Photoshop Locking Up

[Merlin]

Hi,

I've got a problem with Photoshop 7.0 locking up one one computer. It happens every time as the file size grows - say, when using the airbrush tool or doing some texture or something like that. The weird thing is, I have it on two computers both with clean XP installs, both of them 2.4G Celerons both have 512M ram, the only difference is that one machine has the video onboard and the other one has an AGP card.

The machine with the onboard video is the one that locks up all the time.

I looked on the the Adobe site but I didn't find anything about required video memory etc - do you think that this might be the problem?

Any other ideas for what could be causing the lockups?

I've already tried deleting the prefs etc

Thanks,

[Firefoxx]

Onboard video really shouldn't affect something like Photoshop, but you can try downloading and installing the latest motherboard, video, audio, etc drivers. Perhaps there's a bug in the drivers.

[slimdog]

The problem is that you do not have enough memory..

As you correctly pointed out one of your computers has an integrated video, what this means is that the 60mb or so of video memory is being "stolen" from your total memory of 512mb which is not leaving you enough to run a graphic intensive program like Photoshop.

The problem will be compounded if you are running many other applications in the background, like anti-virus software which tends to "steal" more memory.

In the short term you could try shutting down unnecessary applications (This doesn;t always work, because sometimes the programs don't "Release" the memory), but in the long term you need to either buy another agp card (Which comes with it's own memory), buy more RAM or buy both.

Hope this helps

[waldwolf]

Merlin - When Photoshop is first opened, you will note it loads a considerable number of plug-ins, for things like brushes, fonts, etc..

While the problem your seeing may be releated to memory (or lack thereof), I would be more inclined to look first at possible damage to one or more plug-ins within Photoshop itself. While you didn't indicate one way or the other, I have the impression everything had been working OK for some time, and your current problem just sort of "popped up" all of a sudden.

Have you recently installed any non-Adobe Photoshop plug-ins, such as Alien Skin's "Eye Candy" or Kodak's "Digital Sho"?

In the long run, if the problem persists, you may want to consider re-installing Photoshop itself. That should eliminate any "plug-in" damage question(s).

cheers

[Khun Jean]

The problem is that you do not have enough memory..

As you correctly pointed out one of your computers has an integrated video, what this means is that the 60mb or so of video memory is being "stolen" from your total memory of 512mb which is not leaving you enough to run a graphic intensive program like Photoshop.

The problem will be compounded if you are running many other applications in the background, like anti-virus software which tends to "steal" more memory.

In the short term you could try shutting down unnecessary applications (This doesn;t always work, because sometimes the programs don't "Release" the memory), but in the long term you need to either buy another agp card (Which comes with it's own memory), buy more RAM or buy both.

Hope this helps

You think when you talk about something you don't know anything about helps? Please this is a load of BS.

60 Mb of video memory?? 512-60 not enough?? All the other remarks, amazing!!

If you not have enough memory, virtual memory is used. This will make things slow to very slow. Sometimes it seems Photoshop is locking the machine but actually it is working very hard. Try having a taskmanager open with the performance tab open. There you can at least get an indication of what is happening.

If your computer really locks, unfortunately many things can be the cause. You can check if it is a faulty memory chip by swapping memory from one computer to the other and see if the problem stays. Video drivers can be wrong or buggy, be sure to have the latest from the manufacturer. You say the only diffrence is the video, but i suspect it is a completely different motherbord with likely a different chipset. Check drivers for your motherbord too.

I would do waldwolf suggestions first.

This can be really difficult to trace, good luck.

[waldwolf]

Further to my earlier comments, two additional thoughts come to mind.

While quite rare, there is a possibility one of your ram chips has developed a defect (failed). View the ram count on bootup and look for any error message(s).

Secondly, and even rarer.....have you done a hard drive ScanDisk lately? If not, do so. It is remotely possible you may have developed a small sector or cluster defect on the HDD platter used by Windows "virtual memory". The surface scan should detect this problem and either notify you or automatically repair (lockout) the affected area. A follow-on defrag would also be adviseable.

[penzman]

Forget the hardware problems , try the following.

Increase the size of "scratch disks" in Photosop.

Worked for me.

File menu, select Preference and select Plug-ins & Scratch Disks.

Hop this helps.

[slimdog]

Quote

"You think when you talk about something you don't know anything about helps? Please this is a load of BS.

60 Mb of video memory?? 512-60 not enough?? All the other remarks, amazing!!"

No Problem

No further posts

cu slimdog

[waldwolf]

.....Please this is a load of BS.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Khun Jean - Please....such remarks are not helpful.

Everyone has something to contribute, when it comes to helping a fellow member.

Thanks.

[penzman]

Someone is simply asking for help.

Please try to be constructive, not destructive.

Last I heard, there is no prize for the person coming up with the winning solution.

[Merlin]

ok guys thanks for all the responses.

Some things to think about.

to address a couple of points that have been raised:

* it's 32M of ram that's being grabbed for the video - which is the max choice available [8, 16 or 32]

* no plugins have been installed on either machine - I just simply ran the install prog direct off the CD...

* I've been running it just fine one one computer for a while now, but just put it on the other one. It's a fresh clean install of XP [and Photoshop]...

* It's a real lock-up - the cursor freezes, no response to kbd or the three finger salute. I have to reset, usually with a disk check on the reboot. I've checked the CPU temp and fan rpm etc - all fine.

* it's only Photoshop that causes the lockup - the machine will run Winamp and Word and Outlook etc all day just fine.

* There's only one memory chip - a Kingston, only a couple of months old.

* The scratch disk is D:, and it has about 18G free...

I'm thinking of trying a reformat and reinstall of XP and then only Photoshop [i've read a couple of reports on the web about things like realaudio causing problems], but really I'm not holding much hope... I may have to resort to buying a video card.

Edited April 20, 2005 by Merlin

[Crushdepth]

I'd suggest just reinstalling Photoshop first...if that doesn't work then maybe look at reinstalling windows later (I suspect you won't need to go that far though).

One other thing to consider - is the CD / CD reader you installed off damaged or dirty (or a Pantip special) ? May be worth installing off another copy in case that one is a dud.

[Khun Jean]

Sorry about that, i have to be more diplomatic or just shut up, just trying to help and signal some wrong information.

If after a clean install it still not works i would suspect your memory. Memory can seem to work for days,weeks, months without problems until you run a program that uses a lot. The change of every bit of memory being used is larger with big programs as Photoshop. And if memory faults are there it will usually freeze your computer for apparantly no reason.

There are many other reasons this can happen, a sensitive power supply that responds badly to spikes on the mains can be one of them. I have installed a filter that takes out the spikes and it helped me get rid of some strange behaviour.

A faulty diskdrive, cdrom even a usb port can be a cause of problems.

I guess you already started with a clean install. From there on you should try to run it with minumum of periperals attached, disconnect cdrom,floppy disks, modems, printers etc. At least when the problem still occurs you know it is not in those parts. Check your BIOS setting, is your CPU overclocked or other timing set to tight. See if you can set everything to default, that should be the best setting to start with.

Then swapping memory with your other computer if possible. check again. still fails, try to disable your on board video and use the video card from your other computer. Do everything in small steps so you can pinpoint the problem.

Good luck.

[waldwolf]

Merlin - From your most recent post:

- I do not believe the problem involves your video card its memory size or lack thereof. (I have PS running on an older machine with a two (2) MB on-board video memory and 256MB main memory. No problems, except is does run a wee bit slow. )

- While you may not have added any "foreign" plugins, Photoshop has tons of them which are installed as part of the main program. For example, each of the FILTERS you use (such as "Sharpen") utilizes a plug-in.

From the new information you've given us, I am fairly certain your problem was introduced at the time PS was first installed. There could be a hundred reasons as to how and why it happened (interference from an antivirus or antispyware utility), but whichever, I think you need to uninstall and reinstall Photoshop.

If you go this route, it is vital you shutdown all running programs shown in the "Close Program" dialog box, except Explorer, before begining the installation process.

Whatever you decide, please post back your findings. Good luck.

cheers

[Merlin]

well. I think I've exhausted the software possibilities.

I had a little break from it - real life intervened from my computer time for a few days - but since then I've:

* swapped ram modules twice

* deleted the prefs file etc

* deleted Photoshop and reinstalled it.

* check all sorts of BIOS options - including loading the failsafe defaults and the turbo defaults. Tried various combinations of video ram size/shadow memory etc. Checked the cpu not overheating/fans rpm all ok etc.

* reloaded the video driver [the current one was already the latest one]

* reformatted the drive and reinstalled XP and then *only* photoshop...

still the same...

btw for testing purposes I put the exact same XP and Photoshop on my old Thinkpad - a 600M machine with 256M ram, and it worked fine. So that makes 3 machines with no problem, only this one with the video on the motherboard...

so I guess I'll have to throw some money at the problem

Edited April 29, 2005 by Merlin

[waldwolf]

.......So that makes 3 machines with no problem, only this one with the video on the motherboard...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I assume the "problem" computer has an AGP slot.

Have you tried removing the AGP video card from your other computer and installing it in the "problem" computer?

That should answer any question about onboard video being the problem.

cheers

[sniffdog]

If Photoshop fails, it is usually a memory problem. You might say that it ran fine with a 256m machine, but are the circumstances the same?

- Try to have only Photoshop running

- Tweak 'Memory & Image Cache' by lowering the cache levels and Memory Usage.

This will make your system slower, because it relies more on your scratch disks.

One way to notice that PS fails because of memory issues if your application screen goes white ....

Try different versions of Photoshop .... If you use CS, go down to PS 7 ... etc.

[Merlin]

well I took the AGP card out of this machine and put it in the "problem" machine - no change. Also I took the cache level down to 64M and that didn't fix it either.

So I gave up and took it to a shop - let's see what they come up with...

[Merlin]

just a followup for those who may be interested:

they replaced the motherboard - it's working fine now...

[Abandon]

Interesting - what was the motherboard before, and after ?

BTW there is a known issue with XP SP2 causing photoshop to freeze, but if memory serves (my memory ) it is with the 64 bit system only ...

I would hazard a guess that it was not the motherboard that was at fault, but some setting that got corrected when Windows and the hardware drivers were re-installed.