Preview app keeps crashing and strange grids on screen

[Emilyanne]

Desperately need some help as I fear my iMac is dying and I really need it for work! For 3 days I have had wierd black grids appearing all over my desktop, they normally seem to 'snap to' whatever I have open on my desktop (there is one around this webpage as I type) but they also appear in blank e-mails and on word documents. I've taken a screengrab (attached.)

In addition for 2 days my preview app crashes every time I try to view a PDF in it. I pasted the below from my console:

Aug 4 15:42:05 Macintosh-2 crashdump[211]: Preview crashed
Aug 4 15:42:06 Macintosh-2 crashdump[211]: crash report written to: /Users/emilymiller/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Preview.crash.log
Ignoring Quickdraw drawing between QDBeginCGContext and QDEndCGContext
Ignoring Quickdraw drawing between QDBeginCGContext and QDEndCGContext
Aug 4 16:00:54 Macintosh-2 crashdump[232]: Preview crashed
Aug 4 16:00:54 Macintosh-2 crashdump[232]: crash report written to: /Users/emilymiller/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Preview.crash.log
Aug 4 16:01:07 Macintosh-2 crashdump[234]: Preview crashed
Aug 4 16:01:07 Macintosh-2 crashdump[234]: crash report written to: /Users/emilymiller/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Preview.crash.log
Aug 4 16:01:10 Macintosh-2 crashdump[236]: Preview crashed
Aug 4 16:01:10 Macintosh-2 crashdump[236]: crash report written to: /Users/emilymiller/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Preview.crash.log


I am assuming these two wierd things are related as they started happening at same time but not sure - I am very technically challenged so would really appreciate some help please!

 

[xraydoc]

Is it only Preview that is crashing and causing the problems, or are other apps doing it as well? Which machine do you have?

It might be helpful to do a MacOS "Archive and Install" to reinstall a fresh copy of the MacOS and preserve your documents and apps. Do a Google search if you're unsure of the process. Make sure all your files are backed-up (should have backups, regardless, really).

Which version of MacOS are you running? Looks like 10.4 from the screen shot.

As for the black boxes, check your Universal Access settings - something might have been turned on by accident.

 

[Emilyanne]

It's an Imac 5,1 with 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. And its Mac OS X 10.4.11. Thanks so much for the reply I will have a look. And yes only Preview that's crashing at the moment - any ideas of how to fix?

 

[bolen]

It's an Imac 5,1 with 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. And its Mac OS X 10.4.11. Thanks so much for the reply I will have a look. And yes only Preview that's crashing at the moment - any ideas of how to fix?

Could you provide us with the content of the logfile? /Users/emilymiller/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Preview.crash.log

 

[Emilyanne]

Xraydoc I owe you, went into my universal settings and turned something from on to off and all the problems are gone!! Thank you sooooo much!

 

[blinkin182]

Xraydoc I owe you, went into my universal settings and turned something from on to off and all the problems are gone!! Thank you sooooo much!

I also thought of Universal Access settings when seeing that black box. I've witnessed similar problems on a computer and an iPhone when some random universal access settings was switched on (maybe by a combination of key presses..) and it was very difficult to get the settings turned off (especially on the iPhone, as the zoom was turned on and moving around the screen was very difficult).

Anyway, glad your problems are fixed!