, cause not reportable. -
Changed Permission Settings: "System extension cannot be used"
I was having some weird problems with file sharing on my network recently, so I tried changing around some of the permissions on my drives to see if I could resolve it. For some reason I was getting messages saying I didn't have permission to copy files from one computer to another on my network. This seemed to come on randomly as we have been doing file transfers this way for quite some time now. I looked at our file sharing preferences in the System Preference's and added all 4 drives from my Mac Pro in there and made sure that my username had full read and write capabilities. I then tried logging into my Mac Pro from my iMac, just like I've done in the past, and I was still unable to copy the files. So I removed all the folders and turned off file sharing. I then clicked 'Get Info' for my main Macintosh HD and tried changing the permission settings there. I clicked the option to make my username the owner, and then I clicked 'Apply to enclosed items...' and this brought up a progress bar that I let go for about 10 minutes. Then I got a pop-up error message stating "System extension cannot be used" and had an extension path listed underneath, saying it was installed improperly and cannot be used. This happens an endless amount of times. It seems to be giving me this message for every single extension on the computer. If I hold down enter the pop-ups just keep coming with different extensions listed.
I hope someone with some insight on how permissions work in OS X Lion can give me some advice on how to resolve, and possible the correct way I should be setting up sharing if I've been doing wrong all this time. What strikes me as odd is that I never had any issues with sharing anything up until about a week or so ago, and I can't remember if there were any system updates that I installed that might have something to do with this.
Any help is much appreciated, thanks!I had this problem recently in addition to my laptop getting stuck on the Apple logo and spinning icon. It took me a long to time to work through it so I thought I would share what I did to make it easier for others.
The best thing to do when having permission problems is to do a 'disk permissions repair'. You can do this using the disk utility app found in your applications/utilities folder. This will attempt to rewrite all the permissions that were incorrectly set. When it is doing this it is common to get a message saying 'ACL...found and not expected...' do not go and delete these files. Its normal for this correction process to take more than 30 minutes, for me it took an hour.
If this proccess doesnt work for you than you can also try a disk repair.
If you can't boot using the normal disk you can also access this program through the recovery boot (holding Command-R of Option at startup), through the safe mode (holding Shift on start up) or through a recovery CD. You can also boot in a terminal type mode but this is a last ditch effort as a misspelt command could do more damage. personally, because I do not know what the commands I am using actually mean, I would recommend talking to a person at apple then using this approach.
Hope this helps -
Modem: System Extension Cannot Be Used
I made an error attempting install the modem extension from my iMac into my iBook so I could connect at more than 28,800. Now I get the following message at startup: System Extension Cannot be Used. The system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/Applel2ModemFamily.Kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. In Network Port Configurations, the modem is grayed out. I tried to reinstall OS 10.4.8, but problem remains.
Is there any way to reinstall just this one extension?
I saw mention of doing an Archive and reinstall of the OS in another post. If I do that, will I need to reinstall all other applications, such as Virtual PC. I don't want to risk making them all not work, but would like to get modem capacity back.
Currently I have dialup on my iMac being shared via Airport
iBookG4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.42 Ghz, 1.5 Gig RAM…will I need to reinstall all other applications, such as Virtual PC
No. See http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/ for details, especially the one about A&I. -
"System Extension cannot be used" when starting Parallels
I'm using Parallels Desktop 4.0 to provide a platform for Windows XP on my MacBook. It works very well, but since a recent update of the package, I have been getting a message on startup which says:
"System extension cannot be used
The system extension "/Library/Filesystems/fusefs.fs/Support/fusefs.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update."
I see from other discussions in this forum that this type of warning sometimes appears, but what does it mean generically - does anyone know? So far Parallels support has suggested a couple of things including reloading MacFUSE which I'd never heard of, but they are now suggesting it's a Mac OS problem. Could it be? I need some kind of steer as to what this means and what could have caused itHello MaxGraphics,
You both may want to read this article before proceeding. It does give you an idea about kext files and how to handle them.
http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/02/what-is-kextwhere-is-kext-how-to-install-kext /
Hope this helps. -
I have had my MBP for some time now and the other day it went into a kernel panic and after having to go through all the processes to recover it including restoring from the time capsule so that it doesn't take over 10 mins to start up an error message came up saying;
"*System extension cannot be used*"
"the system extension '/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortBrc m4311.kext' was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update"
Now i cant use my airport card at all, it says that there is no airport card installed and I have spent hours on the phone to apple, done the option + command + r + p thing and had to restore my whole system off my TC with the backup disks and all.
Plz plz plz plz help, i just want it back the way it was, this is so annoying
Message was edited by: TBlankI had the same problem. It happened to me after I updated to 10.5.6. I didn't notice the problem until I rebooted a few days later. I reinstalled the system from disk and then realized that even though it took almost an hour it didn't really install anything. So I deleted the whole /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext and reinstalled the system again. This time it worked
-
Error: system extension cannot be used
I get the error "system extension cannot be used" and then it says below it:
The system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelAC97Audio.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update.
it says the same for:
AppleIntelAC97Controller.kext
BJUSBLoad.kext
CHUDKernLib.kext
CHUDProf.kext
CHUDUtils.kext
EPSONUSBPrintClass.kext
hpPlugInInit.kext
KLog.kext
LexmarkUSBMerge.kext
prlhidhook.kext
prl_hypervisor.kext
prl_netbridge.kext
prl_tg.kext
prlusbconnect.kext
prl_video.kext
prl_vnic.kext
RBIOKitHelper.kext
Soundflower.kext
Wacom Tablet.kext
I have done permissions repair at least 10 times in a row and it still comes up with things to repair but is there another soloution?
Also, It says i have insufficient permissions to get onto my external HD now as well.
Anything will help...I had the same problem. Then due to another unrelated problem I did a file system check in single user mode and this problem too went away. I am not sure if it will also work for you but no harm to try.
Shutdown, restart by pressing power button. As soon as you hear the chime, press cmd-s. After a while lot of text will roll down the screen, leave the keys. At the prompt, type fsck -fy. Note the space. then hit return. If at the end of the run you get something was repaired, then run it again till you get 'OK'. After that type reboot and you will boot into regular OS X. Then do whatever you did to get this message and see if it goes away.
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