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Question

Image Capture Extension - Problem

Sep 26, 2011 8:38AM PDT

Using 2.8 GHz iMac and OS 10.6.8 I have developed a problem that seems to have stumped Apple at the AppleCare and the Engineers levels. Certain application launches lead to the Image Capture Extension running and progressively consuming all CPU use to the point that the Mac becomes useless. Other processes continue, but take longer and longer to execute. Simply clicking a file has no effect for minutes. Same for moving windows or any other Finder function. Certain applications will not run at all. Filemaker Pro 9 and 11 hang after their banner appears. iPhoto quickly slows to the point of not responding. Using Activity Monitor to spot the problem and using Quit Process to stop Image Capture Extension will restore some functions, but it will not reverse the fatal effect on FileMaker, iPhoto, and some other applications. The Apple engineers are still working on this, but it seems weird that with the problem identified they can't provide a solution, and I've been living with it for weeks as each AppleCare session leads to more referrals back to the Engineers and days of waiting for the expert to get back to me.
Has anyone had a similar problem??? Does anyone have a suggestion???

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I wonder if other accounts do that.
Sep 26, 2011 11:22AM PDT
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Image Capture Extension
Oct 1, 2011 5:08AM PDT

No other accounts do not. This is very much a User level problem. In fact, creating a new User resolves the problem UNLESS you use the same user name. My problem there is I have years and years of User stuff that I can't transfer easily to a new User. I'm disappointed that I've found other users going back to 2008 who have encountered the problem-even on Apple's site-and yet they have been unable to help so far. They've been thorough, patient, and seems to care, but to no avail. I'm now waiting yet again to "hear from the engineers."

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If it is a user account problem
Oct 1, 2011 10:14AM PDT

maintenance should be done. Cleaning caches, cookies, etc. Onyx, TinkerTool System, etc. If there is a preference of Image capture in your user library, I would try to trash it and see if this helps. If the extension relates only to browsers, I would then try getting browsers application support files (users>yourname>library>application support) from the new to the old account. That cured my problem with browsers not playing flash on some sites that no other maintenance routine could remedy.

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Transferring to another account
Oct 1, 2011 11:42PM PDT

is fairly easy, albeit time consuming.

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Answer
Fix that works
Nov 8, 2012 1:55AM PST

Per this apple forum, the fix that worked for me was the remove the Lexmark Scanner file in
/Library/Image Capture/Devices

I know this is an old thread, but it is the first that shows in a Google Search, so I figured it would be good to link to a usable solution that is less intense than the other solutions in this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4140218?start=0&tstart=0