Problem with Mac Help Viewer

[aaroc357]

I am a recent Mac convert and I was trying to use the Mac Help and the search and links on the first page don't seem to work. I tried the other help files for Safari and what not and they seem to work fine. I pulled up the Console to see if I could figure anything out and this is what is says when I click on any of the links on the Mac Help.

2005-12-22 17:34:29.143 Help Viewer[210] Uncaught exception - *** End of archive encountered prematurely at 400
2005-12-22 17:34:29.143 Help Viewer[210] *** Attempt to remove unrecognized exception handler 0xbfffdd20

I tried rebooting and it still doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

We've all been on holiday !

Are you still having problems ? If so what version of OS X are you using ?

Regards

Ric

 

[aaroc357]

I've gotten a little further but not much. I got some help from another site that had me delete some files

~/Library/Preferences/
com.apple.helpviewer.plist
com.apple.help.plist

and

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui/

After doing that I was able to get any of the links on the first page of Mac OS Help but once there none of the links in the sub categories worked. If I quit the help program then I am back to where I began and can't get past the first page without removing those files.

I am using OSX v10.4.3

Hope you had a Merry Christmas, have a good new year.

 

[Ric]

Apologies again, and Happy New Year !

First try and create a new user !

See if the mac help viewer works in that.

Can I just check, did you delete the directory ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui/

That one normally works ;-)

Let me know how you get on with the new user account...it may be time for an Archive and Install...this sometimes fixes the relevant problems a lot quicker.

regards

Ric

 

[Max63126]

HI , having the exact same problem running OS X 10.4.3

I tried the above solutions and still the links after the first page don't respond. Other apps seem fine when using help viewer..

Any solutions yet?

 

[Ric]

Hi Max63126 and welcome !

So if I have understood correctly...

...all the links in the image below work, but once you have clicked on any of them the links on the next pages don't work ?

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

Also can you both open Help Viewer and then go to the about "Help Viewer" in the menu bar and let me know what version you have ?

regards

Ric

 

[bimbachi]

hello to all,
I'm having the exactly the same problem running OS X 10.4.3
new powebook g4
I already did all sugestions above
no result

 

[Ric]

Hi there bimbachi and welcome !

what version is your Help Viewer ? (and the bit in brackets)

regards

Ric

 

[aaroc357]

You are correct on both things.
That was a directory that I deleted
and...
the links on the image you posted work, but once on any next page they don't. That is only right after those files/directory are deleted. If I quit help and open it back up I can't even get past the first page again.
My help viewer version is. 3.0.0 (144.1)

 

[Ric]

Hi aaroc357

a few more things to try...

These are in no order.

1) Boot from your OS X Install CD/DVD and run the Disk Utility to repair the disk and permissions.

Then reboot and try again.

2) Download Pacifist and re-install the Help Viewer Application from your install DVD.

(if you go down this route I'll give you a couple of screengrabs to help along the way)

regards

Ric

 

[Max63126]

Same version here, Version 3.0.0 (144.1) And today when I tried to open it, I didn't even get to the first page (the one you posted Ric) like i did before.

Today it's blank! Tiger 10.4.3 Imac G5

 

[bimbachi]

hi,
my help version is 3.0.0 (144.1) and loged as new user help works?

Hi there bimbachi and welcome !

what version is your Help Viewer ? (and the bit in brackets)

regards

Ric

 

[bimbachi]

I went through all cleaning again
Cleaning cache - solved problem
Thank you all
And specially Ric

 

[Ric]

Glad it worked for you,

no problem !

regards

Ric

 

[pvandenberk]

Hi all,

Just a quick thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread: I had similar "Help Viewer" problems (where I couldn't view the "TextEdit Help", neither from "TextEdit > Help > TextEdit Help" nor from "Help Viewer > Library > TextEdit Help")... removing the "~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui/" cache directory solved the problem for me.

Regards,

pvandenberk

PS - I got slightly different error messages in the console; I've copied them below so that other's can find this most useful thread through their favourite search engine:

2006-02-01 10:03:17.375 Help Viewer[18964] *** NSRunLoop ignoring exception '*** End of archive encountered prematurely at 399' that raised during posting of delayed perform with target 37e260 and selector '_setupTOC'
2006-02-01 10:03:21.370 Help Viewer[18964] *** End of archive encountered prematurely at 399

--

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

Glad you got it working.

Thanks for the error post, I'm sure Google will pick it ! (It seems to be my friend at the minute ;-))

regards

Ric