From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Hello,

Another recent behavioral development on my G4/450 (AGP graphics), and
I'd like some clues or an outright remedy, please:

Many times, when I soft-restart the system, whether or not I change the Extensions set before doing so, the desktop icons arrange themselves (by
way of an Applescript I made), but each HD partition icon--both internal
and FireWire external--have a patch of gray behind them. When I then
open the Control Panels folder, each cp has a distorted bottom to it.
Aside from the appearance, everything behaves as normal, but I find it annoying, so I soft-restart again. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get
the icons to display without this anomaly.

Any ideas as to why this might be happening? I've never seen it before,
under any Apple OS. I suspect some piece of software is to blame, but
maybe it's the Finder or System? Please help!

Thanks and happy computing,
Eric

--
For e-mail replies, please send to "thustar at yahoo dot com."
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Eric P. <ericp06@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Each HD partition icon--both internal
and FireWire external--have a patch of gray behind them.

It depends on what you mean by a patch of gray.

The most likely possibility is that each icon is set in a neat square
surround of gray. In which case it is not an icon: it's a button.

The choice is yours on the
Finder > View
menu, and presumably can be scripted. Experiment with the menu choices
to see the various choices of size and shape you can use to represent
objects on your desktop. And then look for where Finder is being told to
use what you are seeing on your desktop.

--
Hylton
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <1he26g1.tpacd9qx27nkN%uo-wgo@qvepba.pb.hx.invalid>,
uo-wgo@qvepba.pb.hx.invalid (Hylton Boothroyd) wrote:

Eric P. <ericp06@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Each HD partition icon--both internal
and FireWire external--have a patch of gray behind them.

It depends on what you mean by a patch of gray.

The most likely possibility is that each icon is set in a neat square surround of gray. In which case it is not an icon: it's a button.

I know what you're referring to. That's not the case here, as the gray
areas appear above the drive/partition icons, but not below, and some of
them have a notch in the top. It has the look of a piece of the desktop background picture having been torn out, revealing a dotty gray
background pattern.

The choice is yours on the
Finder > View
menu, and presumably can be scripted. Experiment with the menu choices
to see the various choices of size and shape you can use to represent
objects on your desktop. And then look for where Finder is being told to
use what you are seeing on your desktop.

OK, I keep the settings to view as icons on the desktop, at large size,
and snap to grid. When my desktop finishes loading, all my partitions
line up along the right edge of the screen, as expected. Then my script repositions them so that my internal HD partitions line up along the
right edge, and related external HD partitions line up alongside them to
the left. In the script, they're assigned pixel coordinates, and the
script works properly only when the monitor resolution is set to
1280x1024 @ 75Hz (I use this setting for everything except for games
that don't support it). Colors are always set to millions.

Hope this helps to bring forth more ideas.

Thanks,
Eric

--
For e-mail replies, please send to "thustar at yahoo dot com."
--- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Eric P. <ericp06@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Hylton Boothroyd wrote:

Eric P. wrote:

Each HD partition icon--both internal
and FireWire external--have a patch of gray behind them.

The most likely possibility is that each icon is set in a neat square surround of gray. In which case it is not an icon: it's a button.

I know what you're referring to. That's not the case here, as the gray
areas appear above the drive/partition icons, but not below, and some of
them have a notch in the top. It has the look of a piece of the desktop background picture having been torn out, revealing a dotty gray
background pattern.

The only time I get a damaged-looking desktop picture is if I load a lot
of applications, and one of them continues to claim more and more memory
as it runs -- memory leakage. I have one such application that I use
every day. I also like to have open all the applications I'm likely to
use. When the largest unused block of memory gets down to about 2Mb a
freeze is possible at any moment and the re-painting of the screen is incomplete.

Your description doesn't sound like that, but you might find it of
interest to open the
Finder > About This Computer
panel, and to keep it in view so that you can see whether you are having unexpected memory problems.

--
Hylton
--- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <1he46m0.1tja5yw1voprswN%uo-wgo@qvepba.pb.hx.invalid>,
uo-wgo@qvepba.pb.hx.invalid (Hylton Boothroyd) wrote:

Eric P. <ericp06@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Hylton Boothroyd wrote:

Eric P. wrote:

Each HD partition icon--both internal
and FireWire external--have a patch of gray behind them.

The most likely possibility is that each icon is set in a neat square surround of gray. In which case it is not an icon: it's a button.

I know what you're referring to. That's not the case here, as the gray areas appear above the drive/partition icons, but not below, and some of them have a notch in the top. It has the look of a piece of the desktop background picture having been torn out, revealing a dotty gray
background pattern.

The only time I get a damaged-looking desktop picture is if I load a lot
of applications, and one of them continues to claim more and more memory
as it runs -- memory leakage. I have one such application that I use
every day. I also like to have open all the applications I'm likely to
use. When the largest unused block of memory gets down to about 2Mb a
freeze is possible at any moment and the re-painting of the screen is incomplete.

Your description doesn't sound like that, but you might find it of
interest to open the
Finder > About This Computer
panel, and to keep it in view so that you can see whether you are having unexpected memory problems.

You know, the idea had occured to me to keep that window open. I just
never picked up the habit. I do have a program that always runs, called FreeRamPlus. It displays the total available memory at any given moment,
and I keep an eye on it from time to time. Another one I launch every
once in a while, especially after using memory-hogging apps, is Mac OS
Purge. That might be overkill, but it's an old habit.

Thanks for the tip!
Eric

--
For e-mail replies, please send to "thustar at yahoo dot com."
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