Keyboard Shortcuts Stop Functioning Properly After Long Use

MJ
Posted By
Milos_Johanson
Aug 22, 2006
Views
459
Replies
16
Status
Closed
I have noticed this annoying phenomenon at home as well as at work. The keyboard keys start behaving strangely while I’m working in Photoshop. For example, if I use the keyboard shortcut keys (brackets) to change the size of a brush, it will all of a sudden start flipping through the layers instead. Ctrl+S no longer “saves”…it performs a “save as” forcing me to save over the document. Eventually, they all start doing strange things and I have to just reboot the program or the computer to get it back to normal.

The problem usually starts after I’ve been using Photoshop heavily for a couple of hours. I usually have InDesign open at the same time, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not. InDesign doesn’t seem to be affected by this. Photoshop just seems to eventually break.

I’m using a legit copy of CS2. My home and work computers have different hardware specs, but they both have 2GB of RAM, RAID 0 hard drive systems, and Windows XP Professional installed. The keyboards are both standard Dell keyboards (not wireless).

Another thing to consider is that I’m usually listening to music with iTunes when this problem starts happening. I wonder if there is a conflict between iTunes and Photoshop? I’m going to try and work without iTunes open and see if the program breaks again.

I can’t be the only one having this problem because these two machines are completely different (even different manufactures). It has to be some sort of software conflict. Does anyone know why this is happening and if there is something I can do to fix it?
Related Tags
function key long proper shortcut stop use

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C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 23, 2006
As it is happening on both machines, it must be something common to both.

I would normally advise resetting the preferences (as per the FAQs) as a first line of action, but it would be too much of a coincidence in this case.

So maybe some other app is affecting the keystrokes – in which case your iTunes software might be the culprit.

Let us know your findings on this one.

Chris.
M
mgr33n
Aug 24, 2006
I’m running CS2 on Windows XP.

I often use the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+~" to select the highlight areas, a really useful feature.

Now, after launching Photoshop, this key combination works once but refuses to work a second time which is extremely annoying. I’ve only noticed the problem since updating to 9.0.1.

Any thoughts please?
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 24, 2006
I’ve only noticed the problem since updating to 9.0.1

Try updating to 9.0.2

….and I should try resetting the prefs too, just in case.
M
mgr33n
Aug 24, 2006
Thank you for those suggestions which I have tried, but again, the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+~" will not work after the first application.
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 24, 2006
What happens if you reboot and open only Photoshop. Make sure nothing else in running in the background either. If the problem doesn’t happen, load your other programs one by one until the culprit is found.

Also, did you actualy upgrade to 9.0.2? I notice you have posed the same question in another thread, referring to 9.0.1

Chris,
MJ
Milos_Johanson
Aug 24, 2006
Hi Chris,

Yesterday I used Photoshop by itself for about 4 hours straight and it functioned properly. The keyboard was fine the whole time. Then today, I opened iTunes to listen to some music while working and within 15 minutes Photoshop "broke" and I had to restart the program. I’m almost 100% convinced that there is a conflict between iTunes and Photoshop 9.0.1 or below. I’ll have to do more testing to see if the problem actually happens as a result of system overload and if it wasn’t iTunes, then it might be just the fact that other applications were open in general causing the system to become unstable.

I often have InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop open at the same time. Sometimes I even have Microsoft Word open too. However, it seems that iTunes really messes things up pretty fast when I launch it while using Photoshop.

I’m upgrading to 9.0.2 right now to see if this will fix the problem. I’ll test it again and post my results.

Thank you to everyone who has posted and sent me emails trying to diagnose the problem.
M
mgr33n
Aug 25, 2006
Hi Chris,

In response to your question, yes, I did upgrade to 9.0.2 and the problem persisted.

It’s interesting reading Milos’ message. I don’t use iTunes but often have other programs running whilst using CS2. The thing is, they are not any different from the ones I used before upgrading to 9.0.1 when the problem started to occur, so I believe that the upgrades from v9 may well have caused this problem and have so far not corrected it.

The one I particulary use a lot, "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+~" for selecting highlights is not available as a standard menu item. However, I have just added this key combination using the Edit/Keyboard Shortcuts feature and now I am able to use this shortcut repeatedly without having to quit CS2 and re-launch it.

I can’t see how to name that combination though so that it appears in the Select menu for example. I’d like to see an entry titled "Select Highlights", but at least the function is working now.

Thanks everyone for your help with this.
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 25, 2006
"Ctrl+Alt+Shift+~" for selecting highlights is not available as a standard menu item

It is, of course, available via the "load selection" icon in the channels palette.

Milos: It’s certainly looking like iTunes is the culprit. Yet, you’ve expected to see a lot more people posting about the problem.

Both: Just out of interest. How much memory do you have allocated to Photoshop in the Preferences? If this is set too high, any other apps can be starved of system resources causing the OS to page out to virtual memory. This in itself could possibly cause instability.
M
mgr33n
Aug 25, 2006
"It is, of course, available via the "load selection" icon in the channels palette."

Forgive my blindness Chris, but I just can’t see that. Could you please explain it a little more for me?
H
Ho
Aug 25, 2006
Hold down Cntrl and click on the RGB section of the Channels Palette.
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 25, 2006
Sorry – my shortened terminology.

The icon’s full name is "load channel as selection". Clicking this (with all channels active) gives exactly the same result as Ctrl+Alt+Shift+~, selecting everything above 50% grey (RGB147)

Chris.
M
mgr33n
Aug 25, 2006
Fantastic!

Which just goes to prove that after 10 years of constant use, there is still so much more to learn with Photoshop!

Many thanks.
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 25, 2006
There are always at least three different ways of doing anything in Photoshop 🙂
MJ
Milos_Johanson
Aug 25, 2006
chrisjbirchall wrote:
"Both: Just out of interest. How much memory do you have allocated to Photoshop in the Preferences? If this is set too high, any other apps can be starved of system resources causing the OS to page out to virtual memory. This in itself could possibly cause instability."

Hi Chris,

My memory preferences are set as follows.

Cache Settings
Cache Levels: 6

Memory Usage
Available RAM: 1757MB
Maximum Used by Photoshop: 55% = 966MB

Do you think I should change it?
C
chrisjbirchall
Aug 25, 2006
Do you think I should change it?

No. 55% should be alright with 2GB of RAM.

You could try lowering it to say 40% to see if that helps. Then jack it up in 5% steps until you find the "sweet spot"

Chris.
RD
Romy_de_Jong
Aug 9, 2007
I kinda have the same problem
But my keyboard shortcuts don’t seem to work at all.
I am using Photoshop CS 8.0

How can I get these shortcuts (like Ctr+Alt+Z etc.) to work?

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