CS3 continually locks up

JimmyG wrote:

Photoshop CS3 continually locks up on me.

I am currently running CS3 under Vista. This exact problem occurred while running under Windows XP. When I try to "save-as" any open image in CS3, the save-as window flashes on screen for about a tenth of a second, then my title bars gray-out. Clicking on anything is fruitless, & the only way to close the program is through Windows Task Manager.

I have spent HOURS on the phone with both Photoshop and Microsoft support. After deletion & reinstall of CS3, the problem persisted.
Microsoft had me try modifying the startup files in MSCONFIG with no success. They then had me create a new profile in Windows. Under the new profile I was able to use CS3 successfully.until the program proceeded to duplicate the above behavior.

I bought a new camera, new computer & am running a new operating system, Vista. This problem has persisted.

Virus scans have been negative.

I get a great deal of enjoyment and piece of mind out of taking pictures. This has brought that to a screeching halt.

Please, .I need no comments on how bad Vista is, or how annoying Symantec problems are, or other peanut gallery comments. I don’t need any "RTFM" comments. "Switch to Apple" comments are not of any help (Although I’ve considered that). All I really need is considerate, thoughtful help and direction.

Thank you for your help.

I have also asked Adobe about problems in installing parts of the suit without any success. So don’t feel bad. 🙂

My suggestions would be make sure you have all the updates, secondly make sure you have sufficient RAM allocated to the application.

Other than that my only problem I had, was having a screen saver, loading up into the memory and crashing PS.

What happens when you want to "save as" – but prior to this you purge the memory.? Edit > Purge > All – will that work??

If you do come across an explanation lets know.

r

Purge is a grayed-out option.

I get the problem when I first open Photoshop and have not done any actions at all.

It isn’t a RAM problem, I have 4gb and plenty allocated to CS3, but thanks so much for your effort.

Jimmy
I have been running Photoshop CS3 on XP since release and now have a new PC machine running it under Vista (home premium) with zero problems under both OS’s. Can you list for both operating systems the hardware configurations (number and size of hard drives, you say the Vsta m/c is 4GB, graphica card, how much ram is allocated to Photoshop) and other software you are running at the same time (anti virus, e-mail and internet access for example).

When you save as screen stays on the screen for a fraction of a second is this before or after you put in a save as file name and click save?

Do you actually have space to store the files on your hard disk (including any swap space Photoshop may temporarily create).

Have you tried leaving the system with greayed out menu for 15 minutes to see if it eventually clears.

malcolm

Thanks for the reply, Malcolm:

I had been running CS3, CS2, etc for quite a while before all this started, & with no real problems.

My user profile is undoubtedly becoming corrupted somehow, as creating a new one seems to be the only fix.

I have a significant allocation to thee scratch disk (Can’t check right now as it’s locked up again & I’m trying your other suggestion to leave it alone for a while). Over 50% of RAM was allocated to CS3. My h/do is a 35gb with about 250gb open space.

I have the same problem if I am have no other open programs. However Norton 360 (Probably involved in this somehow) is running in the background.

This has happened on two different machines now, each with different OS. I have 2 h/do’s, a 250gb for my OS, & a second 250gb hd where my photos reside. I run Norton 360 for virus, Outlook for mail and MSIE 7 for internet. This was on both machines on which my problems arose.

NOW I’m getting networking problems & internet connection problems in which I have to disable & enable stuff before Vista somehow miraculously fixes it all.

This is really depressing.

My wife thinks I should sell it all & switch to Apple.

I’m tempted, but refuse to take the $$$$ hit.

Thanks again,

Jimmy

Jimmy

I had a problem a few versions ago (CS I thinl) where photoshop ran extremely slowly and I believe that at the time there was a problem with the amount of swap and scratch space on my disk and lowish ram allocation on XP. the system would seem to stop and if I clicked on anything the menus went gray (as it was still completing a task) but if I waited long enough the task finished and the menus came alive again. From what you say this doesn’t seem likely in yoyr case. I fixed my problem by spreading the disk accessing over three disks and allocating more ram.

I could imagine that saving could get very slow if there were insufficient ram working space combined with lack of disk space but eventually it would complete the task hence my suggestion to wait 15 min to see what happens. In your case do the disk activity lights show activity when the problem occurs ( or if no lights can you feel accessing vibrations or even disk accessing noise)?

when you talk about your user profile what do you mean – is it photoshop preferences ?

Are thjere any hardware components used between both systems? for example do you use the same keyboard or mouse on both systems?

With network problems too Nortons could be a suspect – on my two new Vista machines I have nortons 360 installed without a problem – they were installed by the machine supplier so I don’t have any knowledge of what could have gone wrong at installation (ie installation choices but it would have had to be done at installation on both of your machines).

don’t know if any of this rambling helps – Malcolm

The strange thing about your problem is that it is hapening on both machines with different OS’s!
"JimmyG" wrote in message

Thanks for the reply, Malcolm:

I had been running CS3, CS2, etc for quite a while before all this started, & with no real problems.

My user profile is undoubtedly becoming corrupted somehow, as creating a new one seems to be the only fix.

I have a significant allocation to thee scratch disk (Can’t check right now as it’s locked up again & I’m trying your other suggestion to leave it alone for a while). Over 50% of RAM was allocated to CS3. My h/do is a 35gb with about 250gb open space.

I have the same problem if I am have no other open programs. However Norton 360 (Probably involved in this somehow) is running in the background.

This has happened on two different machines now, each with different OS. I have 2 h/do’s, a 250gb for my OS, & a second 250gb hd where my photos reside. I run Norton 360 for virus, Outlook for mail and MSIE 7 for internet. This was on both machines on which my problems arose.
NOW I’m getting networking problems & internet connection problems in which I have to disable & enable stuff before Vista somehow miraculously fixes it all.

This is really depressing.

My wife thinks I should sell it all & switch to Apple.
I’m tempted, but refuse to take the $$$$ hit.

Thanks again,

Jimmy

"JimmyG" wrote in message

Thanks for the reply, Malcolm:

I had been running CS3, CS2, etc for quite a while before all this started, & with no real problems.

My user profile is undoubtedly becoming corrupted somehow, as creating a new one seems to be the only fix.

I have a significant allocation to thee scratch disk (Can’t check right now as it’s locked up again & I’m trying your other suggestion to leave it alone for a while). Over 50% of RAM was allocated to CS3. My h/do is a 35gb with about 250gb open space.

I have the same problem if I am have no other open programs. However Norton 360 (Probably involved in this somehow) is running in the background.

This has happened on two different machines now, each with different OS. I have 2 h/do’s, a 250gb for my OS, & a second 250gb hd where my photos reside. I run Norton 360 for virus, Outlook for mail and MSIE 7 for internet. This was on both machines on which my problems arose.
NOW I’m getting networking problems & internet connection problems in which I have to disable & enable stuff before Vista somehow miraculously fixes it all.

This is really depressing.

My wife thinks I should sell it all & switch to Apple.
I’m tempted, but refuse to take the $$$$ hit.

Thanks again,

Jimmy

I had that very issue and previously posted the solution. Start CS3 and reset all user preferences. I am to lazy right now to go to the help file, but the key sequence is there. (Also in a prior post of mine.) This is NOT a Vista issue, but a corruption in your preferences file.

HTH

—
Peter

"JimmyG" wrote in message

Photoshop CS3 continually locks up on me.

I am currently running CS3 under Vista. This exact problem occurred while running under Windows XP. When I try to "save-as" any open image in CS3, the save-as window flashes on screen for about a tenth of a second, then my
title bars gray-out. Clicking on anything is fruitless, & the only way to close the program is through Windows Task Manager.

I have spent HOURS on the phone with both Photoshop and Microsoft support. After deletion & reinstall of CS3, the problem persisted.
Microsoft had me try modifying the startup files in MSCONFIG with no success. They then had me create a new profile in Windows. Under the new profile I was able to use CS3 successfully.until the program proceeded to duplicate the above behavior.

I bought a new camera, new computer & am running a new operating system, Vista. This problem has persisted.

Virus scans have been negative.

First a few things you didn’t mention, that might help, in order of usefulness.

o Peter’s idea of resetting the prefs is spot on, (to do this, BTW, hold down ctrl-alt-shift while Photoshop starts).
o You don’t mention the event log – use the event log viewer (Start>Programs>Admin Tools>Event Log Viewer) to check for any system errors that coincide with the Save As dialog failing.
o Make sure you have Adobe’s 10.0.1 patch installed.
o If you have carried any components (memory, disk, and yes, video hardware) over from your XP system, verify that they are in good shape by either swapping with known good parts, or running diags.
o See if you can get another fairly complex application – such as Word or another Office program – to fail. If you can (or cannot) get this to happen, this will provide a clue on the origin of the problem. o See if CS2, or an other older version of Photoshop, can be made to fail. o Look in goodies for any file related registry settings, and see if they have an effect.
o Remove any third party camera software, particularly for your older camera. The problem may be that your camera’s raw file processor is intercepting the Photoshop’s image preview function.
o Unlikely, but if you are installing any third party utilities that interact with your file system, try removing or deactivating them. o If you are using a remote drive, verify that the failure happens on a local drive. This is a common area for virus protection to cause a failure, when the remote system intercepts the file Photoshop is saving (during a rename operation).

Still no joy?. Besides checking the event log, as already mentioned, it may be possible to install the Vista checked build on your system. This is an instrumented version of Windows that provides additional debug and validation functionality. It is used by developers and can also be helpful in situations like this. It’s possible that the Vista checked build requires an MSDN subscription. If your old XP system is still available, I believe you can download the XP checked build free of charge (the following link worked when I tried it):
< http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a4 d8d12-9f5d-42bb-b31c-7b31657c869c&DisplayLang=en>–Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com

Try updating your videocard-drivers. It might help.
Maybe you have too much memory allocated to PS?
Your OS needs some (plenty) to work right too.
I’m just guessing here.

Turn Off Version Cue under preferences. Edit>Preferences>Interface

This is a frustrating and little known problem that I spent hours on.

On Dec 24 2007, 3:26 am, "Fred" wrote:

Try updating your videocard-drivers. It might help.
Maybe you have too much memory allocated to PS?
Your OS needs some (plenty) to work right too.
I’m just guessing here.

what does version cue do anyway?

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 15:35:43 -0800 (PST), xdogkevin
wrote:

Turn Off Version Cue under preferences. Edit>Preferences>Interface
This is a frustrating and little known problem that I spent hours on.

On Dec 24 2007, 3:26 am, "Fred" wrote:

Try updating your videocard-drivers. It might help.
Maybe you have too much memory allocated to PS?
Your OS needs some (plenty) to work right too.
I’m just guessing here.

"xdogkevin" wrote in message

Turn Off Version Cue under preferences. Edit>Preferences>Interface
This is a frustrating and little known problem that I spent hours on.

that’s a good suggestion but,
Err. Version Cue is under "file handling" not "interface" 🙂

—
Peter