Photoshop 7.0 Freezes at Startup BEFORE Splash Screen

ML
Posted By
Michael_Lukas
Nov 23, 2003
Views
503
Replies
10
Status
Closed
When I try to run Photoshop 7.0, a blank gray window appears like it normally does before the splash screen appears. However no splash screen appears, and after a short while, the program ceases to respond. Since photoshop has not successful run before, there’s no prefs file to delete, so I can’t try the ctrl-alt-shift solution. Has anyone else experienced/solved this problem?

Photoshop worked fine until I installed Acrobat (upon which the problem above began to occur). Acrobat had trouble running, in fact I never got it to successfully run. It would freeze shortly after startup (I’d get maybe 10 seconds to do something, then it would crash). So I uninstalled Acrobat, and Photoshop still did not work. So then reinstalled Photoshop as well. No dice. It still hasn’t worked, even after several reinstallations. I even tried system restore and a repair boot with XP, got all my updates, then tried reinstalling it again with no luck.

BTW my system is a P4 2.8 GHz, 512 MB of RAM running XP, so I doubt system specs are the issue here, especially since it ran fine before.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

CW
Colin_Walls
Nov 23, 2003
Do a reset prefs [see FAQ]. This normally fixes this kind of thing.
ML
Michael_Lukas
Nov 23, 2003
Alright well I figured out the problem, and it has a somewhat interesting solution. It was the prefs, however what was throwing me off was that the .psp file was not called "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 prefs.psp" it was some random hidden file on another partition of my machine that actually was left over from my first install when I screen captured an image and saved it. For some reason the file was saved as a .psp, and when I deleted this file, photoshop started. So maybe this might help other people who are having the same problem.

Oh also, while this solution at least allows photoshop to start up, it starts up way slower than normal, and there still is no splash screen.
CW
Colin_Walls
Nov 23, 2003
Do a ctrl-alt-shift on start up – just after you click the PS icon. Then accept the prefs delete.
ML
Michael_Lukas
Nov 24, 2003
I’ve tried that as well as manually deleting the prefs file again- no success.
DM
dave_milbut
Nov 24, 2003
do you have a network printer assigned that’s offline?
ML
Michael_Lukas
Nov 24, 2003
Funny you should mention that, because I do have my computer set up to print to the printer in the commons facility at my college. I just set the default printer on my machine to be my desktop printer instead, and now the splash screen appears again and it starts way faster. I can’t believe that was the problem. Why would a network printer interfere?
P
Phosphor
Nov 24, 2003
Blame Gates’s minions.

It’s always good for a laugh.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Nov 24, 2003
For some reason the file was saved as a .psp

Since you stated that it resulted from a Screen Capture, could it be that it was a Paint Shop Pro-file?

I have some here too, but they were never kidnapped by PS as pref-files. Rob
ML
Michael_Lukas
Nov 25, 2003
Hmm I do have Paint Shop Pro, but it’s version 4 which doesn’t create files with that extension. I actually believe the file was from an even longer time ago when I had downloaded the school’s version of 6 or 5. The filename wasn’t too descriptive (but it definitely was’t Adobe Photoshop 7.0 prefs.psp, or anything close). This whole thing is pretty crazy, I have no clue how some random .psp file could be confused as the prefs file, or how network printers could interfere. No viruses either, even.
CC
Chris_Cox
Nov 25, 2003
The default printer is queried during startup. If the printer can’t be found – it could hang for a while. If the driver is bad, it could cause a crash.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections