HELP! Photoshop zaps my computer

J
Posted By
Joe
Mar 7, 2005
Views
778
Replies
19
Status
Closed
Something weird recently started happening in Photoshop. Whenever I try to use the paintbucket to fill a layer with some color, the computer either hangs (cursor and everything), get a black screen (none of the power buttons respond, I actually have to hit the switch on the back of the computer), or reboots.
I tried to reinstall photoshop and I put on the newest video drivers while I was at it, but no change. So I thought great, my video card must have failed. So I removed it and used the onboard Intel VGA instead, but it still happens! My only other idea is to reinstall windows, but that is such a pain in the butt and I’d like to avoid it if possible. This is keeping me from doing my work. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks. Joe

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J
Joe
Mar 7, 2005
So I just tried to use the paintbrush tool to get around the problem, but as soon as the last pixel gets filled in, the same thing happens!
T
tg416
Mar 7, 2005
In article <nxPWd.6340$>, "Joe" wrote:

Something weird recently started happening in Photoshop. Whenever I try to use the paintbucket to fill a layer with some color, the computer either hangs (cursor and everything), get a black screen (none of the power buttons respond, I actually have to hit the switch on the back of the computer), or reboots.
I tried to reinstall photoshop and I put on the newest video drivers while I was at it, but no change. So I thought great, my video card must have failed. So I removed it and used the onboard Intel VGA instead, but it still happens! My only other idea is to reinstall windows, but that is such a pain in the butt and I’d like to avoid it if possible. This is keeping me from doing my work. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks.

Joe,

Could you specify a few things?

1.) What version of Photoshop you’re running.
2.) What sort of PC you’re running (RAM, CPU, etc.)
3.) What kind of video card you’re using.
4.) What version of Windows you’re running.

Also, have you attempted to contact Adobe about this problem? If not, have you had a look at their website? It might be a problem that others have had as well.


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http://www.extremezone.com/~anamorph/aboutme.html
"I don’t get mad… I get stabby." – Fat Tony
E
edjh
Mar 7, 2005
Joe wrote:
Something weird recently started happening in Photoshop. Whenever I try to use the paintbucket to fill a layer with some color, the computer either hangs (cursor and everything), get a black screen (none of the power buttons respond, I actually have to hit the switch on the back of the computer), or reboots.
I tried to reinstall photoshop and I put on the newest video drivers while I was at it, but no change. So I thought great, my video card must have failed. So I removed it and used the onboard Intel VGA instead, but it still happens! My only other idea is to reinstall windows, but that is such a pain in the butt and I’d like to avoid it if possible. This is keeping me from doing my work. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks. Joe
Have you tried trashing Preferences?


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T
Tacit
Mar 7, 2005
In <nxPWd.6340$> Joe wrote:
Something weird recently started happening in Photoshop. Whenever I try to use the paintbucket to fill a layer with some color, the computer either hangs (cursor and everything), get a black screen ( none of the power buttons respond, I actually have to hit the switch on the back of the computer), or reboots.

Can’t help you with the computer problem, except to say that this sounds like bad RAM. However:

Photoshop is not like other image editing programs. This is very hard for some newbies to grasp, but the Paint Bucket tool is not a fill tool. If you want to take a selection and fill it with color, you do not use the Paint Bucket tool to do it.

The Paint Bucket tool is a combination of the Magic Wand and the Fill command. When you click with the Paint Bucket, it looks at the color fo the pixel you clicked on. Then it expands outward in all difrections, filling as it goes, until it hits an area of different color, where it stops. It does what you would do if you first click with the Magic Wand, then use the Fill command.

Let’s say you just want to fill an area with color. You don’t use the Paint Bucket tool for that. The part that makes it confusing for newbies is you don’t use *any* tool for that. To fill an area with color after you’ve selected it, you hold down the ALT key on your keyboard, and press the Delete key.
S
SCRUFF
Mar 7, 2005
"Tacit" wrote in message
In <nxPWd.6340$> Joe wrote:
Something weird recently started happening in Photoshop. Whenever I try to use the paintbucket to fill a layer with some color, the computer either hangs (cursor and everything), get a black screen ( none of the power buttons respond, I actually have to hit the switch on the back of the computer), or reboots.

Can’t help you with the computer problem, except to say that this sounds like bad RAM. However:

Photoshop is not like other image editing programs. This is very hard for some newbies to grasp, but the Paint Bucket tool is not a fill tool. If you want to take a selection and fill it with color, you do not use the Paint Bucket tool to do it.

The Paint Bucket tool is a combination of the Magic Wand and the Fill command. When you click with the Paint Bucket, it looks at the color fo the pixel you clicked on. Then it expands outward in all difrections, filling as it goes, until it hits an area of different color, where it stops. It does what you would do if you first click with the Magic Wand, then use the Fill command.

Let’s say you just want to fill an area with color. You don’t use the Paint Bucket tool for that. The part that makes it confusing for newbies is you don’t use *any* tool for that. To fill an area with color after you’ve selected it, you hold down the ALT key on your keyboard, and press the Delete key.

That said, how would you do the same with an opacity applied? The paint bucket tool?
J
Joe
Mar 7, 2005
Thanks for the help everyone.
I ran memtest on my computer overnight and it made 12 passes without error, so that should rule out bad RAM. The preferences were wiped when I reinstalled photoshop, so it can’t be that either.
I know how paintbucket works, and clicking once with it seems faster to me for filling empty areas than making a selection and the pressing two keys. However, your method did it without resetting my computer! So thanks for that Tacit . Nonetheless, I still have a paintbucket problem. At least now I can finish my work and then I can wipe out windows after.

Here are my specs: (but like I said it was working fine before) -Intel P3-800, 512MB SDRAM on a A-Bit mainboard with i815 chipset -nVidia Riva TNT2 video card
-Windows XP Pro SP2
LK
Laura K
Mar 7, 2005
"Joe" wrote in news:UJ2Xd.8578$:

The preferences were wiped when I
reinstalled photoshop, so it can’t be that either.

The Preferences file wasn’t wiped out with a reinstall. You have to go in and manually delete it from where it’s stored on the computer. http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/312917.html
Check your caches and make sure they’re clean.
Another real possibility is spyware/adware/malware on your computer. I got infected with this sometime ago and it kept crashing Illustrator, even though I wasn’t connected to the internet at the time. I expect it’s because they infect IE.
There are several free programs that will fix that problem and keep it fixed. I use Adaware, Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster.
The first line of defense is HijackThis! which will tell you what you’ve got and help you clean it.
You can download everything here:
http://computercops.biz/downloads.html
Getting rid of this stuff can be a long and tedious process. There’s help in the forums at that site. Few antivirus programs protect against the nastiest adware/malware.
J
Joe
Mar 7, 2005
YES YES YES! Thank you. I’m not sure if it was cleaning out the malware or erasing the prefs, but it works fine now thanks. It’s so weird that it would cause the system to hang so irretrievably.

"Laura K" wrote in message
"Joe" wrote in news:UJ2Xd.8578$:

The preferences were wiped when I
reinstalled photoshop, so it can’t be that either.

The Preferences file wasn’t wiped out with a reinstall. You have to go in and
manually delete it from where it’s stored on the computer. http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/312917.html
Check your caches and make sure they’re clean.
Another real possibility is spyware/adware/malware on your computer. I got infected with this sometime ago and it kept crashing Illustrator, even though
I wasn’t connected to the internet at the time. I expect it’s because they infect IE.
There are several free programs that will fix that problem and keep it fixed.
I use Adaware, Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster.
The first line of defense is HijackThis! which will tell you what you’ve got
and help you clean it.
You can download everything here:
http://computercops.biz/downloads.html
Getting rid of this stuff can be a long and tedious process. There’s help in
the forums at that site. Few antivirus programs protect against the nastiest
adware/malware.
T
Tacit
Mar 8, 2005
In Scruff wrote:
That said, how would you do the same with an opacity applied? The paint bucket tool?

Nope. To fill with opacity applied, hold down the Shift key instead of the Alt key on the keyboard and press Delete. A dialog will appear asking you to choose a color overlay mode and an opacity.
S
SCRUFF
Mar 8, 2005
"Tacit" wrote in message
In Scruff wrote:
That said, how would you do the same with an opacity applied? The paint bucket tool?

Nope. To fill with opacity applied, hold down the Shift key instead of the Alt key on the keyboard and press Delete. A dialog will appear asking you to choose a color overlay mode and an opacity.
Bueno, grassyass!
J
Joe
Mar 15, 2005
It’s doing it again.
🙁

"Joe" wrote in message
YES YES YES! Thank you. I’m not sure if it was cleaning out the malware or erasing the prefs, but it works fine now thanks. It’s so weird that it would cause the system to hang so irretrievably.

"Laura K" wrote in message
"Joe" wrote in news:UJ2Xd.8578$:

The preferences were wiped when I
reinstalled photoshop, so it can’t be that either.

The Preferences file wasn’t wiped out with a reinstall. You have to go in and
manually delete it from where it’s stored on the computer. http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/312917.html
Check your caches and make sure they’re clean.
Another real possibility is spyware/adware/malware on your computer. I got
infected with this sometime ago and it kept crashing Illustrator, even though
I wasn’t connected to the internet at the time. I expect it’s because they
infect IE.
There are several free programs that will fix that problem and keep it fixed.
I use Adaware, Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster.
The first line of defense is HijackThis! which will tell you what you’ve got
and help you clean it.
You can download everything here:
http://computercops.biz/downloads.html
Getting rid of this stuff can be a long and tedious process. There’s help in
the forums at that site. Few antivirus programs protect against the nastiest
adware/malware.

LK
Laura K
Mar 15, 2005
"Joe" wrote in news:IPtZd.39910$:

It’s doing it again.
🙁

clean it out again. Make sure you’ve got the latest security updates if you’re running IE.
J
Joe
Mar 15, 2005
I did the same thing as last time … ran spybot S&D to clean it out (even though it only found cookies) and erased all photoshop prefs, and it still does it. This is really frustrating.

"Laura K" wrote in message
"Joe" wrote in news:IPtZd.39910$:

It’s doing it again.
🙁

clean it out again. Make sure you’ve got the latest security updates if you’re running IE.
J
Joe
Mar 15, 2005
I tried a different method, and selected all in a layer, then pressed alt+delete to fill it with a color. I then changed the opacity to about half, because I want the background layer to partially show through. Then I tried to change the image size and it reset again. What did I ever do to anyone to deserve this :S

"Joe" wrote in message
It’s doing it again.
🙁

"Joe" wrote in message
YES YES YES! Thank you. I’m not sure if it was cleaning out the malware or erasing the prefs, but it works fine now thanks. It’s so weird that it would cause the system to hang so irretrievably.

"Laura K" wrote in message
"Joe" wrote in news:UJ2Xd.8578$:

The preferences were wiped when I
reinstalled photoshop, so it can’t be that either.

The Preferences file wasn’t wiped out with a reinstall. You have to go in and
manually delete it from where it’s stored on the computer. http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/312917.html
Check your caches and make sure they’re clean.
Another real possibility is spyware/adware/malware on your computer. I got
infected with this sometime ago and it kept crashing Illustrator, even though
I wasn’t connected to the internet at the time. I expect it’s because they
infect IE.
There are several free programs that will fix that problem and keep it fixed.
I use Adaware, Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster.
The first line of defense is HijackThis! which will tell you what you’ve got
and help you clean it.
You can download everything here:
http://computercops.biz/downloads.html
Getting rid of this stuff can be a long and tedious process. There’s help in
the forums at that site. Few antivirus programs protect against the nastiest
adware/malware.

J
Joe
Mar 17, 2005
The magic wand tool is doing it too now
E
evilfish
Mar 18, 2005
Have you thought that it might be a power supply issue?

Photoshop is quite a power hungry piece of software when it comes to processor usage and so if you’re working on a large image, with a large resolution doing even simple sounding tasks like filling a large area or resizing the image (bearing in mind it is doing bicubic calculations during that) can put a lot of load on the machine.

A sudden power loss can cause a restart or the system to freeze, mine has done this in the past when i was running a game and you can often tell when there is a larger power drain on a PC since the tone of the fans can change.

Check your power supply and what’s the size and resolution of the image?

This may not have happened in the past but it can happen now due to it suddenly giving up this could have caused some damage.

Anyway just a thought ^_^
J
Joe
Mar 19, 2005
Wouldn’t that mean that there would be power loss every time the CPU usage hits 100% ? That happens fairly often during the course of normal computer usage. The image was 1600×1200 pixels.

"TeKK" wrote in message
Have you thought that it might be a power supply issue?

Photoshop is quite a power hungry piece of software when it comes to processor usage and so if you’re working on a large image, with a large resolution doing even simple sounding tasks like filling a large area or resizing the image (bearing in mind it is doing bicubic calculations during that) can put a lot of load on the machine.
A sudden power loss can cause a restart or the system to freeze, mine has done this in the past when i was running a game and you can often tell when there is a larger power drain on a PC since the tone of the fans can change.

Check your power supply and what’s the size and resolution of the image?

This may not have happened in the past but it can happen now due to it suddenly giving up this could have caused some damage.

Anyway just a thought ^_^
E
Elizabeth
Mar 19, 2005
Have you thought that it might be a power supply issue?

Photoshop is quite a power hungry piece of software when it comes to processor usage and so if you’re working on a large image, with a large resolution doing even simple sounding tasks like filling a large area or resizing the image (bearing in mind it is doing bicubic calculations during that) can put a lot of load on the machine.
A sudden power loss can cause a restart or the system to freeze, mine has done this in the past when i was running a game and you can often tell when there is a larger power drain on a PC since the tone of the fans can change.

that’s true; I loaded a 54mb image last night, added a hue/saturation adjustment layer, and the lights dimmed on 4600 homes in my area …
H
Hecate
Mar 20, 2005
On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 07:16:25 GMT, "Elizabeth" wrote:

that’s true; I loaded a 54mb image last night, added a hue/saturation adjustment layer, and the lights dimmed on 4600 homes in my area …
If you’re using a Pentium 4 Extreme I can believe that… 😉



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