[Arolte]

Welp, my 1GHz 12" PowerBook is now only partially functional after grabbing the QuickTime 6.5.2 update from versiontracker.com and installing it. After restarting, my desktop picture absolutely refuses to change and my dock has completely disappeared. Any icons I have on the desktop are now un-clickable. In other words the only way I can access my hard drive is by creating a new finder window. Altering the preferences to any one of these things does absolutely NOTHING.

This just really pisses me off. I've never had anything like this happen before. I really hope they fix this problem soon because I've got a busy week ahead of me and I'm not in any position to reinstall OS X soon. So far I've tried running the QuickTime installer again and I've also repaired all permissions. I've also tried restarting and shutting the PowerBook down numerous times, but it has had no effect. The only thing I've got left now is to restart under the system disc and run some diagnostics.

[Arolte]

Restarted with the Panther Upgrade CD, ran disk repairs (nothing showed up), and repaired permissions again (two things showed up and got repaired). Upon restarting, however, the problem remains.

Is anyone also getting this after updating QuickTime? I haven't really done anything to "mod" OS X on my PowerBook. In fact I've got no 3rd party applications running alongside my Finder.

I'm completely at a loss of ideas here. I have no idea what to do. Looking around the Apple support forums and reading the comments section of versiontracker.com reveals no reports of similar problems. I did manage to find a QuickTime 6.5->5.4 reinstaller package in the download section, but it's only for QuickTime 6.5 (not 6.5.x).

Does anyone have any idea what I can do next? What if I delete my QuickTime receipts and try to run the full installer again? Should I delete my Dock preferences? I'm getting no dock at all! I mean this is just ridiculous.

[Fiete5401]

Originally posted by Arolte:
Does anyone have any idea what I can do next? What if I delete my QuickTime receipts and try to run the full installer again? Should I delete my Dock preferences? I'm getting no dock at all! I mean this is just ridiculous.

No problems here but I can feel with you.

[moodymonster]

I've installed QT 6.5.2 and have no problems.

I don't know what to suggest as a solution to your situation. The only thing I can think of is to log in as another user (or create one if you don't have another user account) and see if that account is affected as well. If it is then you've got a big problem - if not, then at least you know its something to do with the other account and not the whole system.

…

[Arolte]

Thanks for the help.

For starters I deleted everything in my Caches folder in my system and user Library. That didn't work. Then I created a new user and logged in under that. That didn't work. I also deleted my Dock, Desktop, and Desktop Pictures plists. That didn't work. Still stumped. The weird thing is none of the preference files rebuilt themselves after being deleted, which leads me to believe that they're not even starting up anymore to begin with.

I'm still trying to figure what the hell QuickTime has to do with the Dock, Desktop, and Desktop Pictures. Why did they break after updating QuickTime? Everything is still there. All the files for the Dock, Desktop, etc. are still physically on my hard drive. Why they're not being used is beyond me.

At this point I think it's safe to say that something is badly busted. So I'm willing to try out a few Terminal commands if anyone has any to try out for me. For starters I'd like to force restart my Dock to see if I can get it to live again. Does anyone know any commands for it?

[Arolte]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but here are screenshots (I had to page up and down so there are two of them) of all the processes I'm currently running. Does anything look out of place or missing?

http://mmiski.tripod.com/processes_pagedn.jpg

http://mmiski.tripod.com/processes_pageup.jpg

(You may need to copy and paste url because I'm using Tripod)

[urrl78]

Did you have any haxies running such as Clear dock whing you installed the Quicktime update?

[Arolte]

No. It was pure vanilla OS X 10.3.5. No modifications.

[urrl78]

Apple does not have the update on the System Preferences Software Update yet. Hmmm...

ONYX can delete core.xxx files, Hidden Files .DS_Store, and other things but it may not help you. I seem to recall there was a way of downgrading your Quicktime back to its former version but I am not sure how. Perhaps it would help you to search Apples data base to find out how to get back to your previous version of Quicktime, if that would help at all. If you are near an Apple store that's another option, to have a genious look at it. Sorry to not be much help.

[urrl78]

Another thought is to hold down the power button to shut down the Powerbook and then restart. Did you say you reset the PRAM? (Option+Apple Key+P key+R key when re-booting )

Also there was one other thing a genious showed me to reset by holding down a certain combination of keys but I forgot what it was. Perhaps someone else out there knows. Again, I would also post on the Apple forum for help. Tuttle can sometimes work wonders on the 17" forum.

[moodymonster]

Sounds like its really messed up

To be honest, if I was in your shoes I'd back up (if not already done) all my work and boot from the system disk and reinstall from scratch.

Given the problems you're describing, I think even if you did find a fix, the problems would come back sometime in the future. They do seem very extreme - Given my prior experience of OS X (very stable n' stuff), I'd be wondering if somebody had 'touched' my computer… in an evil/stupid way.

docs on how to reset PRAM/NVRAM/PMU

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238


http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

Personally I don't think these would make a difference but its worth a go.

Its worth having a look on the Apple Forums, lots of the posts there are from people with problems.

[Randman]

Yikes. Though it installed and ran just fine.

[JKT]

When you say you deleted the preferences and cache files, were they just the ones in your home Library folder, or did you delete the ones in the /Library folder as well? I ask that as the fact that a new user suffers the same problem suggests it is a system wide preference of cache file that is the issue rather than a user unique one.

If you didn't delete the relevant .plists and caches in the /Library folder, try that. If that doesn't/hasn't worked, try holding down the shift key as you restart to boot in Safe Mode. If that works, it suggests a conflict with a third party kext of some description is occurring.

Other than that, I'd suggest an archive and install as your next best bet.

Edit: Doh, just re-read one of your later posts and saw that you deleted the files in the system library aswell... try the safe boot and after that, an archive and install.

[Arolte]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the help. The problem persists, but I've had someone suggest that it may be Quartz Extreme that may have gotten messed up, which would explain the lack of Finder level animations and rendering (Dock, minimize, desktop pictures, etc.). All my programs work fine otherwise and none of my files have otherwise been altered or deleted, but yeah it would probably still be a good idea to back them all up.

Originally posted by JKT:
If you didn't delete the relevant .plists and caches in the /Library folder, try that. If that doesn't/hasn't worked, try holding down the shift key as you restart to boot in Safe Mode. If that works, it suggests a conflict with a third party kext of some description is occurring.

Good idea, I'll try to boot under safe mode when I get back.

If that doesn't work, I'll simply back my files up and wait it out and hope that a future OS X update will overwrite the corrupt file(s). I'll probably just end up doing a complete clean install during winter break, when I have more time.

Let this be a lesson, don't update something that isn't broke. I never thought something like this would ever happen, especially for something like QuickTime. At the very least wait for it to appear in Software Update.

[Fusion]

Every single one of your problems that you are describing is tied to the dock. The dock handles expose, app switching with cmd+tab, minimize functions, the desktop picture and refresh, and the dock itself.

Basically, your dock is just plain broken.

If you go to HD>System>Library>CoreServices> and double click on dock.app to open it, what happens? Does the dock launch at all?

It could just be that it is not starting up when your macintosh logs in, if that is the case, just add your dock to startup items in your user preferences. If nothing happens, then my guess is your dock is completely shot. If that is the case, simply IM any one of us with Panther and we can send our copy over to you. Its that simple.

I have no idea how a quicktime update screwed with your dock, but regardless, most of the suggestions here have been a wee bit off and you seem to be messing with more than you need to.

[Arolte]

It's funny that you mention that, Fusion. I actually just tried to double-click the Dock application and I got a message saying that some components were missing or that it was corrupt. Why did the QuickTime updater kill my Dock? Who knows. I certainly didn't have any third party apps to interfere with the update process, I can tell you that much.

Anyway, the next thing I did was run the 10.3.5 combo update on top of my current OS X 10.3.5. Unfortunately that didn't change anything. I'm assuming it didn't do anything because it saw I had the same version and didn't bother reinstalling any of the critical components.

So aside from getting the Dock manually from someone, do you think it would be possible for me to simply delete the Dock and its preferences completely and then reinstall 10.3.5 update again? Would that work?

[Arolte]

Okay, everything is working again. I had a friend send me a copy of his Dock via e-mail. After deleting the corrupt one and adding his in its spot, everything got back to normal. It looks like the Dock simply got corrupt somehow after I updated QuickTime. Wow, what a nightmare.

Anyway, if anyone has a similar problem let me know. I'll be happy to e-mail you a good Dock.

Thanks again, for all the folks who spent some of their own time just to help me out.

[Fusion]

Yeah, no problem. Next time check your PM's, I knew this was your problem from the first time you posted, I could have helped you out right away. I had the dock all packed up and ready to send to you.

[iREZ]

Oh Crap!!! I didn't need to read this while already downloading Quicktime and the new Security Update, oh well here's hoping. Also on a 12" Rev B.

[Arolte]

Well, nobody else seems to have reported any similar problems for the QuickTime update specifically. I checked the Apple support forums and macfixit.com. Neither of them reported this problem. It was probably just an isolated incident of something being accidentally swapped or changed during the optimization process of installation. I'm sure it has happened to other people in the past, but not due to some specific installer or updater. It's probably more along the lines of a random glitch associated with the type of installer application Apple uses.

Rest at ease, QuickTime 6.5.2 probably isn't corrupt for everyone (oops, I should probably change my topic title). Something bad happened to my computer, which just happened to be right after the restart for the update, and well... I had to ask for help and deal with it. At least now we know what it is and how to fix it, if it does happen to show up again. But if you still want to play it safe, wait for these sort of updates to officially appear in Software Update before you go off downloading them. If you want to be extra careful, wait for a couple of days and see how things go.

EDIT: Well, it seems like I can't change the title of the thread. Sorry, I didn't mean to cause panic. Just be cautious about any updates like these.

[Cadaver]

No problem here on my three machines. Sorry you're having trouble. Try an Archive and Install. It should fix the issue and wont affect your data.

[shabbasuraj]

no probs here.

yay team.

[madmacgames]

no trouble on my 12" revB here.

PS. I downloaded the update through Software Update and not versiontracker