Trashing Preferences troubleshooting is generally done as a corruption fix.gballard.net (and how we restore Adobe Default settings) to troubleshoot crashes freezes lockups in Photoshop. The preference files outlined at the bottom of the page will rebuild fresh when Photoshop is relaunched.

Uninstalling Creative Suite 3 CS3 Photoshop 10 PSCS3 should be done in OS X from: HardDrive> Applications> Utilities> Adobe Installers: "Add or Remove Adobe Creative Suite 3" Design Premium — this is new feature in Mac CS3 — versus simply trashing the application folder and preferences as with previous Adobe Mac applications.

Here are the Adobe Tech Documents to Troubleshoot Photoshop Troubleshooting:

• Mac/Windows Functions, Filenames, and Locations of Preferences Files (Photoshop and ImageReady 7.0 and CS2): www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/312917.html

• Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in Photoshop (7.x, CS2 on Mac OS X):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/327279.html

• Troubleshooting system errors or freezes in Photoshop (6.0-7.x on Mac OS 9.x and earlier):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/313189.html

• Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in Photoshop (7.x, CS2 on Windows XP):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/326146.html

• Troubleshooting system errors or freezes in Photoshop (7.0 and CS2 on Windows 2000):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/325095.html

If corrupted files are associated with opening or saving Photoshop files from over across a network disks:

• Adobe Tech Document: Photoshop, networks, and removable media (7.x and CS2):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/322391.html

• In essence: Copy the file from the server to your local workstation disk, Open the file from your local disk, Save the file to your local disk, Copy the closed file back to the server — never Open or Save Photoshop files across a network.

CS2 Photoshop 9 PS9 Program Errors messages using Tiger 10.4x:

"Could not complete your request because of a program error" when trying to open a file.
“Could not create a new document because of a program error” when trying to make a new file.

Certain Epson print drivers including some other print drivers are causing these Photoshop error messages under Mac Tiger 4.0.

• SOLUTION FIX to try: Delete the Epson Print drivers from Print Center, Disconnect the internet modem ethernet/telephone, run Disk Utility Repair Disk, purge Photoshop preferences (and Photoshop application if necessary), run all Adobe and OS updaters... continue with the basic troubleshooting Photoshop.
• Check with Epson for latest print drivers. Some users have reported that some Epson drivers are incompatible with Tiger.
• Some users have reported that running Disk Utility Repair Disk and/or fsk -y fixed the Epson driver problems, others have reported it didn't fix the problem.

An Adobe BUG that is causing Photoshop CS2 PROGRAM ERRORS when opening files in Photoshop CS2 is directly related to Adobe CS2 Version Que.

• WORKAROUND try: 1) turn off Version Que, (2) Open Illustrator (to deal with any font conflicts) then open Photoshop and the problem files.

Microsoft fonts Entourage text copied to the clipboard are also causing Photoshop CS1 and Illustrator to crash on opening, Photoshop won't open. (This was supposedly fixed in CS2.)

• FIX SOLUTION is to clear the clipboard of the the Microsoft or Word text.
  Either Copy some Finder fonts to the clipboard or Log Out Log In, and then open Photoshop.
  Open Text Edit, create some text and Copy it (in effort to flush the Clipboard).

Another Apple bug for Photoshop crashing on opening, not able to launch, Photshop won't initialize: if you have UK GMT timezone set.

Aside from the above issues, Photoshop CS and CS2 seems to be super sensitive to bad fonts, so be sure to rule out the fonts if you are having stability issues.

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In real-world layman's terms, my fire drills for troubleshooting Photoshop crashes, freezes, lockups, including crashing, freezing, locking up, Unexpectedly Quiting:

MAC OS10:
First, be sure to BackUp your data, then run Mac Software Update (located in System Preferences) to bring the Operating System (OS) and Mac firmwares up to date. And run all the Adobe Updaters adobe.com.

Ruling out the User account and routine maintenance are the first steps in troubleshooting crash freeze stability problems, including setting up clean User Account, and using Disk Utility to Repair Disk and Repair Permissions, Safe Boot, and running fsck -y.

If the problem clears logged into a new "Spare User" account, a User's account preference is corrupted. If the problem does not clear in a new "Spare User" account, the problem is likely system wide, or hardware.

Rule out RAM gballard.net is also important troubleshooting. In addition to crashing, kernel panics, Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 errors, Unexpectedly Quiting, corrupted files and disk errors, typical symptoms of bad Ram in Photoshop include rows lines patches of bad pixels on screen that also print (the actual file is being corrupted). If the bad pixel areas are on the monitor, but do not print (the actual file is not corrupted), video card or video-card drivers are prime suspects. Remember, video cards also have flash firmwares to flash update.

Test Hardware Interface gballard.net for the hardware's ability to transfer data free of corruption on hard disk drive interfaces (such as SCSI, IDE, etc.). See the bottom of the linked page and DOWNLOAD Timothy A. Seufert's dctest. Dctest assumes that your CPU and memory and disk are working fine. There are OS9 and OSX versions in the download.

If running Apple's Disk Utility's FirstAid Repair Disk and Repair Permissions, and the Mac's fsck -y Unix command cannot fix any all disk problems, I would recommend running third-party disk utilities BEWARE! gballard.net only as a last resort.
Bad Blocks apple.com on the hard drive can also cause a computer to be very unstable....

"Haxies," those free/shareware, application and user hacks that modify various System features, application programs and plug-ins, including bad fonts and font management gballard.net, are also prime SUSPECTS to troubleshoot and rule out, as are flaky video–card drivers. Check your video card manufacturer web site for video card firmware updaters, new drivers and compatibility issues.

Another thing to troubleshoot for is illegal Unix characters in the file names starting from the hard drive name down. These illegal characters may include: * ~ / + ! " é ñ ; : ) ? (see Mac and Windows OS File/Folder naming rules portfoliofaq.com for complete information). If you're using any illegal characters (or extra long names or spaces) in your naming hierarchy, try renaming them.

Photoshop CS and CS2 seems to be super sensitive to bad fonts, so be sure to rule out the fonts if you are having stability issues.

Troubleshooting Photoshop won't install, from the original Adobe Install CD, try copying the 'Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Folder' (100 to 150 MB) to the desktop - this folder contains the installer and all its files. Eject the CD, and run the installer from the desktop.

• This copy-installer-folder-to-hard-drive technique works on the Adobe installers that require us to verify an original full install CD (insert the full retail install CD, when the installer asks for it point it to the CD).

For troubleshooting specific numeric Mac OS error codes, try appleerrorcodes.com.

My most decisive TroubleShooting technique — Empty = Versatile gballard.net — is to Test on an OS–Suspect Level. In less than an hour, this method effectively rules out the hardware, the install and its other third–party issues.

Ann Shelbourne offers some sage font troubleshooting advice, Ann wrote:

• Have you cleaned out your AdobeFnt.lst files recently?
  Do a Search for "adobefnt" and delete all that you find — except for "AdobeFnt.db".
  (Don't worry, they will re-create themselves as needed).
• Have you ruled out conflicts between System fonts and your other fonts? (Ann continued)
• Have you ran Cocktail?:
  Launch Cocktail
  Choose "Pilot"
  Check everything on the first dialog and set to "Automatically: Restart"
  Then click Options and check everything except "Cookies"
  Return to main panel and click "RUN"
  It will take just a few minutes and should improve performance.

Try changing the time zone then change it back to the correct time zone that you are in but first trash your PS Preference, if that does not work try changing the City within the time zone and then change it back. Or some kind of combination. But again, each time trash PS preferences maybe even restarting the computer.
Ann Shelbourne added, if you are in the UK, don't choose GMT but choose your nearest city by name.

This sounds goofy — but it has worked for a lot of users.

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Also, Photoshop> Preferences> Memory & Image Cache:

Jeff Schewe, Adobe Photoshop expert, offers us the facts on Photoshop, Jeff writes:

• Read this: Photoshop CS2-How much RAM? – Fact
  http://photoshopnews.com/2005/04/04/photoshop-cs2-how-much-ram-fact/
• When you get done and understand it, try reading: Memory allocation and usage (Photoshop CS2)
  http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/320005.html/
• And then read:
  Improve performance in Photoshop CS2 on computers with more than 1 GB RAM
  http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331372.html/

My two cents on the subject:

• Memory: Try setting 50 percent (no higher than 75 percent) for anything less than 2 GB RAM.
• Over 2.5 giga bytes of RAM: The Mac OS limits all applications to maximum of 2 giga bytes of RAM. In other words, setting Photoshop's Memory setting to 100% will provide Photoshop with up to 2 GB memory, and leave the remaining 500 MB for the Operating System and other applications.
• We do need to be careful to leave a cushion of unused RAM for whatever applications we run concurrently with Photoshop.
• If we get a lot of OS 10's Spinning Beachball Color Wheel while using Photoshop, we probably need to install more RAM, or assign a lesser percentage of RAM to Photoshop. Seeing the BeachBall is normal for working on very large files (over 200 mega bytes) while Photoshop's ScratchDisks gballard.net catch up.
• With over 3 giga bytes of installed RAM, I would start with a 100–percent Memory setting in Photoshop.
• NOTE: Adobe is recommending the Ram/Memory issues for 2.5GB-plus work stations...if 100% Memory is not working optimally, as recommended above, try reducing down to a "safer" 75%, said Adobe's Chris Cox.
• Cache Levels: Adobe is recommending setting this to 4 (for now because of an OS10.3.2/PS8.0 conflict). I generally set the Cache Level to 8 on newer machines, I recall CS2 is defaulting to 6.

Trashing Preferences:

If you're trying to rule out Photoshop corruption or reset Default settings, FIRST try trashing:

HardDrive> User> Library> Preferences> Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings folder.

HardDrive> User> Library> Preferences> com.adobe.Photoshop.plist file.

There are several other Photoshop preferences there you may trash.

Relaunch Photoshop.
If the problem has not cleared, Mac OS 10, Trash the following (and reinstall Photoshop):

• HardDrive> Applications> Adobe Photoshop 7/CS folder.
• HardDrive> User> Library> Preferences> Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings folder.
• HardDrive> User> Library> Preferences> com.adobe.Photoshop.plist file.

Reinstall Photoshop.
Run all Photoshop Updaters adobe.com.

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If the problem has not cleared after purging/reinstalling/updating Photoshop, the problem is likely outside of Photoshop in third–party, bad hardware or a corrupted install. At this point we generally need to Initialize/Erase/StartFromScratch gballard.net...a good opportunity to rethink Partitioning our disks for a Photoshop workflow gballard.net and implement a BackUp strategy gballard.net.

In severe cases — to prepare a Mac for a Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) — I follow my troubleshooting MELTDOWN procedure gballard.net. In addition to repairing any Bad Blocks, this procedure will be conclusive in a couple hours, plus the time it takes to ZeroWrite Write Zeros, if the problem is hardware or installed software or damaged hard drive....

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