Photoshop crashes new laptop

PooleImages · September 15, 2015

Hi

I'm trying to edit my d800 raw files on a new laptop with i7, 16gb ram, 4gb on vidio board. Photoshop and lighroom are crashing when using brushes 8/10 times. Also using a wacom pro tablet. Lightroom and PS are latest versions. Lightroom also crashes when using healing or clone brush most times.

Thinking to try more ram, 32 gb, and dropping my file size in camera.

Any help is appreciated.

Todd-

cmason · September 15, 2015

Its not your file size or RAM, there is something wrong with your install or there is a conflict from another piece of software.

I suggest the normal PC sleuthing: restart in safe mode, see if they crash. If they don't there is something on the hardware side causing problems (driver,etc)
If they still crash, uninstall the last program installed, retry. Keep going till you get a change in behavior.
Try uninstalling and reinstalling LR and PS.

Mitchell · September 15, 2015

Agree with cmason. I shoot a D800e and run an almost identical sounding machine without any problems. The D800 files are large, but you don't need more RAM.

Sounds like a bad install or conflict. Perhaps check with Adobe.

PooleImages · September 15, 2015

Gentlemen,

Thank-you for your quick reply, That is a great place to start!

T. Poole

PooleImages · September 18, 2015

So I ran lightroom in safemode and well everything worked fine. Think I will re-install lr, ps, then my wacom tablet. I have a funny suspicion that it's the tablet driver that's not playing well with others....

PooleImages · September 25, 2015

Problems continued...
So I've re-installed LR and PS twice now, reinstalled wacom driver with latest from their web site. I've removed any non-essential software from the startup folder. I've tried to export raw files to PSD 8bit files then edit them. Things are alittle better but I can only edit for about 5 - 10 minutes before PS locks up.

I'm going to try to export my raw files to Tiff and see if PS behaves any better editing the Tiff files.

To Be continued....

cmason · September 26, 2015

try using PS without the Wacom plugged in. Does it still lock up in 10 mins? If it does then it might not be the Wacom. It could be another plugin, or it could be some other hardware issue, even your memory.

If you suspect memory, try swapping the memory chips around, see if that leads to odder problems. Even better, remove a stick (or pair of sticks) see if the problems get better or worse. I have had problems that were caused by a bad memory chip, that only appeared when memory started getting full, so fairly big PS projects. Swapping or removing chips would expose the problems sooner.

Richard · September 26, 2015

You haven't mentioned what operating system you are using. I'm guessing it's Windows, 'cause a Mac user would have said "...my new MacBook Pro."

Driver conflict or hardware issues (especially memory) do seem to be the most likely. I'd try a couple of things: look in the system log to see what error messages there might be just prior to the crashes. Might point you in the right direction. Also, assuming your machine came with a hardware diagnostics program, run it and see if it reports any problem. Check the Adobe community forums to see whether anyone else is having the same problem. Finally, you could call Adobe support and see what they have to say about it. Come to think of it, check with Wacom as well. Guess that's more than a couple

.

I know this must be frustrating, but there's no reason to think that your configuration is inadequate. Something's wrong, and you'll need some patience to figure it out.

Edit: Just to clarify, is the whole machine crashing or just the Adobe apps? Both Windows and OS-X are fairly robust when an application crashes, but hardware problems are more likely to bring the whole machine down.

Thelensspot · September 26, 2015

Richard wrote: »

... look in the system log to see what error messages there might be just prior to the crashes....

Richard, just for my edification, as a Windows 7 user, how would one do this?

Richard · September 27, 2015

Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Event Viewer (I keep a shortcut pinned to my taskbar)

There's an astounding amount of stuff available in the left nav sidebar, but I generally use Custom Views-->Administrative Events. Click on any event for details. In the General tab, there is usually a link to Msft online documentation for the error. Sometimes it's helpful, other times not at all.

Warning: this stuff is highly technical; I have over 20 years of professional IT experience and don't understand most of what's shown. But you can't break anything by looking at it. Just don't get freaked out by the number of warnings and errors that appear--almost all of them can be safely ignored.

PooleImages · September 28, 2015

Again, Thanks folks for all your input.

I am running windows 8.1 on a new lenovo y50-70, 16gb ram, 4 gb on the nvidia card. 1tb harddrive with an SSD for startup.

I've been watching youtube and adobe for related problems but no-one has posted an issue with windows 8.1. The latest info posted is about windows 7 and changin a PSuserconfig file, ( that is in a directory for windows 7) I don't have the same directory structure with PS CC 2015 so I can't try the win 7 change they suggest. ( and some later posts states that Wacoms latest drivers fixed the problem months ago) .

I was on the phone with Wacom today and they were supprised at my issue. They had me update windows 8.1, erase Ps, Lr, and the Wacom drivers. I did everything they said. So I open Ps, don't even want to edit a photo, I just start a new document with a white background and try to paint with a blackbrush using completely re-installed drivers, Ps, Lr, and still I paint a line with the brush which is lags as it puts down the line then eventually locks up as usual. I then go to the taskmanager, and see Ps is "not responding" and end the "task" to get my laptop back.

So today I waved the white flag and bought a small mouse for the laptop. I will try the mouse (with the adobe applications) after I finish this post.

Also- The tablet seems to work fine with just the operating system and other apps. It's lightroom and Ps that (for 3 weeks now) crash after trying simple editing with the Wacom Intous pro small tablet. BTW I have tried plugging the tablet into different USB ports and that does'nt seem to make any difference. (USB 2.o or 3.o)

Also... the tablet works fine on my desktop with windows 7 and 8 gig of ram in Ps and Lr....

Thanks again... I keep ya posted..... until I put this brandnew laptop on craigslist and buy the dam macbook.....

Todd P.

Richard · September 29, 2015

I'm sure there's an answer short of dumping the machine!

I had another thought, which is that it might be the Nvidia driver, a frequent cause of grief. Go into your Photoshop and LR preferences and disable hardware acceleration then restart the applications. If they still crash, I suppose that wasn't the problem. Better still, if your machine has an Intel graphics chip on the motherboard as well as the Nvidia card (my Lenovo has this), try starting Photoshop using the onboard GPU. To do this, right-click on PS.exe in your Programs->Adobe->PS folder. On the popup menu there will be an option to select the graphics processor. Note that I'm running Win7 and don't know whether it's the same in other versions.

If none of this solves the problem, I'd say Adobe support should be your next move, and Lenovo support (which is generally very good in my experience) after that.

Good luck, Todd, and be sure to let us know what the solution turns out to be.

PooleImages · October 1, 2015

And the saga continues....

I found the RAM tester in windows 8.1 control panel and gave that a shot. That reported back that it found no problems with the installed ram. I then tried running Ps with a mouse and not the Wacom. Well wadaya know... Ps was just as bad, I just tried to paint a simple black line on a white background with a simple brush, and the program just behaved like it did with the tablet lagged then locked-up. This was a huge breakthrough. I can stop nagging Wacom and continue removing bloatware from the hard drive! I last dumped Mcafee and I will re-install Ps and try again. So signs really point to some bloatware or Dvd driver that i don't need that is at the root of the problem! Yeh!

I will, as suggested, call Adobe and lenovo. But befor that , I will try using the onboard video and shutting off the Nvidia card and see what that does...

Til next time, keep making great images and don't forget to have fun!!

Todd Poole
Poole Images

PooleImages · October 20, 2015

Wow.....

I found it. or I think I have. I shut off the driver for my add on nvida geforce Gtx video card in this laptop. And everything is right as rain.

Thank-you to all of you for your insight, support and direction! I could not have done it without you folks! So, If you hear of this problem from others..... IT'S THE VIDEO CARD! SHUT IT OFF....so glad I spent the extra money on the dam thing.

I am very thankful for this community! THANK YOU AGAIN cmason, Richard, the lens spot, and Mitchell. It is great to see creative people helping other creatives!

-Todd

Richard · October 21, 2015

Glad to hear you located the source of the problem.

If I were you, I'd try to see if there's a newer driver available for the Nvidia card. Lenovo has a driver update program in its toolset, or you could check with Nvidia directly. You'll get somewhat better performance in PS and in the LR Develop module if you can use the Nvidia card rather than the onboard Intel. If you're on the latest driver, as a last resort, you might check with Nvidia, Adobe or Lenovo tech support to see whether changing one of the numerous, arcane settings on the card fixes the problem. If none of that works, then your best bet is to just stick with the Intel GPU for PS and save the Nvidia card for gaming.

ziggy53 · October 21, 2015

Richard wrote: »

Glad to hear you located the source of the problem. If I were you, I'd try to see if there's a newer driver available for the Nvidia card. Lenovo has a driver update program in its toolset, or you could check with Nvidia directly. You'll get somewhat better performance in PS and in the LR Develop module if you can use the Nvidia card rather than the onboard Intel. If you're on the latest driver, as a last resort, you might check with Nvidia, Adobe or Lenovo tech support to see whether changing one of the numerous, arcane settings on the card fixes the problem. If none of that works, then your best bet is to just stick with the Intel GPU for PS and save the Nvidia card for gaming.

This is excellent advice. Do report the issues with Nvidia, Microsoft, Adobe and Lenovo. Specifically, Nvidia and Adobe are jointly most culpable for the problem, but Nvidia is vastly more responsive, IMO.

Also do a Google search for your specific Nvidia GeForce GTX card and Photoshop CC to see if something shows up that is helpful.

Thelensspot · October 21, 2015

Very helpful feedback. Nice problem solving algorithm played out here. Great job!

Photoshop crashes new laptop

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