Computer Crashed - need some advice/help

[Jakaleena]

Oy...!

If I live until January it's gonna be a miracle....

On top of being incredibly busy at this time of year, my computer crashed a few days ago. I was forced to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my OS.

I was using WinNT, but when faced with the choice I decided to go back to Win98 since I happened to have it on hand, it's an easier install and supports USB devices.

Anyway, everything seems to be (mostly) back in good working order, except that all of the images I view on RP look like they're some sort of Topical Relief Map. The tonal changes are abrupt, and it's horribly distracting. And, it seems that it's only here on RP - images on other websites appear pretty normal...

Attached is a screen shot of what the problem is. On the right is the screen shot of the image directly from the challenge area. On the left is the same image saved to my computer and opened in PS.

The images never looked like this on my screen before. They were always smooth and looked pretty much the same as they did when viewed in Photoshop.

Any of you out there got any suggestions???

[GOLDCOIN]

Good Morning Jakaleena.....

Am truly sorry to hear you are having so much computer trouble.
I see on my monitor, some faint slight brush strokes on the left pix, and in the same area much
more pronounced strokes on the right.

Know you are looking for technical help, but all I can do is make you a delicious cuppa of tea &
hold your hand until real "help" arrives.

Monday, I also experienced major computer difficulties, 6 freezes..... held my breath a couple of times as it tried to reboot up. Twice, it arrived in the safe mode. Finally, was able to run the Norton Doctor, he found that one of the "plug in" that I had downloaded from Adobe's download site, was badly written and caused one of the problems. Had gone to visit to read about the
question Danny had posted concerning "how many actions one can store safety in PS folder."

Must have exceeded it, as now I can no longer use the "actions" the small button. The drop down dialog screen is no longer functional. Unable to access any of the one's, I added, makes
me want to cry. As I did the same to the brush palette, except with the brushes .....one can get into that with the "manager" ..... to exchange brushes. Have tried taking many out, but that didn't do the trick. They are both still unusable. So I will to reinstall Photoshop.... and hope
that will fix it.

[T Paul]

Jak,

Looks like the display settings are too low to show enough colors for a photograph. Go to your display properties and check your screen resolution and color quality.

1. Right Click on your desktop and select PROPERTIES to get the Display Properties pop-up window
2. Go to SETTINGS
3. Check your screen resolution and perhaps color quality as your screen capture image looks like it might be missing some bits.

Mine is at 1024 x 768 for screen resolution and 32 bit for color quality. My guess is that yours might be at 16 bits.


~T

[CJ Swartz]

Jak -- wondered where you were!

Bummer about the system crash; glad you're back up. Don't suppose it could be something as simple as your display settings -- RP probably has larger image files than most websites, but other than size, I can't imagine why you would only have trouble viewing images here...

I'm sure that one of the computer gurus here will have a solution for you soon.

Looks like TPaul was on at the same time with the same solution possibility -- must be worth checking.

[clare]

Sorry to hear about all these computer problems

Jak
It might be worth your while checking the setting for your web browser - I oftern have strange things occur on certain web sites when I haven't got something ticked. Cookies etc.

Goldcoin,
Rather than reinstalling PS you might be better off just replacing your preferences files. You can find them on your boot drive under adobe photoshop. Copy them to a different place then delete them. When you restart PS you will have to reset all your own preferences but this might fix you problems without a reinstal. Might be worth a try.

Good luck
Clare

[CJ Swartz]

Goldcoin,

Before re-installing PShop, maybe you can just move even more of the actions to another folder.

That seems to be the solution according to this website, Actions FAQ and since you can still run them from any folder, it doesn't matter where they are located.


After you can use your action palette again, try saving some of them as a text file, as recommended by the same website -- then you can read what steps to follow on your own. When you know how to do it on your own, you can start using the action again to save time, but you'll be in control instead of the action because you'll understand what it's doing.

[gland]

Jak it looks like the smaller image on the right is set at 256 colors (8 bit).

Could this be some kind of color profile problem between the old NT operating system and the cirrent 98? Strange.

[T Paul]

I started another thread on storing actions to keep this thread from being split on two different issues. CJ I added the link you suggested to the thread as it has some very good info.

For more on storing actions go here

~T

[Jakaleena]

You guys are the greatest - what a wonderful bunch of people there are here! I knew there'd be a whole bunch of you coming to my rescue and offering moral support (and Tea )... Thank you all so much!

T: That was it. I can't believe it was something that silly. I was sure I'd checked that. I'd changed the screen res, but forgotten to go to 32 bits...

Ah well... With the current 12-15 hour work days (a brand new promotion), plus my restoration stuff on the side and a sort of new, ummmm, "social life" sort of thing and I guess my brain cells are either overloaded or just plain dying...

CJ: The computer crash sure complicated things, but it doesn't look like I'll be much more present for a while even with my computer back in good order. I am soooooo swamped with stuff right now, and no end is in sight. I'm checking in as often as I can, but lately that's been more like every day or two instead of my usual several times daily. The holidays are always like that for me though. I've not had a peaceful, unhurried holiday season for more than 20 years, and this one is sure not looking like it's going to be the exception to the rule...

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

[GOLDCOIN]

Clare .... Thank you, for the idea of deleting that Preference file.
Tried that, it was not easy to learn how to do it and when
exactly. Bless Doug, for providing the exact clue about holding
them "all" down at the same time. Then catching the screen just
as it begins to load, a few seconds later ...results in failure.


CJ.... am off to read the URL, you provided. The Adobe forum
replied to Danny's question with this info..... "It's not the Adobe
software, it seems to be windows that place a limit, as to how
much they have alot to that screen, at least that is what their
opinions were.
I did get a window's small icon in that folder (brushes) said
"iserror".... still don't know what that means, however, found
none in the "action folder." But until a couple of weeks or so
ago, had no idea filters nor actions existed. The fun of
discovery....has been a mixed bag.
So do be cautious..... in the number of both brushes & actions
you place in your folder....

[d_kendal]

Jak,

glad to hear you've got your problem figured out. Congrats on your promotion !!!

- David

[DannyRaphael]

Goldcoin... the instructions on the page CJ pointed you to should get your Actions folder back. If you wanted to do the world a big favor, you could take out a few at a time and find out what the actual threshold number is!

What version of Windows are you running?

Slight technical issue for the sake of clarification: Plugins are different from actions (but I believe you can download plugins from Adobe's site as well as actions). Action files are suffixed by .atn; plugins are (normally) suffixed by .8bf.

You noted that Norton reported a plugin was causing your problems. Did you download both plugin(s) and actions from Adobe? Can you confirm if it was an .atn or an .8bf?

Look forward to reading your next post reporting "All is fixed with me, too!"

~Danny~

[Keith]

congrats on your:

sort of new, ummmm, "social life" sort of thing

[Jakaleena]

Keith & David-

Thanks for the "congrats"...

Now if someone can just clone me so I can juggle everything, I'll be all set....