Growl stopped working completely

[boredzo]

Just out of curiosity, what does it say in the crash logs for the computer name?

not sure where to look - home is named 'Brian' but i don't see anything in the crash log with anything that looks like a name
the title/header of the window System Preferences_2009-08-22-004151_localhost.crash

That's where to look: the filename. “localhost” is (was) your computer name, supporting the theory that it was not assigned a unique name at all.

That's strange. Usually, Mac OS X sets the computer name to “Brian <lastname>'s Computer” when you create your first account.

Oh, well. Strange as that is, it apparently is something we have to check for and handle.

[brian0116]

this is the first time i have used migration assistant - it worked well but there are a bunch of settings that are out of whack. for instance - when i open new web pages and a lot of other apps - they open in a window that is larger then the monitor (the file upload page from this site is an example). i think it might be a carry over from a larger monitor setting on the previous computer. seems weird b/c i have gone through all settings to try and reset and nothing has worked. I might need to just erase, reinstall and manually move info from one computer to the other. that might solve the Growl issues too. thoughts?

[boredzo]

It might be easier to manually delete preferences files instead of manually copying them (and everything else) over. Make a back-up first, of course.

[brian0116]

SOLUTION - it works again. thank you growl gods

I went through and deleted all third party pref panels and any 'non-essential' mac pref panels. I'll leave it to you to decide what is/isn't essential but for me it was almost everything. I have already 'fixed' most of the deleted preferences.

The end result is that I downloaded the 1.1.6 image from the Growl website as if I were installing it for the first time and all is well.

Thanks - Your help was invaluable

[boredzo]

I went through and deleted … any 'non-essential' mac pref panels.

Er. The ones that come with Mac OS X?

Deleting parts of the OS, including the prefpanes, will almost certainly cause trouble, either now or in the future.

One very likely problem will occur when you install an OS update that affects part of a prefpane, but not other parts. The update will bring the affected parts back from the dead (by installing the new version of them), but doesn't contain the other parts, so now you have half a prefpane. Then, some weeks/months/years later, you go to access that prefpane and find it broken.

That's why you should never move, rename, or delete anything that came with the OS. Better to leave it where it is, intact.

[boredzo]

Filed.

[brian0116]

I backed them up first and installed clean versions from a new install of the os without any setting adjustments. I was careful just didn't think about the pref panes causing problems. I solved the issue with window sizing, etc.. that i was having in addition to Growl