System Preferences won't open and blank CDs won't mount

[poprockgrrl]

OS 10.3.7

I was going to burn a CD for one of the people we support. When I put the CD in, the little window asking me if I want to open finder opens up, but the CD never mounts. I tried to go into system preferences, but it wouldn't open. When I went to "help", it told me system preferences may be disabled or not installed. Here's things have tried.

1. CDs that are written to work fine.
2. The CDs I am trying to use work fine on another machine.
3. I ran permissions.
4. The CD does not show up in Finder, the desktop or in iTunes.
5. I have rebooted repeatedly


Am I going to have to reinstall osx because sys preferences is apparently gone?

Anyone have any ideas?

[hayne]

Launch the "Console" application (under /Applications/Utilities) and look for relevant error messages. Note that messages are labeled with the date & time so you can use that to locate the part of the log to look at. Copy & paste the relevant messages back here so we can see them.
If the log refers to a crash log, press the "Logs" button (top-left) and go into the ~/Library/Logs section to find that particular crash log. Copy & paste back here the last portion of that crash log - the part that gives details about the last crash (or preferably attach it as a plain text file, using the "Manage Attachments" button at the bottom when you reply).

And try the standard troubleshooting suggestions:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269

The "System Preferences" application is in the top-level Applications folder - do you see it there?

[ashleyhotch]

31/01/08 6:21:42 PM org.ntp.ntpd[14] Error : nodename nor servname provided, or not known


i had a grey question mark over my system preference now it wont open from anywhere as well..it happened to limewire too with the question mark. just got this mac book yesterday and im a first time mac user..i have leopard and i checked the console thing and this error was in it quite a bit dont know what it means..someone help me getting sp working again

[trevor]

If you bought this computer used, I would strongly advise you to wipe the hard drive and reinstall a completely fresh copy of OS X. You have no idea what the previous owner did to the computer, either through incompetence, or because they have malicious intent for you.

If you bought this computer new and System Preferences won't open any more, then I wonder if you've deleted things in your Applications folder? System Preferences is an application, and can be found in your Applications folder. There's no reason it wouldn't open unless it was deleted or moved elsewhere (which is a bad idea).

Did you recently (like today or yesterday) move things from your Applications folder?

Trevor

[ashleyhotch]

It is a brand new comp i just ordered from the apple store. 2ghz dual core with Leopard as the operating system. I don't remember delete'n anything and at first when i tried to open it from the dock it had a ? over it and it wouldn't do anything now i can't find it in the appl folder and it won't open from then apple icon even tho the sys pref tab is still there

[haissy]

Please help! I have similar problems, I think. I have an iBook G4 running Mac OSX 10.5.5. I've owned it for a couple of years now and suddenly system preferences won't open and the time and date try to open with Adobe! (I bought it used and don't have the operating system to re-install but I do have the Leopard operating systems discs from a desktop.) From reading in the forum here, I think application files have been deleted. Is it possible to install Leopard on my iBook and fix this problem?

Also, I tried to go to the console to find the error msg, but only the logs only show for this month and the only error was related to signing on--I think:

Jun 12 22:18:39 my-new-ibooks-ibook-g4 airportd[12947]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6


Any ideas?

TIA
Haissy