PS Display Disappears

This is a new thread established at the request of Dave Milbut. The following is a summary of the pertinent parts of the dialog that occurred in another thread. It is duplicated here to provide background for the anticipated conversation to follow:
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PS 7.0 and 7.0.1 running under WinXP Pro. P4EE at 3.2 with 1 GB ram. -PS loads OK to clear screen
-using file/open loads picture of any size OK
-clicking screen background brings up directory segment for picture load selection (as it should) but
—as soon as directory text and icons are fully displayed, or —if directory is clicked before display is complete…

….entire PS display disappears, directory, program display & all. Background Windows screen remains OK after the disappearance.

On some occasions, computer was fast enough to display a ***Windows*** message saying that the application (i.e. the PS program) tried to write into low memory. This wasn’t consistent and I cannot get it to write this any time I want.

I can load the program by (double) clicking on a picture file and I can work on it, print it, save it…so long as I don’t try to click on the background to load a directory to select a new image. I don’t recall whether "Save As…" was a problem.

The "sister" program, Image Ready, had/has the same problem. I reset the PREFS and this didn’t affect it much and I still have the problem with no real solution in sight.

I have re-installed PS 7 and the 7.0.1 upgrade several times to no avail.

Could this be a virus? I use Norton/Symantec and upgrade the virus list frequently without any benefit, so far.

So, I’m stopped and I’m looking for another software solution at this point. I gotta get my work done. There’s a bunch of people getting madder and madder at me every day I don’t deliver.
———————————————————— ——————– dave milbut – 05:16am Jan 30, 2004 Pacific (#3 of 16) Edited: 30-Jan-2004 at 05:17am PST

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ok, not sure if i understand your question though. are you saying ps shuts down when you do a file open? or are you saying that the screen gets corrupted?

if just the screen, update your video drivers.

if ps is completely crashing, please answer the following:

how did you reset the prefs? crtl-alt-shift? did you get the dialog asking if you want to reset ps’s settings? answered yes?

what do you have your windows swap file set to? is it automatic or have you set a max size? if max size, set it to automatic (let windows handle it).

WHERE is your windows swap file? is the drive you have it set up on getting close to running out of space? how much space is left? same questions for PS’s scratch disk… is there enough free space left on the drive where you have the scratch disk? how much?

finally, no, it doesn’t sound like a virus. sounds like a program error we should be able to work out.

<snip>

dave
———————————————————— ——- Arnold Cherdak – 09:37am Jan 30, 2004 Pacific (#4 of 16) Edited: 30-Jan-2004 at 09:43am PST

<snip>

The screen does not get corrupted in the usual sense nor does PS shut down when a file is opened. The entire PS display "disappears" when I click the mouse button over the directory display from which PS wants me to select an image file to load. Sometimes the PS display disappears when the directory display finishes forming on the screen.

As an additional bit of evidence, a Windows dialog box sometimes opens with a message saying that the application tried to write into a very low memory address. The dialog has an OK button and as soon as I click the OK, the box and the PS display simply disappears. There are no after effects, no apparenr attempts by the system to recover. The system goes on as though PS was never loaded or operating.

(continued in next me