Photoshop CS3 crashes all the time – Please help!

does Photoshop crash in a new user?

no, no user change.

hmm, what do you mean by in a new user?

there are two user on my computer (if you mean this) "admin" and "I". And PS crashes on both users.

make a new user.

does photoshop still crash?

If so I would be inclined to believe it is a system issue and do an Archive and Install of the OS.

Dear Buko

I generated a new user – the same problem.

So maybe the trouble started after I tried upgrading to OSX 10.5. (which was more or less on that time). The upgrade did not work, I don’t know why. I put the CD in an ext. DVD Drive (the internal one does not work). The start up menu was ok, and I pressed install, the computer automatically restarted, but after it showed the same menu as before instead of the "welcome side" as per instruction manual. You have any idea, what I do wrong here?

First thing you did wrong was upgrade to 10.5. You should have stayed with 10.4.11.

How did you upgrade?
Did you just upgrade? or did you do an Archive and install?

upgrade. But a friend here just mentioned that it could have been, because I have not enough disc space to run the installation program. So I will try again. And I will also try to uninstall adobe completely and install new. Hopefully it will work all this time. Thank you very much for your help.

You should always do an Archive and install when you upgrade you hold over parts of the old system this will inevitably lead to problems.

How big is the drive and how much free space do you have.

When I was updating adobe (after installing) there was a message: rest volume on HD is 25 GB. Capacity 74 GB Available 26 GB.

What I will do (overnight and tomorrow) is,
– I will transfer another 10 GB to an ext. HD
– then I will again backup whatever I have on an external HD – I will uninstall adobe and install new
– and I will try to upgrade OSX 10.5

But if I archive and install, will all my programs will work properly, I will loose nothing? A friend said, I should upgrade – it would be more secure?

Thanks

Rosa

The "upgrade" option in Apple OS installers is guaranteed to give you grief. It’s a mystery to many of us why Apple even provides that option.

You are woefully short on hard drive space.

Photoshop’s primary scratch drive should ideally be on a second, physically separate hard drive. I have such a dedicated 160 GB hard drive as my primary Photoshop scratch disk, other folks have even more powerful systems than mine. For laptops and iMacs, an external FireWire drive will do fine as a Photoshop scratch drive.

The OS also needs plenty of available hard drive space for its swap files.

Independently from the above, I never let any of my drives, internal or external, get 60% full, 50% or less is much better. Once a drive gets to be 80% full, you are in big trouble.

Incidentally, Rosa

When I was updating adobe … will uninstall adobe and …

Adobe is a company that makes a gazillion different applications, not an application. It helps to identify what application or suite of applications you are referencing.

Thank you Ramon for your comments. I referred on top to adobe CS3, that’s why I didn’t mention it later on.

As for your first comment, this is very interesting and helpful. I actually had the scratch disc on an ext. HD but I will have to set that again after reinstalling. Thank you for reminding me! So, you are also suggesting that I don’t upgrade but install new. What am I going to lose???? What do I have to take care of beside of making a backup from everything? Thanks for your help.

So, you are also suggesting that I don’t upgrade but install new.>

No, no, NO!

What we are recommending is that you use your original Apple CD to do an "Archive and Install" installation.

And then bring your System up to date by running the most recent COMBO updater (which you should first download to your desktop from Apple).

That way all of your existing files will be preserved.

Rosa,

So, you are also suggesting that I don’t upgrade but install new.

NEVER, ever use the "upgrade" option. Rather, do an "Archive and Install".

What do I have to take care of beside of making a backup from everything?

Routine maintenance is imperative.

I still advocate Repairing Permissions (with Apple’s Disk Utility) before AND after any system update or upgrade, as well as before AND after installing any software that requires an installer that asks for your password.

I have seen software installations go sour because the installer did not find everything as and where it should be.

I have also seen software installations go bad because the installer did not clean up after itself properly and did not leave everything as and where it should be.

This is just my own personal opinion and practice based on my own observations. Others may disagree and that’s OK. I can only base my routines and my advice to others on my own experience and conclusion. I don’t pretend to know why others believe otherwise.

Repairing Permissions after the fact (i. e. not immediately before and after an install) seldom helps.; Try it anyway, though.

====

Additionally, if your machine does not run 24/7 so that it runs the daily, weekly and monthly Cron Scripts in the middle of the night as intended by Apple, run Cocktail (shareware) as well.

Cron Scripts are maintenance routines designed by Apple to run on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in the middle of the night.

If you don’t run them, you WILL run into trouble, sooner rather than later.

Here’s an excerpt from the Apple tech doc <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388>

Mac OS X performs background maintenance tasks at certain times if the computer is not in sleep mode. If your computer is shut down or in sleep at the designated times, the maintenance does not occur. In that case, you may want or need to run these manually.

Mac OS X periodically runs background tasks that, in part, remove system files that are no longer needed. This includes purging older information from log files or deleting certain temporary items. These tasks do not run if the computer is shut down or in sleep mode. If the tasks do not run, it is possible that certain log files (such as system.log) may become very large.
Also, from: <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106978>

The disk activity generated by find is a normal part of file system maintenance, used for tasks such as removing invisible temporary files that are used by the system. It is scheduled to occur early in the morning at 03:15 everyday, 04:30 on Saturdays, and 05:30 on the first day of each month.

NOTE: There have been comments to the effect that Apple "fixed" this in 10.4.2 and later versions of the OS, but I have not been able to verify this to my satisfaction. The reference in the 10.4.2 release notes are far from explicit on this subject.

= = =

If you have DiskWarrior, run it regularly too.

What am I going to lose????

All your settings and everything else on the drive. Burn as much as you can to CD/DVD to clear the drive up.

Actually Hard drives are cheap buy a new one. a 250 or 500GB. I just got a 500GB for $100 from OWC

Thank you very much for your time writing all this, I appreciate it. I will do as you suggest. Yeah, opinions do go opposite ways in many of this matters, that’s what makes it difficult for people like me (knowing almost zero in this field…).