iTunes and Safari crashing entire OS

[MSgherzi]

I have a Powerbook G5 and every time I launch either iTunes or Safari, it will try and load, and eventually crash the entire OS where I need to press and hold the power button to shut it off.

I tried repairing permissions, and it repaired permissions in /Applications, but nothing was solved. I cannot launch Onyx's services after it's installed because I keep getting errors. I created a new user account in Mac and everything works. Weird. Any suggestions?

It's running Tiger and I can't get online to download anything since Safari wont load.

Thanks in advance

 

[nj_computer_repair]

Did you try anything described in this article?

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417

 

[RiCO]

Open Finder and navigate to Library > Preferences

Move com.apple.iTunes.plist and com.apple.Safari.plist onto the Desktop (.plist files store application preferences)

Launch iTunes and Safari (they will create new .plist files)

Let us know what happens

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Open Finder and navigate to Library > Preferences

Move com.apple.iTunes.plist and com.apple.Safari.plist onto the Desktop (.plist files store application preferences)

Launch iTunes and Safari (they will create new .plist files)

Let us know what happens

I'm sure you mean the library under the user folder, not the library on the top level. This can be pretty confusing if you're not sure how to navigate around the OSX file structure.

But it definitely sounds like user corruption. You may also want to go into users/username/library/caches and clear out that folder as well.

 

[MSgherzi]

I tried clearing the caches folder and creating those new plist files, but the same problem keeps occurring. iTunes reloaded all songs and everything, but when I try to do anything, it freezes and the colored circle just keeps spinning. Safari doesn't load at all and still freezes everything up.

Any other suggestions?


Correction: Powerbook G4 not G5.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Try a safe boot. Start up holding the shift key. It will take forever and don't let your finger off of the shift key until you get a log-in screen. You will need the customers password to log-in. While in safe boot, try safari and itunes. If all goes well, just reboot normally and see how everything acts.

 

[MSgherzi]

Try a safe boot. Start up holding the shift key. It will take forever and don't let your finger off of the shift key until you get a log-in screen. You will need the customers password to log-in. While in safe boot, try safari and itunes. If all goes well, just reboot normally and see how everything acts.

I tried a safe boot (I didn't need the customer's password but it said "Safe Boot" when loading" and the same thing happened. This person also downloaded a lot of songs from Limewire, could that be causing anything here? I'm not a Mac expert by any means, but this problem doesn't seem to want to go away.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

In the users/username/library/preferences folder there are other .plist files besides the apple.com.safari.plist and apple.com.itunes.plist. You need to scan through there for any .plist with the name safari and itunes and blow those away. While you're at it go ahead and get rid of any .plist associated with realplayer as well. Next go into users/username/library/Internet plug-ins folder and delete any plug-ins that may be causing the issue.

If still having issues after doing all of the above, go to users/username/preferences/safari folder and delete whats in there(caution: this action will cause their browser history to be deleted, but the bookmarks may or may not be deleted. If they are really attached to their bookmarks and browser history just drag these files onto the desktop and see what happens, if removing those doesn't change things, you have them to put them back.)

 

[MSgherzi]

In the users/username/library/preferences folder there are other .plist files besides the apple.com.safari.plist and apple.com.itunes.plist. You need to scan through there for any .plist with the name safari and itunes and blow those away. While you're at it go ahead and get rid of any .plist associated with realplayer as well. Next go into users/username/library/Internet plug-ins folder and delete any plug-ins that may be causing the issue.

If still having issues after doing all of the above, go to users/username/preferences/safari folder and delete whats in there(caution: this action will cause their browser history to be deleted, but the bookmarks may or may not be deleted. If they are really attached to their bookmarks and browser history just drag these files onto the desktop and see what happens, if removing those doesn't change things, you have them to put them back.)

I just did all of that and the problem still isn't solved. I got rid of the only Internet plug-in which was real player.

Safari just tells me now that it "Unexpectedly has quit..."

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Are you sure the new user you created isn't having issues? Make sure you deleted all the caches as well. If still no love you may need to keep activity monitor open and running and then play with safari and itunes and see which process is clocking close to 100% of the processor because it could be something completely unrelated.

 

[MSgherzi]

Are you sure the new user you created isn't having issues? Make sure you deleted all the caches as well. If still no love you may need to keep activity monitor open and running and then play with safari and itunes and see which process is clocking close to 100% of the processor because it could be something completely unrelated.

Yes the other account works great but there's no music when iTunes starts, so maybe that's something. Caches are all clear, too.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Its rare, but I've seen cases where the user became so corrupted its been necessary to make a disk image of the HD. Then delete the account and make the account over again from scratch and drag and drop all of the users data back into the appropriate folders except of course the user library. This of course is a drastic measure because even though the users data is all still where its supposed to be such as itunes and iphoto libraries. But the dock, desktop, and user preferences will all need to be reset, along with safaris bookmarks being gone. But its easy enough to grab the bookmarks form the old library and put them back into the new library folder. You will be best served to go to applications/utilities/activity monitor. Launch Activity Monitor then launch safari/itunes to see what process starts running at the time to take up all of the CPU. If you do not know what the process is or does, which I doubt you will not knowing Macs, google the process to find out about it.

 

[MSgherzi]

Its rare, but I've seen cases where the user became so corrupted its been necessary to make a disk image of the HD. Then delete the account and make the account over again from scratch and drag and drop all of the users data back into the appropriate folders except of course the user library. This of course is a drastic measure because even though the users data is all still where its supposed to be such as itunes and iphoto libraries. But the dock, desktop, and user preferences will all need to be reset, along with safaris bookmarks being gone. But its easy enough to grab the bookmarks form the old library and put them back into the new library folder. You will be best served to go to applications/utilities/activity monitor. Launch Activity Monitor then launch safari/itunes to see what process starts running at the time to take up all of the CPU. If you do not know what the process is or does, which I doubt you will not knowing Macs, google the process to find out about it.

Activity Monitor doesn't report anything unusual. When iTunes loads, iTunes actually takes up about 80% of the CPU, and when iTunes freezes, it flatlines to 0% CPU usage and it reports as "Hung." However, I ended other processes that weren't needed (Norton, Symantec stuff, Finder, and other things that wouldn't "log" me out), and suddenly Safari started working. I even tried emptying the Users/User/Music/iTunes/Playlist of all music tracks, and iTunes still freezes. It's nice being able to force quit it through Activity Monitor rather than having to do a hard reboot.

Any suggestions?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I even tried emptying the Users/User/Music/iTunes/Playlist of all music tracks, and iTunes still freezes. It's nice being able to force quit it through Activity Monitor rather than having to do a hard reboot.

Any suggestions?

I really hope you checked with the user before blowing away all of their playlists? The music should be safe but the user will have to go through and recreate all of their playlists again. On top of that if the issue is with safari and itunes its not going to help deleting anything in the music folder. For a corrupt user issue, the only folder you should go into to delete anything is the users/username/library folder and you need to take care even in there.

You don't need to even be in activity monitor to do a force quit. You can use the shortcut command+option+escape to bring up the force quit apps on the fly.

It sounds like Norton is the culprit. I don't even think Norton has anything for current versions of OSX unless it is Norton™ AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac® or Norton™ AntiVirus 11 for Mac®. These run on 10.4.10 and up. You may want to go into system prefs/accounts and see if Norton is listed in the login items for the user. Remove Norton from the login items list for that user and then restart and see if that solves it. If that solves it, see if they are OK with removing Norton, because like I said (unless I'm wrong) its not a current version.

If that doesn't solve it or its not listed under the users login items Norton may be launching from some other preference. Just check activity monitor again and see if its still running.

 

[MSgherzi]

I really hope you checked with the user before blowing away all of their playlists? The music should be safe but the user will have to go through and recreate all of their playlists again. On top of that if the issue is with safari and itunes its not going to help deleting anything in the music folder. For a corrupt user issue, the only folder you should go into to delete anything is the users/username/library folder and you need to take care even in there.

You don't need to even be in activity monitor to do a force quit. You can use the shortcut command+option+escape to bring up the force quit apps on the fly.

It sounds like Norton is the culprit. I don't even think Norton has anything for current versions of OSX unless it is Norton™ AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac® or Norton™ AntiVirus 11 for Mac®. These run on 10.4.10 and up. You may want to go into system prefs/accounts and see if Norton is listed in the login items for the user. Remove Norton from the login items list for that user and then restart and see if that solves it. If that solves it, see if they are OK with removing Norton, because like I said (unless I'm wrong) its not a current version.

If that doesn't solve it or its not listed under the users login items Norton may be launching from some other preference. Just check activity monitor again and see if its still running.

I obviously made sure not to delete the music. I simply moved them into a folder on the desktop.

I thought Norton might have been the problem too, but with my little Mac experience I didn't know how to disable login items (shoulda Googled it...).

Thanks and I'll try it.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I obviously made sure not to delete the music. I simply moved them into a folder on the desktop.

I thought Norton might have been the problem too, but with my little Mac experience I didn't know how to disable login items (shoulda Googled it...).

Thanks and I'll try it.

Click the apple menu in the top left corner. Select system preferences, then select accounts. After selecting the user account in the left pane, the login items button will be one of the buttons you can select. Use the +/- buttons to add/delete startup items. You will need to click the padlock icon in the bottom left corner and authenticate with the users password to make any changes.

 

[MSgherzi]

I disabled Norton "Auto-Protect" all together and to my surprise iTunes works fine. Both iTunes and Safari work great now.

Thanks for the help.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I disabled Norton "Auto-Protect" all together and to my surprise iTunes works fine. Both iTunes and Safari work great now.

Thanks for the help.

Glad I could help. Thanks for posting back and letting me know.

 

[abe]

it seems like norton really works hard on messing up os's I thought they where workin for apple against M$. now it seems they are working against themselves

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

it seems like norton really works hard on messing up os's I thought they where workin for apple against M$. now it seems they are working against themselves

Yeah, its not only Microsoft that Norton gets in everywhere and messes everything up. At least with M$ there is the Norton Removal Tool. Last I knew it doesn't exist for Mac? But at least to manually remove it I don't have a registry to comb through.