System preferences won't "stick" after archive & restore

Because my OS10.3 appeared to be damaged, I did an archive and restore using the OS10.2.3 disk that came with my computer. After the restore I find that I cannot get any changes I make to the system preferences to stick. For example, with "Energy Saver" the preferences, after restore were "custom" and the "show battery status" was unchecked. I unlocked, using my account ID and password, changed the settings to "presentation", checked "show battery status", and locked. Nothing changed in the menu bar and when I restarted, the Energy Saver preferences had reverted to the initial ones and was unlocked. This problem is particularly bad because I can't change the network preferences and get back on the Internet through my airport system. What did I do wrong?!
LarryNM

Oh I see. I guessed wrong then. Unfortunately I neither use 10.2 nor Airport so lacking the personal experience to help you, may I suggest also posting in the Airport forum, as someone there may be able to get you more quickly online. Here is the link,
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1011

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    ==========
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    Found this discussion by googling "com.apple.systempreferencescouldn't find any matches"...
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  • System Prefs won't stick

    I have a couple of Mac G-5 towers that have annoying quirks in the OS that I wonder if someone can help me solve. Both of them are running Leopard 10.5.8. One of the Macs has two hard drives in it, which I named A and B. I do all my work with Drive A, and it is assigned as the startup disk. I keep an OS on Drive B so that I can start up with it and use it to repair A if I ever have to.
    So Disk A is assigned as the startup disk (and I clicked the little lock icon shut), but about half the time, when I start up the Mac, it will select Disk B to start up with. When that happens, I have to go to the system Preferences and choose A all over again, even though it is already shown as the startup disk. On the restart, it will usually start up correctly with A. But couple of startups later, the computer goes back to choosing Drive B as the startup disk again. This is getting tiresome. Short of throwing the System folder off of Drive B, how can I force this Mac to always use A as the startup disk?
    Mac G-5 #2 also has an annoying habit: after I arrange a folder's window the way I want with the View Options, the next time the Mac starts up, the windows go back to the way they were before. For example, in the View Options, I set a folder's window to arrange items by Name, to show the icons at a large size, and to Show Info for the items in the folder. But the next time I open that folder, the icons have all gone back to the way they were before: tiny icons randomly scattered all over the window, with no info shown. How can I make these folder windows stay the way I set them?
    I tried Disk Utility's "Repair Permissions" and "Repair Disk" on these drives, but these quirks persist. Is there any way to make a Mac stick to the assigned startup disk and window arrangements?

    Hi Tom,
    On the startup...
    Might be time to replace the PRAM Battery, 4 years is close to their lifespan, far less if ever without AC power, & can cause strange startup problems...
    See which one your G5 has...
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/CR2032/ 
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/
    On #2's issue...
    Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, test if things work OK in Safe Mode.
    Then move these files to the Desktop for now...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
    Reboot & test.
    PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

  • System Preferences Do Not Stick

    System Preferences for adding menu icons do not stick.
    Date & Time/Clock: Show the date and time
    Displays: Show Displays in menu bar
    International/Input menu: Show input menu in menu bar (even when there, it didn't actually work)
    Sound: Show volume in menu bar
    I check these in System Preferences, but they do NOT appear on the menu bar, and are unchecked after a re-boot. This all started after re-doing a 10.4.11 combo update as was suggested to speed up shutdowns which take several minutes. The re-do of the update just made everything worse. I repaired permissions, ran daily, weekly & monthly scripts in OnyX, reset PRAM, reset open firmware.

    Here's what I'd try,
    Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then...
    You've probably got a few corrupt preference files.
    Move these files to the Desktop for now...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    /Users/<yourname>/Library/Preferences>com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
    /Users/<yourname>/Library/Preferences/ByHost>com.apple.systemuiserver.xxx.plist
    where 'xxx' is a 12 digit (hexadecimal) numeric string.
    Reboot.
    This will reset your Menu Bar to the default, you'll need to go through System Preferences to reset the ones you need. (If they are already checked, uncheck them first and then recheck them).

  • "Accounts" in "System Preferences" won't open

    I am trying to access the "Accounts" window in "System Preferences", but it won't open.
    I am getting two messages:
    "To use the "Accounts" preferences pane, System Preferences must quit and reopen."
    I clicked on "Ok"
    *Preferences Error*
    Could not load Accounts preference pane.
    I have restarted and shut down my MBP to see if that helped. Didn't work. What am I suppose to do?

    I have the same issue and I have tried everything. I really would love to resolve this System preference error as well! It will take me forever to reload all of my pro apps and even longer to restore my user settings. This almost makes backing up your data impossible if re-installing is the last option. I've tried restarted in safe mood. Trying different admin rights, trying to extract the corrupt files using pacifist, repairing disk, I've had this issue for months and I have had no luck with finding solution. Any one for more solution ideas?
    I also came across this with working with Apple Remote Desktop!

  • System Preferences Won't Launch, console "bus error"

    This isn't a case of the System Preference not being found, being moved out of the Applications Folder, or anything trivial like that. System Preferences will not launch. This is a clean install of Leopard, and updated to 10.5.8. The error message in console is:
    9/1/10 3:11:45 PM com.apple.launchd74 (0x0-0x18018.com.apple.systempreferences212) Exited abnormally: Bus error
    "The application System Preferences quit unexpectedly." Relaunch doesn't work.

    I have exactly the same problem after having installed 10.5.8.
    I had to do this after not being able to start the machine at all because of (what I believe to be) a bug with Security Update 2010-005. The Archive and Install process did not work.
    This thread should be in "Using Mac OS X Leopard". I found it Googling "Exited abnormally: Bus error".

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