Preferences option on menu is acting weird

Hi there! This is my first time around here and hope you can help me. My Cinnamon menu “Preferences” options is not running many of the system configuration applications, i.e. Display, Desktop, Effects, etc. I get either no response or a spinner with a lifespan of 30 seconds and nothing happens afterwards. Thanks for your kind answer!

P.S. Dmesg throws the following:

[ 2241.342400] audit: type=1105 audit(1629228464.916:90): pid=2923 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=3 subj==unconfined msg=‘op=PAM:session_open grantors=pam_limits,pam_unix,pam_permit acct=“root” exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=/dev/pts/0 res=success’