Techno Chubby » Projects

OS X Leopard Screen Saver Preference Pane Hangs

TheJoe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:49:52 +0000

I got a unibody MacBook Pro 17″ recently. I had some issues with that one and I had it replaced with a new one. (There is a lot more to this story and you can read about it on my personal blog.)

I get the replacement unibody MacBook and I do a restore from Time Machine. I had previously installed all my apps from scratch on the exact same Mac before it died. (again see other post) I log in for the first time and I do all my updates. Everything works great! Except for one thing:

Everytime I open my Screen Saver Preference pane… I get the Beach Ball and my System Preferences hangs and I must force quit!

I google and google… Finally I found a fix at the Apple Support Discussions: Screen Saver Preference Pane Lockup thanks swmbuk!

Let me lay out the Symptoms and summarize the fix:

Symptoms I noticed:

Opening System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver caused my System Preferences to crash or beach ball for a good while then crash
I noticed that in my system.log (Console > system.log) there was an entry: “Call to deprecated method ILApertureMediaManager::init. Please update your code to use ILApertureMediaManager::sharedManager:“
When I could navigate in the Screen Saver preference pane and select “iTunes Artwork” it would claim that I had none.
Attempting to install another screen saver would cause the system to hang.
Creating a new admin account and then log in as that account would produce the same results.

The fix summarized: (kudos again to swmbuk)

I got my install dvd’s that came with my MacBook and inserted the second one marked “Applications Install Disk”
Went to Finder and deleted the folder: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iLifeMediaBrowser.framework
Dowloaded and Installed Pacifist from: http://www.charlessoft.com/
Executed the Pacifist application
With the “Open Package…” dialog in Pacifist, I opened “Installed Bundled Applications” from the disk. (it took a while to extract the packages)
I expanded the “Contents of InstallBundledSoftware.mpkg”
Selected “Contents of iLifeMediaBrowser_v2.pkg” and clicked install.
I had to enter my admin password and some other dialog boxes.
I ran software update and installed “iLife Support 9.0.3″

VOILA! All symptoms resolved

I post this because it took quite a while for me to find a fix that actually worked. There also seems to be several people experiencing a similar issue. I hope this post helps some of you.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Neverwinter Nights Diamond

Kumeelyun — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:49:53 +0000

This time around, I attempt Neverwinter Nights Diamond the Dungeons and Dragons-licensed RPG that includes all the expansions and is estimated to contain over 100 hours of gameplay.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Free To Play MMOs

Kumeelyun — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:07:02 +0000

There are quite a few F2P MMO’s (Free To Play) out there right now, so this video looks at several to see how they fare on a Mac.

Games attempted in this video:

Mabinogi
Dungeon Runners
Gunz: The Duel
Runes of Magic
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Command & Conquer and Red Alert

Kumeelyun — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:10:57 +0000

For the first time, I look at a game suggested by one of my viewers. Not only are both of these games classics that helped popularize the real-time strategy genre, but they are now also both free to download as legal DRM-free ISO images.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Kumeelyun — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:26:09 +0000

Time for something more recent. I look at what it takes to get the Mac to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R., an open-world, first-person shooter from 2007.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Jedi Knight

Kumeelyun — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:12:41 +0000

This video finds out if the Mac can handle the first-person lightsaber action of Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – The Neverhood

Kumeelyun — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:48:15 +0000

In contrast to all the dark, bloody games I’ve covered previously, this installment attempts a bright, quirky, all-clay animated point-and-click adventure game from 1996. Can the Mac handle the over three tons of clay it took to create The Neverhood?

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Nightmare Creatures

Kumeelyun — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:06:53 +0000

In this episode I look at the 3rd person action-horror game “Nightmare Creatures”, set in gothic London in the 1800’s. Can the MacBook Pro and Crossover Games handle the horror?

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Blood

Kumeelyun — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:31:03 +0000

For this installment, I am attempting the 1997 horror-FPS from Monolith, “Blood”.

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Does It Play On a Mac? – Carmageddon II

Kumeelyun — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:10:17 +0000

In what should be an ongoing series, I look at how various Windows games do or do not run on the Mac. I don’t plan to take too long for any one game, and I will not be using Bootcamp, Windows, or a separate partition if I can help it. The whole idea is to see if these games can be run with as little hassle as possible. For this one I’m using the 1998 racer Carmageddon II.

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