Photoshop CS4 Help Window Pops Up For No Reason

GD
Posted By
Geno_Dailey
Feb 23, 2009
Views
366
Replies
3
Status
Closed
This same thing was happening in Photoshop CS3 and I could never figure out why. I figured that since CS4 was coming out, I would buy it, stop using CS3 and the problem would be solved, well it’s not. So far, I’m happy with the new program but for some reason, out of nowhere, while working on a photo, the Photoshop Help window (which opens as a web browser window) will pop up for no reason! Today, it popped up over 6 or 7 times and I nearly had to crash the program to get it to stop. I figured this problem would have been solved with the new version since the same thing was happening in CS3 but it hasn’t. I’m running a Windows XP-based machine that I built myself about 2 years ago. I have a 512mb ATI Raedon X1650 video card and have 4GB of RAM so this machine has far more than enough power to run the program. I updated my video and mouse drivers prior to installing the program. Anyone else have this problem?

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M
Mylenium
Feb 23, 2009
You are using a system-wide shortcut somewhere and/or another program is "stealing" shortcuts. 99% unrelated to Adobe, I’d say. so check your tray area and get rid of any unnecessary tools and/or configure them to not interfere. Also turn off any notifications from RSS feeds and reduce the alert level in your virus scanner/ firewall. Quite possible that some shortcut combinations are considered to be invoking a malware tool and cause erratic behaviors….

Mylenium
GD
Geno_Dailey
Feb 23, 2009
My system tray has only 3 icons in it and I run a system tray program called "Startup Control Panel" to monitor what goes there. Also after installing CS4, I ran SpyBot, Ad-Aware and AVG Anti-Virus along with McAfee VirusScan on the machine. All programs found NOTHING and all were fully updated before being used. I have a DJ’ing program that McAfee listed as a Potentially Unwanted Program but I know its legit. Other than that, nothing was found. I also have no RSS feeds running off my computer and also, I should mention that my entire OS is imaged and backed up using Norton Save And Restore. All of the aforementioned programs are run/scanned when making an image. Am I missing something here? I doubt there is Malware running? Any other possible ideas here?
DM
dave_milbut
Feb 23, 2009
historically (back to about version 7) those multiple help screens popping up indicated your system is starving for resources. check the value of your windows swap file, and increase it. it should be about 2 to 2.5 times the amount of installed RAM.

also make sure memory usage in photoshop is set to ~55% (the default) if it’s not there already.

if neither works, describe your system. os? amount of ram? amount of installed hard drive space? available hard drive space?

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