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IGrokSpock · Dec 27, 2003, 01:17 PM

So i upgraded to Panther via Archive and Install. All is great here in Macland. EXCEPT ICHAT AV doesnt work.

Im getting this dialog box:

"iChat Internal Error!

NSInvalidArgumentException:
NsConcreteMutableAttributedString addAttribute:
value:range:: nil value"

So I call Apple. Helpful as can be- really, not kidding- the guy helped me as best as he could for about 15 minutes. Except Apple has no idea what this means.

We try a bunch of stuff- clearing prefs, etc (I even ran diskwarrior on my drive). didnt work. They suggest I reinstall Panther. Hello, Cockroach? Meet Bazooka. reinstall for one application? So, I suggest perhaps they could give me an installer for iChat to make it work. iChat is now $30, and since I just upgraded to Panther last week, I dont think I should be paying for iChat.

They say no, i should reinstall. So i do it. But it doesnt work. Any ideas from the gallery before I go back to Apple to ask politely for an iChat installer?

Id rather not clean install Panther. I'd rather use AOL's IM, which incidently, works fine. But I'll clean install if this means there are larger issues with my hard drive.... (which I back up frequently....)

Thanks for any and all input. Lets keep it friendly, please...

Chris Grande · Dec 27, 2003, 01:23 PM

Are you using Extensis Suitcase, or installing any fonts?

Arkham_c · Dec 27, 2003, 09:22 PM

As alwas on OSX, create a new user, and see if that user can use the app. If so, it's a problem with your local account. If not, then you know it's a systemic problem. Try that first.

deepdarkfunky · Dec 28, 2003, 01:28 AM

do you have auto reply installed? if so, remove the icar.bundle from your hard drive, as it does not work with panther...

Axo1ot1 · Dec 28, 2003, 02:04 AM

Originally posted by IGrokSpock:
Hello, Cockroach? Meet Bazooka.

Where you see one cockroach there are ten more you can't see, so point the bazooka in its general direction and you stand a decent chance of blowing some of the others away with it

IGrokSpock · Dec 28, 2003, 10:45 AM

Yeah, Apple suggested the switch user thingee. That didnt work. And Im not using Suitcase at all.

whats an Icar Bundle, and where is that?

thanks for the help....

tomdavidson69 · Dec 28, 2003, 05:43 PM

You could always use pacifist to get the ichat bundle from the Panther cd's...then you can just re-install ichat...

...less like a bazooka more like a good pine-fresh insect spray...? (OK crap joke, I'll get me coat)

get pacifist here: http://www.charlessoft.com/
(I've not used it myself but others have spoken highly so I figured a timely recommendation was of the order..

)

deepdarkfunky · Dec 29, 2003, 02:00 AM

Originally posted by IGrokSpock:
Yeah, Apple suggested the switch user thingee. That didnt work. And Im not using Suitcase at all.

whats an Icar Bundle, and where is that?

thanks for the help....

the icar.bundle is what ichat auto reply installs, that is, if you use that shareware software.. do a search on your hard drive for icar and see it if it comes up.

IGrokSpock · Dec 30, 2003, 03:53 PM

Problem solved.

I'll tell what happened in case anyone else has this problem.

Archive and Install did not work, so I decided to do a clean install and recopy over my users folder, apps, etc. Anyway, after reinstalling, iChat worked perfectly. After dragging over my user folder, it did not.

I called Apple again, and the guy directed me to rename my user > library folder to library.old. A new folder called library instantly appeared. Now I started iChat and miraculously, it worked. Then he suggested that I copy over one folder at a time from library.old to library and restart iChat. Each time I copied a folder, I restarted iChat. Quickly, I realized that it was probably either the fonts folder or the preferences folder. So i copied over all the folders except those two. iChat still worked. I copied the fonts over. ichat worked. So obviously theres a corrupt file in the prefs folder.

Strangely enough, all my programs are working fine without me copying the prefs over. So i dont think I will go through 1 at a time to find the file, but its in there. For now, Im keeping the old folder handy in case I need it. Also, my computer is running MUCH faster than before. Go figure.

So, there you go. When in doubt, check your library....

Sidenote- i have an aol IM account, and when I tried opening and restarting iChat numerous times, it told me that I had logged in and out too often, and then it blocked me for about 20 minutes. Boy did that suck when youre trying to fix a problem!

Anyway, I hope this helps. Thanks for all the help...

SMacTech · Dec 30, 2003, 07:34 PM

If you tried a new user and it still didn't work, I am confused why deleting your preferences folder in your user folder cured the problem.
The problem should not have occurred in the new user. As Arkham_c pointed out that is the first step of troubleshooting in OS X, or simply move the Preferences folder out and try it in your normal user account.

Regardless, glad you got it fixed

IGrokSpock · Dec 31, 2003, 02:20 PM

Yeah, im not sure why the other user thing didnt work. But i did reinstall everything twice- Archive first, then clean. So maybe that zapped whatever global problem it was, and then the prefs thing cleared a localized one...