Photoshop crashing

[Daisy Mae]

Photoshop keeps crashing on me everytime I attempt to use my plug-ins...Nik sepro 2 etc. today.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Manfred M]

I assume that you are running Photoshop with the latest patches for the specific version you are runnning? If not check for updates and install them. If this does not work; contact Nik Software. Hopefully the version of Nik is compatable with the version of PS that you are running.

[Daisy Mae]

I'm not terribly technically minded Manfred but it has been happily running for months ...maybe even years and just started crashing a couple of hours ago.

I use it everyday.

[chauncey]

In addition to Manfred's advice...my first step would be to reboot your computer followed by a
complete un/reinstall of your copy of Photoshop if the reboot fails to solve your problem.
Yeah it's a PITA, but you don't have a choice.

[Manfred M]

Generally things don't randomly start crashing if they have been running happily for months unless something has changed.

Ususually this means either the plug-in or the software running the plug-in have changed. An operating system systems update could potentially also be the culprit. File corruption (especially a configuration file) could be the root cause as well; and if this has happened, that could be a sign that your hard drive is starting to fail.

It's really hard to diagnose these issues unless one knows what has changed.

1, Try powering down your computer and restarting it to see if this fixes the problem.

2. You might want to consider uninstalling the Nik software and then reinstalling to see if this does the trick.

3. Refresh your Photoshop configuration files (hold down the <Ctrl> <Alt> <Shift> keys in Windows or the <Cmd> <Alt> <Shift> keys on a Mac when you start PS (and click yes when the popup asks you if you want to reset the configuration file). You will lose any custom settings, but you will get a "clean" startup of PS.

4. Uninstall and reinstall Photoshop.

[James G]

Sharon, would agree with Manfred's about checking for Nik patches :-

I would also check if any new upgrades have been applied automatically to Windows by Microsoft recently. (I'm assuming you are a windows user?)

Just to clarify though, I assume that as long as you do not invoke the plugins, PS keeps running and allows you to load process and save images.

If so, it is possible that your plugin folder in Photoshop is corrupt in which case rebuilding by reloading the plugins may be the way to fix.

What OS are you running, Windows 7, 8, Vista? And what version of Photoshop?

James

[DanK]

I agree, something must have changed. If a reboot does not work:

Before uninstalling anything, I would do this, if you don't do it routinely:

1. Install Spybot, update it, and do both an immunization and a complete scan. Let it remove any stuff it finds. This will take a while the first time but is very quick after that. I would update and run it weekly.

2. If you don't have antivirus software, install some. If you do, update it and do a scan.

3. After a reboot, hit alt-ctrl-delete and make sure there is nothing running that shouldn't be.

[Daisy Mae]

Thank you everyone. I will implement all of your suggestions and let you know how it goes....at the moment it's still crashing!


Dan..my Malware is run frequently but no harm in an extra check.

[James G]

Sharon,
one thing .... make sure you have backups to your images and raw files , preferably on an external drive.

[dje]

Hi Sharon

When I installed the Nik suite recently (Windows 7, PS CS6 64 bit), I had a similar problem. Most times when I would try and use one of the Nik plug-ins, PS would crash. After Googling, I found a "solution" which fixed the problem virtually all the time but not 100%. I can live with it as it is but I would like a proper fix.

If you are not using Windows 7, read no further !

For Windows 7 I did the following

Find the Photoshop.exe file (probably under c:/Program Files/ Adobe Photoshop)
Right click on the file, select Properties, select Compatibility and select Windows 7. ( the default is probably nothing selected)

I haven't got around to referring the problem to Nik yet but I should. I have a feeling that setting the compatability mode may have slowed PS down a bit but I'm not sure. Rest assured, you and I are not alone in this, judging by other posts on the web.

In your case, it could be a Windows update that changed things, if you have these enabled.
Dave

[Daisy Mae]

Dave...I am using windows 7..thank you so very much!

James..backup ..yes I will indeed .

You are all so kind.

[Daisy Mae]

Find the Photoshop.exe file (probably under c:/Program Files/ Adobe Photoshop)
Right click on the file, select Properties, select Compatibility and select Windows 7. ( the default is probably nothing selected)

I haven't got around to referring the problem to Nik yet but I should. I have a feeling that setting the compatability mode may have slowed PS down a bit but I'm not sure. Rest assured, you and I are not alone in this, judging by other posts on the web.

In your case, it could be a Windows update that changed things, if you have these enabled.
Dave

You got it in one Dave...thank you.

Thanks to all of you for your amazing responses...so much appreciated.

[Daisy Mae]

AAAARGGHHH..it's crashing again!

* note to self about tempting fate.

[Shadowman]

AAAARGGHHH..it's crashing again!

* note to self about tempting fate.

Do you have the User Guide which usually has troubleshooting tips or have you checked the websites forum?

[John 2]

Take two large bricks and a 14 pound sledge hammer into the yard and smash the bricks into very very small pieces. It won't solve your problem but you will feel a lot better. Works for me every time. On the other hand if you know how to do it, return you computer to an earlier recovery point. If the problem goes away, you will know that some recent addition is the culprit. Sometimes an update is corrupted during the download process. If it was automatic, it will download itself again. If you suspect it is the result of something you have added, you need to decide whether to try it again.

[dje]

AAAARGGHHH..it's crashing again!

* note to self about tempting fate.

That's no good Sharon. Has the frequency of crashes dropped ? I found that it went from unusable to a few occasional crashes after setting Windows compatibility mode for PS to Windows 7. This is a situation I can live with but I would of course prefer a proper solution.

Bloody computers, someone should blow them all up !

Dave

[Ady]

The last time I had issues with Nik plugins in Photoshop was after a video card driver update, if you aren't sure if your video drivers have been updated or not try going into the Photoshop preferences, look for performance and un-check the graphics card acceleration option, restart Photoshop and test for stability.

If it starts to behave that would point to graphics drivers. At this point you have two choices:

1. leave the box un-ticked and live with whatever performance hit you get - I'd be surprised if you see any difference at all unless you are running a high end workstation GPU and do a lot of 3D processing.

2. Change the video card drivers. Either roll back to the previous version if it was recently updated by Windows Update, or get the latest driver from the manufacturer rather than the Microsoft supplied driver. The Microsoft supplied driver will often be a few revisions behind the manufacturers version because of the delays introduced in shipping the drivers to MS then going through the whole certification/compatibility testing/redistribution via Windows update process.

Cheers,
Ady

[Daisy Mae]

John...you are not wrong about the sledgehammer!!!

Dave...the frequency has increased !

Ady...am about to give that a try.. Thanks guys you are ace.

[Daisy Mae]

This is as far as I get Ady? No performance in the preferences list, :/

[dje]

Hi Ady

Just tried your suggestion of Unchecking Graphics Card Acceleration and whilst it's early days, I haven't been able to get a crash with the Nik software at all. So this is looking very promising for me. I think I'll leave the graphics driver for a while. At this stage. PS is running fine without the acceleration anyway.

Thanks very much.

Hi Sharon

If I'm not mistaken, that screenshot of yours is Lightroom rather than PS.

Dave