[awcopus]

I don't know what happened. I'm anal about repairing permissions and running hardware tests.... and I'm still having this problem despite successful doing both of those things and discarding the systemserverui.plist files from my prefs folder.

Basically, my computer (dual 2.5G5, two weeks old) was running 10.3.5 perfectly well until yesterday. Now, I have NO ability to select anything in the menu bar on the right side. I can see the icons, I can see the time, but as soon as the cursor touches them, it turns into a spinning ball.

My hardware checks out, so I upgraded to 10.3.6 thinking this might solve my problem. No solution. When I go to restart, I just get the dial spinning forever... the system just hangs. Then, after a hard reboot (gulp!), the same problem persists regardless of how I log into the system. After the reboot, the time resets correctly, but does not proceed. Incredibly, when I open up System Preferences and go to Date and Time, the time is correct and ticking along just fine.

What is going on here? Please somebody tell me that there's a solution to this before I completely lose my mind.

[Madrag]

It ususally happens when the app (in this case the menu bar) hangs...
Did you install anything new?

Have you tried other users in this system?
If yes, and the problem is the same, try doing a safe reboot (reboot and press command S until you see the progress), if everything is ok, then restart, if the problem persists, try the usual zap P-RAM...

I'm sure it is something to do with the system... (vs to hardware)

If you can't fix it,a dn have the possibility to try the system from other partitions/external HD, do so, and if the problem doesn't show, then I recommend backing it and re-installing the system.

[awcopus]

Originally posted by Madrag:
It ususally happens when the app (in this case the menu bar) hangs...
Did you install anything new?

Have you tried other users in this system?
If yes, and the problem is the same, try doing a safe reboot (reboot and press command S until you see the progress), if everything is ok, then restart, if the problem persists, try the usual zap P-RAM...

I'm sure it is something to do with the system... (vs to hardware)

If you can't fix it,a dn have the possibility to try the system from other partitions/external HD, do so, and if the problem doesn't show, then I recommend backing it and re-installing the system.

The solution to this problem turned out to involve undoing an installation of Stuffit Deluxe 8.0.2. Once this application was completely uninstalled, I regained menu bar access and the ability to restart and shutdown my machine.

This was an unsettling experience. I have never had OS X pose such a bizarre problem.

Thank you for your ideas, Madrag. For the time being, I will use this app on my G4, which has never had a problem with it, despite running the same system version. ?????

[Madrag]

nice one!
that must have been the magic menu, right?
(It may work on the G4, but as you know, the G5 has other config under the hood...)
will you be brave enough to try stuffit v.9?

[awcopus]

Originally posted by Madrag:
nice one!
that must have been the magic menu, right?
(It may work on the G4, but as you know, the G5 has other config under the hood...)
will you be brave enough to try stuffit v.9?

Honestly, I am blown away that something so apparently innocuous (a compression utility) completely wrecked my system. I had not hard-rebooted a Mac since... we're talking years here.

So... for now, having only just reclaimed my system and my sanity, I will choose to be brave another day.

[alphasubzero949]

I suspect that the Magic Menu had a role in freezing up your menu bar. I'm sure it can be turned off somewhere...

[Madrag]

yes it can be turned off, either remove it manually from the library or by taking it out of the menu bar (I think you can do that from the struffit main app)

I suppose the v9 has corrected that issue...