Photoshop Crashing on JPGs and GIFs

"G-Man13" wrote:

Greetings all!

I am running Photoshop 7.0 on Windows 2000. I have a noticed that when I try to open JPGs and GIFs from various sources (downloads, from a digital camera, created from other formats in Photoshop), Photoshop closes without any error messages – it just disappears.

I also noticed that when I try to access the folders containing those files in Windows Explorer, I get the following error message: Explorer.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."
I presume the problems are related. Can anyone tell me what might be causing this? How can I access the error log? Is this a Photoshop or a Windows problem?

Did you run chkdisk recently? I’d do this at the very beginning. Then I’d try to open the files with IrfanView. If this works, they can be saved as Tiffs from there.

Peter

G-Man13 wrote:

I also noticed that when I try to access the folders containing those files in Windows Explorer, I get the following error message: Explorer.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."

Open a folder with images that doesn’t cause the error. Right-click on an image and choose Properties… – do you see a Photoshop tab at the top? If so, uncheck the Thumbnail checkbox in there.

The problem in that case would be psicon.dll from Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell, possibly left over from a previous installation of Photoshop 6.

Andrew

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have run a couple programs that are supposed to do thinks like fix PC problems, I’ve run the Windows utilities to do the same, I’ve defragged, etc. Nothing seems to have done the trick.

I’m not sure what you mean by opening the files in IrfanView? What’s that and how would I do it? The problem is that when I try to open the file folders that contain the files, Photoshop just disappears – I don’t even have the chance to see anything in the dialog box window. Same thing with Windows Explorer, which makes me think it has something to do more with Windows than Photoshop.

Gordon

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the reply. I will try that. I did have Photoshop 6.0 on there before I got 7, so that’s a possibility. Since I also have the problem in Windows Explorer, I’m trying to pin this problem down to if it’s in Photoshop or in Windows2000.

Gordon

In article , gbond1967
@yahoo.com says…

Greetings all!

I am running Photoshop 7.0 on Windows 2000. I have a noticed that when I try to open JPGs and GIFs from various sources (downloads, from a digital camera, created from other formats in Photoshop), Photoshop closes without any error messages – it just disappears.

I also noticed that when I try to access the folders containing those files in Windows Explorer, I get the following error message: Explorer.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."
I presume the problems are related. Can anyone tell me what might be causing this? How can I access the error log? Is this a Photoshop or a Windows problem?

Many thanks in advance!

Gordon

Gordon,

I’m on W2K-SP4 and have gone from PS5, all the way to CS2, with straight installations of the upgrades, keeping the older version(s) on the machine, until I knew the newer version very well. I still have PS7, CS & CS2 on that machine. First, I’ve never had any of the problems, that you indicate, however that doesn’t help you.

For starters, one poster advised trying to open the offending file(s) in Irfanview. It is a freeware program for viewing and editing image files. I have it, but usually rely on other similar programs, if I have a problem with a JPG. PS is very fussy about JPGs and will only open ones that meet ALL of its criteria. Other viewing/editing programs are not so fussy – Irfanview, for one. Since you are having problems in PS AND WinExplorer, I’d get another, non-Adobe, non-MS viewing program. Irfanview would be a good choice, especially as it is free. See if this other program has a problem, or maybe will throw an error message to help you.

Next, I’d first open PS, and from the File>Open menu, try one of the files. You might just get an error message then. Any info might be of some help in tracking this problem down.

The _icon.dll file has actually be "recommended" for adding back into the system to view thumbnails of image files in later versions of PS. To date, I have not heard of anyone having a problem with it, though that, in no way indicates that it is NOT causing your problem.

In WinExplorer, you might try setting you View to Details for ALL folders, before trying to open the folder with the troublesome files. See if that will work to at least get a view of the folder’s contents. If the problem is with something relating to the thumbnails, if WinExplorer is trying to create the thumbs-database file, that may cause it to shut down. If it is only showing the Details, you might get past that glitch.

Aside from the defragging, which will usually halt on corrupt files or folders, and tell you to run CHKDSK, you might want to run it, by itself, with the Fix All Errors box checked. CHKDSK appears for all of your drives in the Tools area, IIRC. Norton Disk Dr is another good program for finding and repairing corrupt files. CHKDSK, however is already on your system, and does a good job. If you got Defrag to run, you probably don’t have a problem here, but it might be worth a look.

Let us all know what you find and good luck,
Hunt

Hunt wrote:

The _icon.dll file has actually be "recommended" for adding back into the system to view thumbnails of image files in later versions of PS. To date, I have not heard of anyone having a problem with it, though that, in no way indicates that it is NOT causing your problem.

OK, here’s a problem with it: if the path is too long then psicon.dll crashes explorer.

Andrew

In article , says…

Hunt wrote:

The _icon.dll file has actually be "recommended" for adding back into the system to view thumbnails of image files in later versions of PS. To date, I have not heard of anyone having a problem with it, though that, in no way indicates that it is NOT causing your problem.

OK, here’s a problem with it: if the path is too long then psicon.dll crashes explorer.

Andrew

Got ‘ya. Thanks for the clarification.

Hunt

Thanks for the replies to my question. And thank you Andrew for apparently nailing it! I right clicked, went to Properties, found the Photoshop tab and deselected the thumbnail checkbox. Thus far, I have been able to view the previously offending files in both Explorer and Photoshop without crashing.

It was an easy enough fix, but should I be concerned about the cause creating any future problems down the road? Is there a way of fixing that or should deselecting Thumbnail be enough?

Thank you!
Gordon

G-Man13 wrote:

Thanks for the replies to my question. And thank you Andrew for apparently nailing it! I right clicked, went to Properties, found the Photoshop tab and deselected the thumbnail checkbox. Thus far, I have been able to view the previously offending files in both Explorer and Photoshop without crashing.

It was an easy enough fix, but should I be concerned about the cause creating any future problems down the road? Is there a way of fixing that or should deselecting Thumbnail be enough?

You could rename psicon.dll to, e.g., psicon.dll.old and see if anything breaks. If something breaks, just name it back.

Andrew

"Andrew Morton" wrote in message

Hunt wrote:

The _icon.dll file has actually be "recommended" for adding back into the system to view thumbnails of image files in later versions of PS. To date, I have not heard of anyone having a problem with it, though that, in no way indicates that it is NOT causing your problem.

OK, here’s a problem with it: if the path is too long then psicon.dll crashes explorer.

Andrew

yes I installed the psicon.dll on 2 comps with CS so I can see thumbnails of the psd format in windows explorer, have not had any problems with it, but also don’t use really long paths either. Nice to know that is the reason. It seemed stupid to be for newer versions to lose functionality and compatibility with windows. I hate the crappy browser in PS and never use it much, the thumbnails take forever to generate every time you open a folder even if it’s previously cached.