Rick
How much RAM do you have? That would tell us a lot. Elements is a RAM hungry program.
My laptop is maxed at 256. It’s the most it will take.
rick
I also have an Compaq w/ AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz/256 MB RAM. I was getting crashes daily until I disabled the Photoshop Elements 2\Plug-Ins\Extensions folder. I just renamed the folder to ~Extensions. Apparently these plug-ins are Pentium specific accelerators and make our Athlons crash PE.
More info in Knowledge Base Article #328567. The article says to just rename one file in the Extensions folder, but someone on this list recommended renaming the Extensions folder itself, so that’s what I did. I have not had a crash since!
Patti
Thanks, Patti so much for your help!
I truly appreciate your responding. You’ve made my day!
I tried the renaming gig, but still have a crash every time.
I tried a quick fix to a photo to change the brightness and ‘wham’ blue screen, to black, then reboot. Ugh!
I’m going to unistall, disk defrag and install, then rename to see if this helps. Anyone have anything else to offer?
I got this version with a Canon SLR digital camera. Could that be the problem?
Geez, the thought of having to buy a computer just for a software program is incredible!
rick in houston
Rick,
How many megs are the images you are working with? I’m just wondering if maybe somehow you are mistakenly increasing the number of pixels to an astronomical number which is choking your computer. When I first got the program, I ran with 128 Meg RAM. It didn’t work efficiently, but I wasn’t crashing, so I think your RAM should be acceptable. (Of course on my new computer with 1 Gig RAM things fly along).
Rick,
More thoughts…this program requires a large measure of system resources including HD space in which to operate. This free space must be contiguous, therefore I suggest if you haven’t defraged lately, do it. Also, when running the program make sure all other programs are closed. In running with 128M RAM, I would routinely go to Edit>Purge>All during my editing session. This does not delete your image, it just frees up the memory for your next move (it does delete your history states however, so run that at a ‘satisfied’ point in your editing).
I can understand your frustration and don’t want to see you give up on this great program, between all the forum members I think we can get you running without crashing. But make sure your system is in tip top shape, housekeeping wise. Delete those Temp Windows files, Temp Internet Files, Cookies and History too.
Nancy
Rick,
Reading Nancy’s good advice I remember that when I was using windows (98se) on my old computer I would shut down everything by "sys tray" and "explorer" freeing system resources…. and it really helped.
Pete
For what it’s worth, I am using PE on a Compaq Presario 700Z laptop, 20Gg hard drive, XP Home, AMD 1.2 GHz Athlon 4 processor, 256MB RAM. I had crashes everytime I used PE (full version, not the trial).
I’ve kept track of what I’ve done so far, so maybe it will help…maybe it won’t.
At the suggestions of this forum (in this order):
1. I renamed/disabled the Extensions folder (as I told Rick in an earlier post). Tested several images, by using lots of layers and lots of adjustments. Nary a crash. However, it still seemed PE was sucking too much juice, because my laptop would get hot and the fans would kick on high.
2. In Edit>Preferences>Plug-ins & Scratch Disk: Since I only have C:\ drive, I left the Scratch Disk settings on the default which is "Startup." The only other choice in the drop down list is C:\ drive. BTW, it was Mikkel Aaland’s book that helped me understand why Startup is the default setting. I understand that I could use also use C:\ drive, but it would require defragging often.
3. In Edit>Preferences>Memory & Image Cache: Under Memory Usage, it says I have 213MB RAM available. The default setting for what PE uses was set at 50% = 103 MB. I increased it to 60% which equals 128 MB RAM. After doing this, PE runs smoother and doesn’t kick the fans on unless I am painting continuously without releasing the mouse.
I do make a point not to run other heavy RAM usage programs when working in PE. Although…I have been known to have CorelDraw 11 (or PhotoPaint) and PE open at the same time. 🙂
I am happy with the way PE runs now and have not had any crashes (knock on wood). I can only increase my RAM to 384MB on this Compaq, but I haven’t done that — yet. It’s getting harder to find RAM for these *antique* 1 1/2 old Compaq laptops. <grin> HP/Compaq does not carry them anymore. Next year I’m going for a new laptop anyway, so as long as this laptop works for me, I’ll just save my pennies.
Hope this helps in some way. Sorry the disabling the extension folder didn’t work for you too. Maybe someone on this list will find the solution that works for you. Did you read the Knowledge Base article? There were some other suggestions for frequent crashes as well.
Patti
Patti, you might try searching for RAM at either crucial.com or datamem.com. Both carry a wide range, and I didn’t have any trouble finding what I needed for a Dell Latitude and a Mac PowerBook, both of which are almost three years old. Prices are extremely competitive, and the companies are reliable. I used datamem, and I think others on the forum have used crucial.
