Please don’t turn my thread into a flame war… I have read the FAQ. Read my post. Actually, the files DO NOT EXIST. Like I mentioned, I have uninstalled and done a full, clean re-install. Photoshop did NOT load; even from the clean install. Therefore, is has "never" successfully loaded on this install, and therefore has no prefs file. I don’t even get to the splash screen, and it never "errors", it just hangs forever. Thanks.
ropay, first, please don’t post new problems in someone else’s thread, it confuses the regulars when we’re just trying to help! 🙂
comdlg32.dll
that’s a system dll. reinstalling the latest windows service pack should fix it.
justin, do you have view hidden files and folders turned on in explorer? (tools> folder options> view> hidden files and folders) if not you can’t see the prefrences file or directory.
have you ever gotten ps to run once? (on "this" install or any other previously?)
you said you installed over and old version. and old version of what? are you saying you installed cs OVER something like 7? that would cause major foul ups. each instance (version – 7, cs, cs2) is installed by default in it’s own folder structure.
describe the hang up. any error messages? system lock or just photoshop? how long have you waited for the system to become responsive before terminating or rebooting? anything in the system application error logs?
Please don’t turn my thread into a flame war… I have read the FAQ
calm down. tony’s just trying to help. we don’t know your experience level or system. we’ve heard many times here "i’ve deleted the prefs" when it’s actually not done. again, we’re not at your system and we ARE trying to help, so deep breaths my friend. tony (yrbkmgr) is one of the best volunteers here, he’s not berating you by asking questions. answer clearly and fully. don’t assume we know that you know what you’re doing. if you’ve done something, spell it out for us so we don’t waste your time and ours asking again. saying "i’ve read the faq" is kinda vague. there’s dozens of articles there.
saying the file doesn’t exist without clarifying if you have view hidden files on is also vauge, so please excuse us if we ask questions that may seem stupid to you if you’re an experienced user. we get everyone in here from grandmothers who just got their first pc, to systems engineers trying to figure out how certain calculations are done in photoshop. so please bear with us!
dave
Justin,
Like I mentioned, I have uninstalled and done a full, clean re-install.<<
The preference files are NOT removed by an uninstall. An uninstall can only remove files created by the installer, and the preference files are not created by the installer.
Justin,
To recap with Len and Dave had said, first, it’s not personal, it’s business <smile>.
Look. If you ever ran photoshop successfully, a prefs file was created. In order to see it, as Dave said, you need to set windows explorer to view hidden and system files.
As Len said, it is not installed or replaced with an install – it’s considered personalized information and is not touched.
Also, the first time almost everyone who has tried the keystroke technique to reset the preferences without having to dig for the file reports that it doesn’t work. It does, it’s a technique thing – you have to be quicker.
At the end of the day, you need to find your preferences file and delete it, or reset it with the keystrokes. If you cannot find the Prefe file, that tells us that you’re not looking in the right location or you don’t have explorer set properly to see it.
Once you confirm that you have found it and deleted it, if the problem persists, you’ll get a boatload of help here. But that’s the first thing you should do – reset your preferences.
Peace,
Tony
Ok, thanks to all who have provided advice. Let me go over what I’ve done so far:
March 05: Installed CS, it worked for many months.
Oct 05: CS stopped working while loading.
It freezes with just the PS window open and blank, no error message, no crashing, no spalash screen. Only PS freezes, the rest of the system runs fine. I have waited as long as a few minutes (on a P4 system) for anything to happen.
Next I un-installed and then re-installed PS with the "uninstall for real" option checked. I had to re-validate and that was no problem.
Now PS does the same thing as before, it freezes once opened (quite quickly) and the Shift-Ctl-Alt trick isn’t working, nor are there any pref files under any user (all, admin, default). Explorer shows all hidden and system files.
I have also searched all folders, including hidden, for the prefs file and come up with 4 .psp files, but none are the prefs. There has never been a version of PS other than CS on this machine. Imageready works fine.
Thanks again,
Justin
Justin,
come up with 4 .psp files, but none are the prefs
If not that, what are they then? Paint sho pro images?
Whatever they are temporarily rename them to see what happens.
Rob
do you have view hidden files and folders on? if so go to the folder and delete the file manaully. it should be in the folder called:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOURXPUSERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\8.0\Adobe Photoshop CS Settings
and the file is called: "Adobe Photoshop CS Prefs.psp"
you WILL NOT be able to see the "Application Data" folder or anything above it UNLESS you turn on view hidden files and folders as i described the instructions in my last post.
As I have mentioned before, there is no such file. I can see all hidden files and directories for all users. A search does not bring it up either (even including hidden files/folders). I have an ADOBE subfolder, but there isn’t even a photoshop folder inside…
Thanks!
can you list the files in the folder i described above?
Well, out of futility I just re-installed PSCS over the old install (which is like the 3rd install in 3 days.. none of which had worked).
It fired up on the first try, I played around, then updated the camera RAW files, and it looks like we’re cookin with gas now! Thanks to all who tried to help!
PS. NOW I have the prefs files and I can see them. 😉
PS. NOW I have the prefs files and I can see them. 😉
🙂
