Build 5604 /OS X 10.5.2-Greyed-out Menus

I've installed and uninstalled Parallels Desktop 3.0, build 5600 and then 5604 after installing the initial version from disc. In all cases when I launch the software and then use ANY of the menu items, all menu items turn from active (black) to inactive (grey) and nothing works at all. Quitting the Program, restarting the Mac, reinstallation from CD/DVD followed by new install of 5604 build, etc - all tried to no avail.

The software installed correctly at first, but I had to uninstall and start over for various reasons - after that, it stopped working on the reinstalls.

It would seem that I need to dig more deeply into the system core of the computer to eliminate ALL residual information that Parallels may have installed at some previous time, but leaves resident on the disk in the uninstall process. How can I COMPLETELY remove all evidence that it was ever installed so I can start with a clean slate?

 

Try this:
http://kb.parallels.com/en/4790

 

Thanks. I will. The computer is not even two weeks old, but anything's possible. I give it a go.

 

The Disc Utility found nothing to repair. It verified both the disc and the permissions.

 

Are you using Spaces, or used and disabled, please enable them back and check maybe Parallels Desktop is on another space?

 

Spaces

Thanks, John. I am not using Spaces and have never set it up for use. I have not need for it and have never used it. If Parallels can make use of Spaces on its own, perhaps then I should explore this. Is that possible?

I've uninstalled Parallels as completely as I can using the uninstall utility. Are there residual components of it that I can eliminate? There seem to be because when I reinstalled from the disc, which installs a version from June 2007, it automatically identifies itself as last modified 05 June 2008. In other words, it seems to be finding something related to build 5604 that was NOT removed in the uninstall process.

I suspect that if I can completely clean my hard disk of ALL remnants, and then reinstall, this problem might go away. Incidentally, I gone through the instruction set at the command level, but that didn't seem to help at all - all files identified were already removed.

 

Please try this article http://kb.parallels.com/en/4790

 

Try this...

John - thank you again, but I've tried that already and it had no effect. The files in terminal mode were shown to already have been eliminated. Someone else on the Forum suggested this same link to me on Sunday. Have you any other suggestions?

 

If menu grayed it means Parallels started and I suppose you cannot see Parallels Desktop application Windows, but you can see icon in Dock , what can you see when you click and hold mouse button on icon in Dock, I mean in popup menu?

 

John - the main menu, the one found at the top of the screen is NOT gray - File, Edit, etc are all black, as they should be. It's when I select a sub-menu item below any of these, such as File>New, or Help>Register Software that the problem begins. At first the sub-items are normal (black), but as soon as one is selected, it -and all others - goes gray and nothing happens.

 

When you select File new, can you see second Parallels icon in Dock?

 

When I select File>New, nothing happens except that the 'New' part goes gray when I let it go. Again, the software is no longer installed, so I can't really test it again. I'm simply recalling the repetitive problem that was occurring.