"The application ____ unexpectedly quit"

kneelbeforezodkneelbeforezod
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I recently switched to a Mac (after MWSF came and went with no upgrade to the 15.2" TiBook I decided to just go ahead and buy one), and have spent the last week happily learning my way around OS X (and wishing I had been able to afford to switch sooner).



Anyway, things had been running pretty smoothly...until tonight. I came home from work and applications started randomly quitting on me. First Safari (it now won't load at all), then Entourage. Multiple reboots have not helped. If I was running Windows I'd assume that I'd picked up a virus from the well known productivity suite that I installed after -ahem- finding it on Limewire the other night...but I was under the impression that there is no such thing as an OS X. Anyone have any idea what this could be? Any pointers would be much appreciated.



Edit: I just realized that this wasn't the first problem. I managed to freeze OS X twice when connecting to my old laptop via smb. I figured that was Bill's fault however...and a reboot sorted it out each time.



[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: kneelbeforezod ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    kneelbeforezodkneelbeforezod Posts: 1,120member
    Update: Entourage now seems to be happy enough, but Safari will not run. It does seem that I'm not alone, as there are a lot of threads on the Safari boards at <a href="http://discussions.info.apple.com/"; target="_blank">http://discussions.info.apple.com/</a>; about this. Still looking for a permanent fix though...
  • Reply 2 of 4
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    The crash-on-launch bug in Safari can usually be traced to a corrupted preferences file. Delete it and it should launch fine.



    The file is located at:

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist



    If you are new to OSX or Unix-like OSs in general, you may not be familiar with the ~ path shortcut. That basically means your home directory. So, the above path actually points to:



    /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist



    Hope this helps.



    PS. While there aren't any known *viruses* for OSX, you should still be very wary of running software that you have downloaded from some unknown source. Trojans and malicious scripts are still quite possible on OSX, but OSX's permissions system will limit the damage to your home directory, leaving the rest of the system safe (provided that you aren't running as root and haven't changed any of the main permission settings). It would be very easy for me or anyone else to write a simple script that would delete your entire home directory without asking permission, package it up with Microsoft Word's icon, throw in some bloat to make it match Word's actual size, and put it out in your file-sharing system of choice.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    xaqtlyxaqtly Posts: 450member
    Something else to try if you want some feedback is to run fsck.



    Reboot the Mac and hold down Command-S. Keep them held down until you see what looks like unix... text filling the screen. When you get to the prompt, type this in:



    /sbin/fsck -y



    exactly like that, including the space. Then hit Return and watch it do its thing. Hopefully it will find nothing, but if it does find something it will say the filesystem was modified. If it says that, run fsck again (tip: hit the up arrow key to repeat the last command).



    When you're done, type reboot and hit Return, and the Mac will restart and boot normally.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    kneelbeforezodkneelbeforezod Posts: 1,120member
    Deleting the preferences file worked a charm...now using Safari again.



    [quote]It would be very easy for me or anyone else to write a simple script that would delete your entire home directory without asking permission, package it up with Microsoft Word's icon, throw in some bloat to make it match Word's actual size, and put it out in your file-sharing system of choice.<hr></blockquote>



    I'm new to OSX, but I have used Linux distros on occasion so I'm feeling a little sheepish that this hadn't occured to me...I hadn't fully realizied how close OSX is to Unix. I found the terminal today (hadn't known there was one built in) and am even more blown away then I was before. I'm even getting used to the one button trackpad...



    Anyway - thanks for the assist guys



    [ 01-18-2003: Message edited by: kneelbeforezod ]



    [ 01-18-2003: Message edited by: kneelbeforezod ]</p>
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