It's the equivalent of the old Clean Install on OS9 isn't it, so you can rescue any particularly import app pref files and whatnot? Certainly wouldn't pull anything OS related out of it tho'.

Well, archive and install didn't work

But I think I've sussed it... without going through all the gory details, it would seem that Shades was the culprit, which I was running as a more convenient way to control two monitors.

The system also starts a lot faster and generally feels a bit "snappier"... I'll give it a while and try running Shades again, a brief attempt seemed to indicate that quitting it and restarting might have been sufficient.

I suppose having the graphics drivers update whilst it was still running could have got it confused?

did you use software update ?

i always download the combo update after issues, with previous updates.

bs0d.

Yes, I always use software update, and install all the updates as they occur even if they don't look particularly relevant to what I use.

In this case, it seems as though something in either 10.5.6 or 10.5.7 can break the way Shades works when you've got two monitors. Since I've stopped using it, nary a hint of trouble...