When I fire up Photoshop, while it is loading up mid way through it fails and disappears.

I have restarted my comp a few times even shutting it down for 5 mins, but it didnt help. What is my prob?

Im running it on a pc. Never had probs in the past.

When I fire up Photoshop, while it is loading up mid way through it fails and disappears.

I have restarted my comp a few times even shutting it down for 5 mins, but it didnt help. What is my prob?

Im running it on a pc. Never had probs in the past.

Are you saying until recently Photoshop came up w/o complaint, but all of a sudden it's going into the bucket?

What version of Photoshop? What version of Windows?

Any symptoms, like error messages? Reason I ask is there have been problems reported lately about getting messages regarding serial number expiration.

What, if anything, have you changed lately on your computer, e.g., new programs installed or uninstalled, Windows service pack updates, etc.?

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling Photoshop?

With additional info, maybe someone can make suggestions.

~Danny~

May want to try uninstalling and re-installing.. If a program has crashed sometimes files needed for it to run can become corrupted. I would start out trying this.. then if this does not work.. more details on what was done prior to problem starting could help.

I'm not sure if it would cause Photoshop to crash but in any case you may want to go to Internet Explorer; Options: General, and delete all files and cookies. My system always runs better when I do this.

Cheers
Dave

You should also try to trash the 'preferences' file. It is not deleted when you reinstall and is often the cause of the kind of problem you describe.
Different versions of Photoshop and different OS's put the prefe file in different locations. Here's a place to start if you need more info...

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/34826.htm

I have a simular problem from time to time..
in photoshops prefs, check how much ram is dedicated to photoshop and also check your scratch disks.
If your running photoshop cs, it is a bit of a hog! you need good ram and lots of scratch disk space.. and watch what other bigger programs are running.
I noticed when I am running a few big things and try to open photoshop, it does just what you said..

one other thing you might want to check, did you install any new plugins lately...

some if they don't agree with your system will crash photoshop when loading.

hope it helps!

This might help...

Troubleshooting system errors or freezes in Photoshop (7.0 and CS on Windows XP) (http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2bca6.htm)

I am running Photoshop 7 on win2k.
I have had no error messages and the only thing new I installed was the latest update from microsoft for Direct X.

I have uninstalled and deleted the Photoshop 7 that didnt remove itself after the uninstall as well as the ps 7 folder in the regestry.

I then reinstalled it and I got the message about the scratch disk being on the same volume I hit ok and I am back at square one.

Try this then...

Troubleshooting system errors or freezes in Photoshop (7.0 and CS on Windows 2000) (http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/23fae.htm)

Also have you installed the latest update...7.0.1?

The latest version of Photoshop may be more compatible with the operating system and hardware drivers. Before you install an update or upgrade, make sure that the system meets the requirements.

The free Photoshop 7.0.1 update is available from the Adobe Web site (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=39&platform=Windows).

Hmmm...

If updating 7.0 to 7.01 doesn't help, I think I'd be reluctant to apply a bunch of other changes until I knew the cause of the problem.

Seems that if all was OK before the MSFT Direct X updates, and things went sideways afterwards, even after uninstall/reinstall of Photoshop 7, would it make sense to uninstall 7.01, backout the Direct X updates (if possible) followed by reinstalling 7.0? In theory that should get you back to a usable Photoshop environment... then you could troubleshoot from there.

I looked into unistalling if from add remove prog., but I didnt see it listed. If there is a way I dont know it.

The prefs file is not in an obviously Adobe associated folder in Win2K, it's buried in the documents and settings folder associated with your Windows UserID. It does not go away when you uninstall. Check this procedure from Adobe support:

Re-create the Photoshop general preferences file:
Exit from Photoshop, rename the general preferences file (for example, to Filename.old), and then restart Photoshop. You can locate the general preferences file, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.Paint Shop Pro (Photoshop 7.x), in the following location:

Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.Paint Shop Pro:
-- (Windows XP and 2000): Documents and Settings/[user profile]/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop/7.0/Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings

Both times I've had trouble getting PS7 to start up, this procedure fixed it first try.

Prefs seems an unlikely candidate since the problem appears to coincide with the Windows update (which probably replaced or deleted one or more files that Photoshop needs), but it's an easy thing to try and it sure can't make things worse.

Rogue: Chip's suggested method is a good one. By renaming your existing prefs file to "something else," Photoshop will create a new (clean) one for you assuming it comes all the way up.

If this is not the solution, you can rename your renamed file back the way it was, reinstating your previously defined preferences, eliminating the need to reenter them.

If memory serves, you will need to turn on the W2K setting to enable you to "view hidden files" (see Tools > Folder Options > View on any folder window), otherwise you will not be able to locate the .pap file to rename it.

I found the following tidbit at Adobe.com. The person reporting the problem had PS7 and thing went weird on her (different symptoms as yours, but she was Win 98) after the Direct X updates were installed. The guy who posted this suggestion (Dave Milbut) is pretty sharp, so it would be worth a shot.

"Direct x is microsoft's 3d routines. go to ati (www.ati.com), go to support and look for drivers. look up your driver and os and you'll get the latest. install that."

HTH...

I got it to work

went to Adobe and found that all you need to do is hold ctrl, alt & shift when starting Photoshop and it will ask you if you want to delete the preference folder. Say yes and bam, back in biz.

Thank you all for your help.

Good for you, Rogue. Thx for the confirmation.

Chip: I humbly bow in your direction. :bow: Excellent call on your part.