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CS4 Keeps Crashing, Need help


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Cardsbynikki

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Hi I am Nikki, I'm new here. I've been using Photoshop since 1998, and last year upgraded to CS4. I installed and have had no problems for over a year. Then three days ago, Photoshop would crash on me whenever I opened a new item, created a new project, or even just opened the program. It simply shuts down and I get an error message. When I can get it to stay open long enough, the GPU error pops up.

I have done the following already, and it has not helped. Any further suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Reset Preferences
Uninstalled and Reinstalled Photoshop

I did a search on Intel for an update to my graphics driver, and it did not have one. I searched through Dell and it showed an update. When I went to install it, it gave me a message that my current driver is a later release than the one I had downloaded, and asked me if I wanted to continue installing the driver. I clicked no.

Should I replace my newer driver with the older version available on the Dell website? My worry is that will make it worse and then I can't get the newer version back, because I could not find it anywhere on the Dell website.

My system is older, I realize that, and would be slower than newer systems, but I am hoping there is a fix, as CS4 has worked beautifully for over a year with no problems.

My system information:
Dell Dimension 4700
Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2
Physical Memory: 502 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory:128 MB
Graphics Media Accelerator: Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family
Total Virtual Memory: 2 gig
Internal Hard Drive: 144 Gig
Free space: 66 gig

I would appreciate any help. I have some pretty tight deadlines looming and right now I am just a sitting duck.

Edit: I forgot to mention I am running CS4 Extended, if that makes any difference. Thanks again.
 
I just realized this started after I ran Adobe Updater the other day - I don't know if it is connected or not. Would doing a system restore fix the issue?
 
System requirements
Windows
Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3; Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (Service Pack 2 recommended); or Windows 7
1GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash-based storage devices)
1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM
Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0
DVD-ROM drive
QuickTime 7.6.2 software required for multimedia features
Broadband Internet connection required for online services*

do you meet those
 
Cardsbynikki said:
My system is older, I realize that, and would be slower than newer systems, but I am hoping there is a fix, as CS4 has worked beautifully for over a year with no problems.

Ok if you are telling the truth that CS4 Extended has been working for over a year then, the system will be the preblem here.

My system information:
Dell Dimension 4700
Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 What ever happens you need to update to SP3
Physical Memory: 502 MB 502MB Ram, this is not even a real Ram bit amount, may be you meant 512MB?
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory:128 MB This is not enough Graphics Ram
Graphics Media Accelerator: Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family
Total Virtual Memory: 2 gig This is Page swapping nothing needed here
Internal Hard Drive: 144 Gig
Free space: 66 gig

I would appreciate any help. I have some pretty tight deadlines looming and right now I am just a sitting duck.

Edit: I forgot to mention I am running CS4 Extended, if that makes any difference. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

So as iDad said, you need to meet the requirements

•1.8GHz or faster processor Your computer has a "Pentium 4 2.80GHz"
•Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista) You have the min spec here as well
•512MB of RAM (1GB recommended) You have the min spec here as well
•1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices) You have the min spec here as well
•1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
•Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0 This can be turnd off in Photoshop CS4
•DVD-ROM drive
•QuickTime 7.2 software required for multimedia features This shouldn't matter
•Broadband Internet connection required for online services*

So seeing that you have at lest the min spec, I guess the Update made the problem, so going to a system restore point before the point at which Photoshop did the last UpDate, should fix your problem.

Try doing this and then post back letting us know how you got on :)
 
Everything except the accelerated graphics card, but that hasn't made a difference before. I just changed the GPU preference and it worked fine (before) but now doing that hasn't helped at all. I'm not doing anything in 3D. I have 2 different RAM cards that total 1 gig.
 
Cardsbynikki said:
Everything except the accelerated graphics card, but that hasn't made a difference before. I just changed the GPU preference and it worked fine (before) but now doing that hasn't helped at all. I'm not doing anything in 3D. I have 2 different RAM cards that total 1 gig.
Click to expand...

So please do a system restor point to a date that was before the Photoshop Update, this should solve any problem as it's looking like it was the update that went wrong :) let us know if this worked, it's 02:50 in the UK, so I may ot be on to answer any more question untill I get up, but I will be back to help if you need it, and there are other people that will help as well :), I'm sure we can get this problem sorted out for you :)

This link will tell you how to do a system restore in Windows XP :)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084
 
Thanks :) It's been awhile since I've had to do a system restore, so I appreciate the directions. I'm exhausted, so will probably go to bed now and do it in the morning. Thank you!
 
Cardsbynikki said:
Thanks :) It's been awhile since I've had to do a system restore, so I appreciate the directions. I'm exhausted, so will probably go to bed now and do it in the morning. Thank you!
Click to expand...

I feel this will work, so please let me know if it did. If not I'll try something else
 
You could also just try un-installing Photoshop and then re-installing it.

Or try deleting the preferences by holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift when you start it up.
 
KRF said:
I feel this will work, so please let me know if it did. If not I'll try something else
Click to expand...
Oh, how I wish it had worked. I've done a couple system restores now - one to restore 10 days ago (the update was exactly 7, so I figured 10 gave me wiggle room) and that didn't work - same issues. So I did another restore for 3 weeks ago.

Now I've made it worse, when I thought it couldn't GET any worse. When I try and open Photoshop, I get "Error 1". The header says AMT Subsystem Error" and then the error says "This product has has encountered a problem which requires that you restart your computer before it can be launched"

Then it tells me if I have already restarted my computer, to contact my IT department or contact adobe support and mention the error code below (which just says Error 1).

I have restarted it probably 6 times, it hasn't corrected the issue.

So, does Adobe support actually support or are they useless? (I've never tried them before.)

Should I contact them, or should I try another uninstall/reinstall?

Thank you for any and all help, I'm beginning to get quite stressed. September 1 is just around the corner, bringing with 3 very exact deadlines that I have to meet or I lose the project. And I'm currently 7 days behind. Which is just not good.

I should mention, as well, that I updated my virus software program today and did a very complete scan. My system is clean. Most other programs are running fine. I cannot open Adobe Reader. It says the patch has failed. Illustrator opens and runs perfectly. Adobe Bridge is fine. Dreamweaver, Flash, both work great.

I guess I should just contact Adobe and see what they say. It's maddening, to say the least. This couldn't have happened last month with no deadlines, right? *groan*
 
I just went to the Adobe support page to contact them, like the error says. It's going to cost me $40, so I think I will wait for any suggestions here first. If not, guess I will shell out the $40 bucks. Not a lot of options, are there?

A search for "Error 1" on Adobe Support produces no results.
 
Last edited:
Cardsbynikki said:
I just went to the Adobe support page to contact them, like the error says. It's going to cost me $40, so I think I will wait for any suggestions here first. If not, guess I will shell out the $40 bucks. Not a lot of options, are there?

A search for "Error 1" on Adobe Support produces no results.
Click to expand...

Ok try this:

If you're running Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Make sure that any entries beginning with the words ADOBE, MACROMEDIA, and FLEXNET are all able to run.

Of take a look at this site

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402004.html I hope you get this sorted out before your dead line

I'll be online for about 1 hour so please post back and I can try other things :)
 
KRF said:
Ok try this:

If you're running Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Make sure that any entries beginning with the words ADOBE, MACROMEDIA, and FLEXNET are all able to run.

Of take a look at this site
I hope you get this sorted out before your dead line
Click to expand...

Thank you, I will go try that now and read through the document and do all the steps. I really appreciate the help.
 
No problem, I'm here to help as much as I can :)
 
Ok, I went to Control Panel->Administrative tools-> Services

There are no entries that begin with ADOBE or MACROMEDIA. FlexNet ran just fine. I checked under both Standard and Extended and read all entries very carefully. They just aren't there.

I'll go follow the instructions at the link you provided.
 
Ok honestly when I uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop I followed the whole procedure very exactly. I'm following the instructions at the link provided (thanks, really I *had* done a search there, obviously just not for the right thing!) and now I'm looking in C://program files/adobe - there are TWO Photoshop CS4 folders.

Could this be causing this whole issue? I'm not sure how I ended up with two. Both have exactly the same subfolders, like I have a double install happening here, even though I went through the whole uninstall process.

I'll go finish all the instructions but just thought I would let you know.
 
Solution 1 didn't work (same error happened).

Solution 2, it was already set to manual and FlexNet has started.

Solutions 3-5 are for MAC only (running Windows XP Pro)

Solution 6 is to Uninstall/Reinstall, guess that's what I'm going to do (again.)
 
Cardsbynikki said:
Ok, I went to Control Panel->Administrative tools-> Services

There are no entries that begin with ADOBE or MACROMEDIA. FlexNet ran just fine. I checked under both Standard and Extended and read all entries very carefully. They just aren't there.

I'll go follow the instructions at the link you provided.
Click to expand...

I think if I read it right you are meant to stop the "FlexNet" and then run it again, this is meant to help the problem, as for the 2 CS4 folders, I only have one, so try doiing this

Look at the date modified, look for the oldest one, then change the name to "Adobe Photoshop CS4old" If this dose not work try the other folder, and do the same Adobe Photoshop CS4old, but remember to change the fist one back to Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Also remember to restart your computer as well, this will then force it to look for Adobe Photoshop CS4 and run that system folder, trying this may work just a thought :)
 
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