Photoshop CS crashes a lot

P
Posted By
Papageno
Sep 10, 2004
Views
431
Replies
15
Status
Closed
I just got Photoshop CS, and now I regret it. It crashes a lot. Usually, it happens when I draw with the pencil tool, and I hold SHIFT to restrict the motion to horizontal-only or vertical-only.

It doesn’t crash every time I do that, but almost every time.

I’m running PSCS on a Dell 4600, P4 / 2.4 GHz / 533 MHz bus / 512 MB RAM / 30 + 40 GB drives.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

B
bmoag
Sep 11, 2004
You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space or competing for Windows system resources.

Get the latest drivers for your video card. Video card drivers are prime villains in many freeze/crash problems. The blurbs on the video card vendor sites only talk about updates that affect games so ignore them.

Check the memory and scratch disc settings for Photoshop. You may have to dial back the amount of RAM devoted to Photoshop and change the location of your primary scratch disc or free up space on the primary scratch disc. Defrag the partition that holds the primary scratch disc.

If you have SP2 installed consider uninstalling it (I believe SP2 automatically archives old system files, SP1 did not so uninstalling it could kill your system). Many computers run slower during CPU or memory intensive tasks after installing SP2. I would rather use CS than SP2, which does not really offer anything absolutely vital at this time.

You may also want to make sure that fewer programs are running in the background at the same time eating up those limited heaps and stacks that have only marginally changed from Win 3x to WinXP. Check what loads when the computer boots with MSCONFIG and shut off your virus program if you are not downloading from the internet while using PS. Norton AV in particular conflicts with many programs and can be a source of many problems; newer NAV versions are worse resource hogs than older versions, one reason even advertiser friendly computer magazines no longer rate NAV highly.

Getting more RAM will probably not solve your problem as 512 mbs should be enough for image files up to 100mbs if there are adequate free resources.
S
Swatch
Sep 11, 2004
bmoag wrote:
Check what loads when the computer
boots with MSCONFIG and shut off
your virus program

If you have Windows 2000 you can get
MSCONFIG here…

http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/msconfig.html

Swatch
T
TinyJohnsonn
Sep 11, 2004
it must be your computer, mine never crashes, Dell 4550 2.53ghz, 2 hard drives, 30gb virtual memory(D:), 180gb (C:) and 1024 ram, 128mb Radeon 9600 graphics card., keep your resolution at 72 dpi and jpeg at size 10 until your finished with the image
P
Papageno
Sep 11, 2004
I am reducing the % of memory allocated to Photoshop. We’ll see.

The drivers haven’t been changed. Photoshop 7 ran with no problems.

I don’t have SP2 … seems too risky.

I have few programs running. In any case, that would not be a reason for a crash. (If a crash were attributable to that, then it’s an O/S fault.)

"bmoag" wrote in message
You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space or competing for Windows system resources.

Get the latest drivers for your video card. Video card drivers are prime villains in many freeze/crash problems. The blurbs on the video card
vendor
sites only talk about updates that affect games so ignore them.
Check the memory and scratch disc settings for Photoshop. You may have to dial back the amount of RAM devoted to Photoshop and change the location
of
your primary scratch disc or free up space on the primary scratch disc. Defrag the partition that holds the primary scratch disc.
If you have SP2 installed consider uninstalling it (I believe SP2 automatically archives old system files, SP1 did not so uninstalling it could kill your system). Many computers run slower during CPU or memory intensive tasks after installing SP2. I would rather use CS than SP2,
which
does not really offer anything absolutely vital at this time.
You may also want to make sure that fewer programs are running in the background at the same time eating up those limited heaps and stacks that have only marginally changed from Win 3x to WinXP. Check what loads when
the
computer boots with MSCONFIG and shut off your virus program if you are
not
downloading from the internet while using PS. Norton AV in particular conflicts with many programs and can be a source of many problems; newer NAV versions are worse resource hogs than older versions, one reason even advertiser friendly computer magazines no longer rate NAV highly.
Getting more RAM will probably not solve your problem as 512 mbs should be enough for image files up to 100mbs if there are adequate free resources.
P
Papageno
Sep 11, 2004
I am reducing the % of memory allocated to Photoshop. We’ll see.

The drivers haven’t been changed. Photoshop 7 ran with no problems.

I don’t have SP2 … seems too risky.

I have few programs running. In any case, that would not be a reason for a crash. (If a crash were attributable to that, then it’s an O/S fault.)

With the % memory changed from 50% to 40%, I’m did not see a crash when drawing with the pencil tool. Well, it didn’t always crash before … I’ll have to exercise it for a while to see if the new setting is really helping. We’ll soon see. Thanks.

"bmoag" wrote in message
You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space or competing for Windows system resources.

Get the latest drivers for your video card. Video card drivers are prime villains in many freeze/crash problems. The blurbs on the video card
vendor
sites only talk about updates that affect games so ignore them.
Check the memory and scratch disc settings for Photoshop. You may have to dial back the amount of RAM devoted to Photoshop and change the location
of
your primary scratch disc or free up space on the primary scratch disc. Defrag the partition that holds the primary scratch disc.
If you have SP2 installed consider uninstalling it (I believe SP2 automatically archives old system files, SP1 did not so uninstalling it could kill your system). Many computers run slower during CPU or memory intensive tasks after installing SP2. I would rather use CS than SP2,
which
does not really offer anything absolutely vital at this time.
You may also want to make sure that fewer programs are running in the background at the same time eating up those limited heaps and stacks that have only marginally changed from Win 3x to WinXP. Check what loads when
the
computer boots with MSCONFIG and shut off your virus program if you are
not
downloading from the internet while using PS. Norton AV in particular conflicts with many programs and can be a source of many problems; newer NAV versions are worse resource hogs than older versions, one reason even advertiser friendly computer magazines no longer rate NAV highly.
Getting more RAM will probably not solve your problem as 512 mbs should be enough for image files up to 100mbs if there are adequate free resources.
TO
The Other Guy
Sep 11, 2004
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:01:38 -0700, bmoag wrote
(in article <mpx0d.14089$>):

You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space or competing for Windows system resources.

You need to get a Mac.
P
Papageno
Sep 11, 2004
"The Other Guy" wrote in message
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:01:38 -0700, bmoag wrote
(in article <mpx0d.14089$>):

You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space
or
competing for Windows system resources.

You need to get a Mac.

Never! 🙂
TO
The Other Guy
Sep 11, 2004
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 07:34:02 -0700, Papageno wrote
(in article <j0E0d.110378$>):

"The Other Guy" wrote in message
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:01:38 -0700, bmoag wrote
(in article <mpx0d.14089$>):

You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space
or
competing for Windows system resources.

You need to get a Mac.

Never! 🙂

Then you will never have a good system.
S
slippers
Sep 11, 2004
"The Other Guy" wrote in message
You need to get a Mac.
Why is it raining? I have an umbrella if that helps
JM
John McWilliams
Sep 12, 2004
Sl;ippers wrote:

"The Other Guy" wrote in message

You need to get a Mac.

Why is it raining? I have an umbrella if that helps
Ouuuufff. Many English speaking folks won’t get this ref to the mackintosh, a Brit sorta raincoat or overcoat that’s been weatherproofed a bit. The Beatle’s ref. to it was so long ago that many North Americans will miss the humor.


John McWilliams

"Um, his vocabulary, like, uh, really, ah……. sucked."
H
Hecate
Sep 12, 2004
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 06:55:05 -0700, The Other Guy
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:01:38 -0700, bmoag wrote
(in article <mpx0d.14089$>):

You are probably aware that these types of crashes are usually due to diffrent programs and drivers trying to write to the same memory space or competing for Windows system resources.

You need to get a Mac.

Big or Supersize?



Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui
SM
Steve Moody
Sep 12, 2004
In article , Swatch
wrote:

shut off your virus program

That’s good advice!
SM
Steve Moody
Sep 12, 2004
In article , The
Other Guy wrote:

Then you will never have a good system.

The Mac IS a better system, and he will have much less trouble with it – I know. I use Macs. However, telling him to get a Mac is not the way to answer. Let the Windows folks use their Windows. A smaller mac market is better.
SM
Steve Moody
Sep 12, 2004
In article , Tiny
Johnson wrote:

it must be your computer, mine never crashes, Dell 4550 2.53ghz, 2 hard drives, 30gb virtual memory(D:), 180gb (C:) and 1024 ram, 128mb Radeon 9600 graphics card.,

You can afford a nice computer….

keep your resolution at 72 dpi and jpeg at size 10
until your finished with the image

But you can’t afford a good Photoshop book?
H
Hecate
Sep 12, 2004
On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 08:30:26 -0400, Steve Moody
wrote:

In article , The
Other Guy wrote:

Then you will never have a good system.

The Mac IS a better system, and he will have much less trouble with it – I know. I use Macs. However, telling him to get a Mac is not the way to answer. Let the Windows folks use their Windows. A smaller mac market is better.

The Mac ISN’T a better system and I’ve used both.

Now we could argue about that forever. But why bother – the best computer system is surely the one that you are most comfortable with and which does the job you require it to do.



Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

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