Freezing, whitening menus – solution: disable Hyper-Threading from Bios

AH
Posted By
Aki_Hartikainen
May 23, 2005
Views
1021
Replies
14
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Closed
Hi all,

I am technician from a company who builds custom notebook computers. A few months ago we went fully SP2 for Win XP Pro.

Since then we have received complaints about Photoshop 7 or CS not working properly but freezing and menus going white demanding one to kill the process. Other programs seem to work fine. Freezes occur especially with paint and selection tools.

I could reproduce the problem on many notebooks with Ati Mobility Radeon 9700. Updating the drivers didn’t solve the issue.

However, disabling Hyper-Threading from Bios solves this issue fully. I can now use Polygonal Lasso Tool as before (SP2) and the program (Adobe Photoshop CS) performs as it should.

I’m still investigating potential negative issues caused by disabling HT but the biggest one so far seems to be the need to install Windows from scratch.

I’d appreciate a patch but it seems perhaps only certain models with atleast SiS chipset, Ati Mobility Radeon and/or certain Bios revision are affected.

I’m not sure if this fix has already been posted but I did a quick search and noticed several posts about the same issue and the suggested fixes weren’t helping.

Hope somebody finds this helpful.

Aki Hartikainen, System Designer
Eurozoom Ltd.
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DM
dave_milbut
May 23, 2005
I’m still investigating potential negative issues caused by disabling HT

how about crippling machine performace.

read about it and find out what it does:

< http://www.intel.com/techtrends/technologies/hyperthreading. htm?iid=search&amp >;

if you’re building custom systems that are locking in XP or win2k you’re using (or causing?) faulty hardware. xp and win2k are process isolated systems (that should NOT be run without a scratch file… see msdn for info on that myth). process isolated means that an errant application CAN NOT lock up or crash the operating system to a dead halt or reboot. they’re "isolated" from each other and the operating system so that if an app goes down, the rest of the system remains stable. driver errors cause blue screens in xp or win2k. usually the only things that can cause a complete lockup or reboot are faulty hardware or a bad bios setting (and hyperthreading on AIN’T a bad setting, it’s the standard for an HT enabled processor).

summary: if you’re getting lockups on multiple machines under xp or win2k, you’ve either purchased and are building with faulty/cheap hardware or you’re doing something very wrong, like not using anti-static protection while building or carrying the mainboard around on a carpet while wearing socks.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s the way it is.

hope this helps, dave
AH
Aki_Hartikainen
May 23, 2005
It’s Photoshop CS that freezes, other applications are working fine. SP2 made this problem surface. Before installing or using SP2 even Photoshop CS was working fine. I can reproduce this by simply making a clean Win XP Pro SP2 install and just Photoshop CS.

When the freeze occurs, right after using a selection tool like Polygonal Lasso, Photoshop CS stops responding. If I wait for awhile it may recover at first but usually not at the second time. Palettes turn white and the program stops responding. I can kill the process and continue using the computer so it’s just Photoshop that is freezing.

Please do a search on this forum using ‘Ati’ and ‘freeze’ and you’ll see this exact problem mentioned by several users. A notebook computer is also mentioned a few times.

I’ll continue investigating this with the system vendor. It’s possible a new bios or chipset driver is required or a Photoshop CS patch (my guess right now because other applications aren’t affected).

Aki Hartikainen
KP
Ken_Pratt
May 23, 2005
Hi Dave,

I have a new Acer Travelmate 8104 which came with XP Pro pre installed. It has a Pentium M 760, the Intel 915 chipset, ATI graphics and 1 gig DDR2 memory. When I loaded CS2 it would look like it had started normally but as soon as I clicked on any menu item the menus, toolbar and pallets would turn white and the system would appear to hang. Upon inspection, with task manager, the process Photoshop.exe was listed twice and one instance was showing 99% cpu loading. When the process was stopped windows worked fine so it was an application level problem. CS worked fine as did all my other Microsoft and Adobe applications.

The work around was to do a clean install from one of my Windows XP home disks using all the Acer supplied drivers.

No luck so far with getting anyone to take responsibility but Microsoft seemed to let me activate XP home on two machines I am glad to say.

I sure hope someone can eventually find the answer.

Regards,
Ken
DM
dave_milbut
May 24, 2005
It’s Photoshop CS that freezes, other applications are working fine.

it’s photoshop that’s bringing the problem to light. no other app on your system pushes it like photoshop. including all the top end 3d renderers. for years ps has been a benchmark for performance and a troubleshooter for techs.

I can kill the process and continue using the computer so it’s just Photoshop that is freezing.

that’s different than what you said in other threads, unless i’m mistaken (wouldn’t be the first time <g>). didn’t you say in another thread that the whole machine was freezing causing you to reboot? if not i apologize for the instructional tone of my post, but hopefully it’ll help someone else.

something just struck me… lasso tool. cs freezes in photoshop ONLY. seems to behave with hyperthreading disabled. have you installed the cs multiprocesor plugin/patch that’s available from the adobe photoshop download area?
DM
dave_milbut
May 24, 2005
ah, aki, here’s where the confusion started… from your other post in someone elses thread:

Aki Hartikainen, "Photoshop causes PC to Freeze-hang." #9, 23 May 2005 7:35 am </cgi-bin/webx?14/8>

Here’s a fix that works: disable Hyper-Threading from bios.

Unfortunately this might mean installing Windows altogether but I tested it and it definitely works.

I can now use Polygonal Lasso Tool just as before (SP2).

that thread was about a machine that was completely freezing. since you didn’t mention otherwise and said that was a fix, i assumed (apparently incorrectly) that you were having the same problem. my apologies.

try the multiprocessor plugin if you haven’t already.

dave
AH
Aki_Hartikainen
May 24, 2005
Thanks for the suggestions,

I tried the multiprocessor update and also tried installing Windows XP Home but the results remained the same, Photoshop CS freezes and remains unusable. I am, however, able to use Photoshop 5LE without difficulties on this setup even with SP2 and with HT enabled.

As of now the workarounds for this problem are:

– Disable Hyper-Threading from bios or
– Revert back to SP1

Both allow using Photoshop CS on this setup without problems.
CC
Chris_Cox
May 24, 2005
Which just means that your machine has a bad CPU or a bad driver (that doesn’t like hyperthreading).
AH
Aki_Hartikainen
May 24, 2005
"Which just means that your machine has a bad CPU or a bad driver (that doesn’t like hyperthreading)."

Dozens of computers actually. Let me be even more spesific:

Win XP Pro w/SP1 – Photoshop CS works flawlessly
Win XP Pro w/SP2 – Photoshop CS unusable (PS 5LE continues to work)

Please do a search using ‘Ati’ and ‘freeze’ on this forum. You’ll notice it’s not just our computers but there are several posts reporting the same problem.
DM
dave_milbut
May 24, 2005
Please do a search using ‘Ati’ and ‘freeze’ on this forum. You’ll notice it’s not just our computers but there are several posts reporting the same problem.

aki, please read your photoshop splash screen. you’ll notice chris is a photoshop engineer. 🙂
AH
Aki_Hartikainen
May 24, 2005
That sounds great, let’s try to isolate this problem. It’s clearly a software problem but where? SP2 makes it surface and many machines are affected.

On Photoshop CS I can select Polygonal Lasso Tool and start making a selection. After a few mouse clicks the program stops responding. If I click again all palettes turn white. Sometimes the program recovers itself after awhile, perhaps a few seconds or a few minutes, sometimes it doesn’t. But if I try to continue using Polygonal Lasso Tool same happens again rendering Photoshop CS unusable on this setup.

There’s hardly any processor activity during the freeze.

This does not happen with Photoshop 5LE but I can use Polygonal Lasso Tool to make a selcetion as I wish.

The notebook model is quite popular D47V or D48EV from Clevo, sold under various different brands. Because of this it is difficult to make good searches on this issue.

I’m working on this and will be contacting all the vendors about this problem.
AH
Aki_Hartikainen
May 24, 2005
This is interesting, I just installed Photoshop CS2 demo version.

I have been using it for awhile now and the freezing is gone completely. It’s lightining fast on our notebook computers with 3 ghz P4 and 1 gb DDR.

Whereas Photoshop CS is unusable on this set-up (SP2 installed, HT enabled), CS2 seems to be a performer.

I’ll continue testing before giving the final word on this issue (hopefully).

There’s lots of frustration and time wasted on this one. If it seems that we have to buy bugfixes I, for one, am not going to be happy about it.

That’s what we have been doing with Adobe Premiere Pro.
IL
Ian_Lyons
May 24, 2005
Aki,

Did you ever download and install the Multiprocessor update for Photoshop CS? See the following thread:

<http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@@.3bb40adb>

Edit:

forget it.. seems like you’ve been there and done it
EH
Ed_Hansen
May 24, 2005
Aki, just a wild guess. Since your problem only occurs with SP2 did you try playing with the ‘data execution prevention’ settings?
Turn it off completely or exclude Photoshop. This worked on a computer I was having problems with.
CC
Chris_Cox
May 24, 2005
If it is the same cause on other computers, you might be right.

But that still leaves just the video drivers as the likely culprit.

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