Image Help - - Photoshop acting crazy

mfgriggs · #1 02-13-2005, 02:37 PM

Hi Guys
I have a problem with the photoshop. While I am using the healing tool I select the brush size. The brush size is represented by a circle. From time to time and for no particulary reason the circle changes to a very small cross hair. In order to get my circle back I have to reboot the computer. I am doing something wrong?

Thanks

Swampy · #2 02-13-2005, 03:11 PM

Platform? Configuration? Might help if we knew.

Flora · #3 02-13-2005, 03:31 PM

Hi mfgriggs,

Welcome to RP!

I've also had that problem with PS (and not only with the healing brush!) !!!
In my case the reasons for it were 2:

1) working on a previous picture I had strongly increased the size of the brush so that now, working on a much smaller image, only the cross hair center of it was visible. (solution= decrease the size of your brush)

2) unintentionally or not, I had pressed the Caps Lock key (and forgotten about it

) .... and that changes the 'painting cursor' from 'brush size' (your circle) to 'precise' (small hair cross) (solution= release the Caps Lock)

Hope this helps...

mfgriggs · #4 02-13-2005, 04:11 PM

AHHHH CAPLOCKS.......thanks guys

Janet Petty · #5 02-13-2005, 08:38 PM

I guess I'm in the right place as someone else posted a Photoshop performance question.

I have one for all those of you who are computer literate (and that isn't me

). Last night when I shut the computer down for the night Photoshop was performing perfectly. No hiccups, no glitches, running very well.

When I got home this afternoon and brought the comuter up, Photoshop had somehow dumped everything and reverted to its basic (first installed) state. I've had to reload brushes, plugins, tell it where the scratch disk is, redo the entire screen, etc., etc.

My question is whether I have a problem or has this happened to someone else. This is NOT the first time; but it hasn't happened for several months. Any suggestions or explanations out there?

Thanks ahead of time,

Janet

DannyRaphael · #6 02-13-2005, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

My question is whether I have a problem or has this happened to someone else. This is NOT the first time; but it hasn't happened for several months.

Any suggestions or explanations out there?

Photoshop has a number of what are known as "preference" files that contain a number of important things, like your tool presets, the contents of your Actions palette, all the preference settings you made (and had to redo).

Somehow your "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" file got trashed/corrupted. When you started Photoshop it either could not find this file or it was corrupted, so PS went with the default, which knew nothing about your plugins, palette locations, scratch disk settings, etc.

There are many reasons why this file could get damaged, including:
* Insufficient disk space (PS is unable to finish writing it to disk during shutdown)
* Hard disk problems
* Power loss during shutdown
* Gremlins
* etc.

Do a Google search and I'm sure you'll find a bazillion other possible causes.

To put it into perspective I've had PS 7 for over two years and last week was the first time I experienced the symptoms you reported. I'd shutdown PS, all appeared to go well, brought it up and everything was according to default preference settings.

Based on a suggestion I read elsewhere I'd duplicated my "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" several months ago, so it was not difficult to get my environment back to the way it was.

~Danny~

Janet Petty · #7 02-13-2005, 10:19 PM

Thanks Danny. It is nice to know I'm not going crazy and that I'm not the only one that has had Photoshop go nuts without any warning.

Everything else is working well, so I don't think it is hard disk problems...at least I hope not. Fortunately, restoring things was pretty easy because I keep everything in a separate file that is easy retreive from. It was looking up all the serial numbers so that I could put all the plugins back that was the pain in the neck (go figure

).

Janet

DannyRaphael · #8 02-14-2005, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

Thanks Danny. It is nice to know I'm not going crazy and that I'm not the only one that has had Photoshop go nuts without any warning.

Everything else is working well, so I don't think it is hard disk problems...at least I hope not. Fortunately, restoring things was pretty easy because I keep everything in a separate file that is easy retreive from. It was looking up all the serial numbers so that I could put all the plugins back that was the pain in the neck (go figure

).

Janet

I misunderstood the part about the plugins. I thought you meant you lost the preferences pointer to a separate plugins folder, not that they came up "missing." That's very odd. I've never heard of that symptom before.

If you installed your plugins in PS's plugins folder, (sorry to say now) there's an alternative that I believe has some advantages: Create a separate folder, e.g., \MyPlugins, (re)install them there and then (via the Edit>Preferences dialog) point PS to \MyPlugins. This method avoids having to reinstall plugins to fix the problem you just had + makes it a snap when you upgrade PS: just populate the Preferences setting in the new version.

This setup also enables you to easily share your common folder of plugins with other programs that support this "auxillary plugin folder" concept.