System Preferences not responding

[Coquin]

Shortly after upgrading to 10.8.4 I started having problems with System Preferences not responding. It does launch but when I click on any preference icon the color ball starts spinning and I have to force quit the application. I tried repairing the permissions but with no positive result.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks

 

[UrbanBard]

This might sound screwy, but System Preferences gets its info from System Information.

I'd say to open up it and click on the possible settings like AUDIO, Video, USB, etc. Some times, when system Preferences doesn't show any output in sound, going into System Information will break it lose. What do you have to lose?

 

[Coquin]

This might sound screwy, but System Preferences gets its info from System Information.

I'd say to open up it and click on the possible settings like AUDIO, Video, USB, etc. Some times, when system Preferences doesn't show any output in sound, going into System Information will break it lose. What do you have to lose?

Hi

Thanks for your suggestion. I tried it and it did not help. Maybe I should have mentioned that the first System Preferences freeze happened after I had plugged a set of usb 1.0 headphones into a usb 3.0 port and I tried to change the audio output from Logitec USB headset to Optical output.

 

[Coquin]

Hi

Thanks for your suggestion. I tried it and it did not help. Maybe I should have mentioned that the first System Preferences freeze happened after I had plugged a set of usb 1.0 headphones into a usb 3.0 port and I tried to change the audio output from Logitec USB headset to Optical output.

Weird! Weird! After force quitting System Preferences I launched it again and I clicked on Software Update which launched. I closed it and clicked on "Sound" and I was surprised to find out that there was no audio device left there be it input or output. Then I used Multibeast 5.3 to reinstall the appropriate audio codec. I rebooted but I had to use GraphicsEnabler=No since it had mysteriously gone back to Yes in Chameleon plist. I set it back to no and I launched System Preferences and everything is working fine now.

What caused my problem? I have no idea. Does anyone have an idea?

 

[Coquin]

Weird! Weird! After force quitting System Preferences I launched it again and I clicked on Software Update which launched. I closed it and clicked on "Sound" and I was surprised to find out that there was no audio device left there be it input or output. Then I used Multibeast 5.3 to reinstall the appropriate audio codec. I rebooted but I had to use GraphicsEnabler=No since it had mysteriously gone back to Yes in Chameleon plist. I set it back to no and I launched System Preferences and everything is working fine now.

What caused my problem? I have no idea. Does anyone have an idea?

Update!

I found out that the problem is antivirus program related. I had Sophos installed and after launching it I was getting a "Sophos is not running" message. Then all the audio part of System preferences was empty and the Audio section of "About this computer" as well, everything was gone. I uninstalled Sophos and rebooted and everything was normal in System Preferences. I then installed ClamXav, ran it and ended up with the same problem with System preferences not launching. Finally, I uninstalled ClamXav and my computer is running smoothly. Of course, I cannot tell if the problem is caused by the antivirus programs themselves or if it is due to some programs conflict.

I thought it might be interesting to let this forum users know about the problems I encountered.