Adobe Community: Photoshop CS5 crashing my Mac when resizing large images

haroldswift Calculating status...

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Photoshop CS5 crashing my Mac when resizing large images

Jun 5, 2010 7:19 PM

I don't have much to explain this further but Photoshop CS5 is crashing my Mac when I resize large images. Small images are fine but large 300dpi images crashes it without warning. Don't know what to do. The only other similar thing is After Effects CS5 is crashing my Mac when I trim a clip. It completely turns off my Mac when I trim a clip.

I have 8gigs of Ram and am running 27" iMac Core i5

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Hal

5690 Views 39 Replies Latest reply: Chris Cox, Nov 17, 2011 10:44 AM

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1. Chris Cox,

Jun 5, 2010 7:41 PM in reply to haroldswift

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Can you post the crash log?

It completely turns off my Mac when I trim a clip.
Applications can't do that. Only hardware problems, OS bugs, or very low level drivers can cause the machine to shut down or restart.

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2. haroldswift,

Jun 8, 2010 8:01 AM in reply to Chris Cox

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There is no error. The computer just shuts off. Someone suggested that my RAM may not be large enough. Some else said that the GPU is basically running at almost capacity due to my large 27" screen. You would think Apple would take that into consideration so I'm not so sure I believe that one as much. That said, I am going to turn off openGL just to see.

Thanks,
Hal

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3. Chris Cox,

Jun 8, 2010 11:06 AM in reply to haroldswift

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There is no error. The computer just shuts off.
Ok, then you do have a hardware problem.

The amount of RAM won't matter for something like this. It isn't a lack of RAM, but a lack of a working system that matters.

More likely, you have bad RAM, a bad power supply, or some other bad component in the system.
If turning off OpenGL solves the problem, then that most likely means that the problem is in the video chipset (GPU or VRAM).

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4. kereru20,

Apr 29, 2011 3:57 PM in reply to haroldswift

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I see that this was in May 2010 but I am having the identical occurrence. It took a while to realise that the crash was when I was resizing layers in Photoshop and for a while I suspected my Wacom tablet. It's total and without warning, the computer shuts down as instantly as if the power has been cut. I haven't particularly noticed if its only on large images. I'm also running a 27" imac intel core i5 with 8Gb RAM. I'm wondering if you solved your problem Hal.

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5. Chris Cox,

Apr 29, 2011 4:00 PM in reply to kereru20

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It's total and without warning, the computer shuts down as instantly as if the power has been cut
Same comments apply: you're looking at hardware problems to cause a shutdown like that.

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6. kereru20,

Apr 29, 2011 5:48 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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Thanks for your prompt reply Chris.

Now I’m wondering what I should do next (if anything). Photoshop may not be causing the crash but it is certainly an initiating factor as it’s only happening with that particular action and not in any other software.

My mac is 9 months old, so if it’s a hardware fault that needs attention, I probably should do something about it while it’s still under warranty.

Any thoughts on what kind of hardware fault exactly?

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7. Chris Cox,

Apr 29, 2011 7:20 PM in reply to kereru20

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Bad RAM is most likely. HD, video card or the power supply are next. But even CPUs can go bad, some support chip, or a random component on the motherboard (esp. capacitors).

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8. kereru20,

Apr 29, 2011 7:24 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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Thank you. Your support is appreciated. I’ll contact Apple.

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9. haroldswift,

Apr 29, 2011 9:14 PM in reply to kereru20

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Last year when I posted this I called Apple and after a bunch of
diagnostics they told me nothing was wrong with it and to reinstall
Snow Leopard then Photoshop. I haven't had time to do it this year
but give it a shot.

My personal feeling is that it has something to do with it being fully
64 bit now. But I don't know. I still have issues with RAM previews
in After Effects too. No other manufacture's programs do this.

Thanks!

Hal

Sent from my iPhone

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10. Chris Cox,

Apr 29, 2011 9:36 PM in reply to haroldswift

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You should have asked for a supervisor.

There is no way that an application can cause the machine to shut down or reboot.
Only hardware problems can cause that behavior (ok, and sometimes kernel or driver bugs).

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11. haroldswift,

Apr 29, 2011 9:41 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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I did talk with a supervisor and that was their recommendation. I
just don't have time with my work to do a complete reinstall and I
have a major suspicion it isn't going to fix it. BUT that's probably
what I'll have to do.

Hal

Sent from my iPhone

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12. Chris Cox,

Apr 29, 2011 10:41 PM in reply to haroldswift

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Wow, they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for staff if their supervisor didn't recognize a hardware defect.

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13. RabbitW,

Apr 29, 2011 11:58 PM in reply to haroldswift

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Hal,

Just to add more interest. I have almost the same issue. New 27" iMac i7 16G Ram.

As soon as I press command T its crashes the Mac. [By crash I mean the whole machine is unresponsive and the only way to get anything working is to switch off]

I'll search the forum to see how to take a crash log.

I've installed the OS again, and Photoshop, done all updates and still the same.

I also installed PS on my MacBook Laptop, same OS version etc and it works fine there. I have a suspicion its something to do with the hardware on the iMac thats specific to the new machines. My old iMac was fine. I'm half tempted to take my copy of PS to the Apple store and see if it runs on their machine.

I use a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet too. Just in case thats a problem.

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14. haroldswift,

Apr 30, 2011 6:11 AM in reply to RabbitW

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I just got a Wacom tablet and my iMac has the issue with or without
it. Mine is the Craft Touch.

Hal

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15. RabbitW,

Apr 30, 2011 7:54 AM in reply to haroldswift

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I've partly solved this by only opening images as 8-bit. Then I seem to have fixed the transform problem. Trouble is I have the same problem now as soon as I use the magic wand tool.

I'll keep digging away. I'm determined to find the issue here. I haven't spent all this cash on a new iMac to not get the benefit.

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16. Chris Cox,

Apr 30, 2011 10:37 AM in reply to RabbitW

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As soon as I press command T its crashes the Mac. [By crash I mean the whole machine is unresponsive and the only way to get anything working is to switch off]

I'll search the forum to see how to take a crash log.
If the machine shuts down, there won't be a crash log.
Either you got a kernel panic due to a bug in the OS, or you overloaded some part of the hardware and the machine shut itself down to prevent further damage.

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17. Was DYP,

Apr 30, 2011 11:33 AM in reply to RabbitW

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Just to add more interest. I have almost the same issue. New 27" iMac i7 16G Ram.

As soon as I press command T its crashes the Mac. [By crash I mean the whole machine is unresponsive and the only way to get anything working is to switch off]

If this crash is easily repeatable I would pull all RAM chips out and see if they are the same brand/type modules. If they aren't there may be your problem, and you can try two at a time (same type) and see if you get a crash. If they appear to be all the same then you can use two at a time but rotate them in one at a time to see if you get the crash.

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18. RabbitW,

May 1, 2011 1:22 AM in reply to Was DYP

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Solved ! Thanks All.

Yes, it was the Ram. Despite the Ram chips all being the same type, and correctly spec'd and being swapped round and re-seated replacing them with a different manufacturer type solves the problem.

If anyone else decided to buy third party Ram for their 27" iMac - buy the Samsung, as they seem to work without issue.

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19. kereru20,

May 1, 2011 11:36 AM in reply to RabbitW

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Thank you all. This has been very interesting. I live in an area where it’s not going to be straightforward to get technical assistance but it looks like I need to make the effort.

Thanks again.

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20. haroldswift,

May 12, 2011 1:13 PM in reply to kereru20

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So, I tried taking my iMac into the store where I bought it to get it
fixed. Told them about what has been said on this forum about the RAM but
they didn't listen. They just did a diagnostic which once again past just
fine. Said they would have to keep the computer to do an extended
diagnostic for few times. I told them I can't do that. I need my Mac to do
my job and can't be without it for 2 days to a week. I want to shoot
somebody.

Hal

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21. kereru20,

May 12, 2011 1:50 PM in reply to haroldswift

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Here’s another thought.

I phoned a helpful guy at Apple and he suggested looking at the power supply as that action is apparently very power-demanding. As I’m running the iMac through a UPS -- which is otherwise excellent but could be restricting the amount of power (? don’t ask me, I could be making that up), I tried waiting for the next crash then swapping it out and running it from the mains. Did that and tried to replicate the crash but it worked fine. So then I went back to the UPS and . . . it’s still fine.

At least, until the next crash. I wonder if, in fact, the plug wasn’t pushed in properly. As the Mac is so great for showing people things, it tends to be swivelled around now and then (gently, mind, and not far) and once definitely pulled its own plug.

I haven’t done any crash-inducing work for a while but will possibly do some today.

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22. Chris Cox,

May 12, 2011 6:37 PM in reply to kereru20

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Unless you have a very small UPS, it is not likely to be restricting the power.

Most often what happens is that the RAM has bad power due to bad (or too small) decoupling capacitors, or problems with the regulators going to the memory system. And every once in a while someone makes mistakes in the motherboard design with similar power issues. Sometimes bad capacitors in the power supply mean that it can't withstand transient power demands (bursts where the system needs more power).

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23. WebWendy,

May 17, 2011 10:09 AM in reply to haroldswift

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I have the identical problem. It is driving me nuts. Everytime I pull on a handle to resize a high res image, the Mac switches right off, like a power cut (this can't be good for it!). I am also using a wacom tablet. Did anyone figure out a solution that really works?

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24. kereru20,

May 17, 2011 11:58 AM in reply to WebWendy

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I understand how you feel. I’ve even considered selling it and getting a desktop machine. But I’m not trying to do a lot of image work at the moment.

Just out of interest, have you tried using the mouse instead of the tablet in that situation? It hasn’t happened enough times for me to have been able to test it out but it felt like there was some connection. Sometimes after restart, the tablet doesn’t work and needs to be re-restarted using the mouse.

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25. Chris Cox,

May 17, 2011 12:14 PM in reply to WebWendy

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You have a hardware problem in your machine.

No, it is not likely to be a mouse or tablet.

The most common culprits are bad RAM, bad motherboard, bad CPU, and bad power supply.

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26. kereru20,

May 17, 2011 12:14 PM in reply to WebWendy

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Bingo. It probably still has something to do with RAM or a deeper, nastier problem but I just opened up an 80Mb image, created a second layer by dragging a smaller layer from another image and tried to resize it using the tablet. Zot. Instant dead computer (shocking feeling, eh). So after restart (and it often interferes with FMCore as well. You have to log out and back in again to get that back on its feet).

I then put the tablet aside and used the mouse to duplicate the action. And no problem. (I haven’t pushed it any further than that). So if you urgently need to resize a layer that may be a temporary answer. It’s not one I would want forever as the tablet is as integral as the keyboard for me.

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27. RabbitW,

May 17, 2011 12:21 PM in reply to kereru20

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Hi there. Just to reiterate my previous post and solution. My issue was definitely a RAM issue, even though the problem only showed in Photoshop and only then resizing and other specific tasks.

I've downgraded the RAM to the original 4Gb and its never happened since, and this is with the Wacom tablet. Do you have any third party RAM installed ? Have you tried taking the RAM modules out and then refitting them as this cured a similar problem on a previous MAC.

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28. WebWendy,

May 17, 2011 1:07 PM in reply to RabbitW

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My husband is refitting the RAM now - there is apparently some third party RAM. Will let you know how it works out.

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29. haroldswift,

May 18, 2011 4:47 PM in reply to WebWendy

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I just figured out how to remove the RAM and I too had third party RAM and
as soon as I took it out everything was happy!

Now how do I convince the retailer who put it in that it is their fault and
that they should fix it.

Thanks everyone for your time with this question! I appreciate it!

Be Blessed!
Hal

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30. Chris Cox,

May 18, 2011 5:47 PM in reply to haroldswift

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Just tell that that with that RAM installed, the machine was shutting itself down all the time.
Someone on the Photoshop forums suggested that it was caused by bad RAM, and sure enough...

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31. haroldswift,

May 18, 2011 6:02 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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Apparently it is incompatible because it DID pass all hardware tests I've
tried.

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32. Chris Cox,

May 18, 2011 6:12 PM in reply to haroldswift

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The only way to test RAM like that is on a dedicated RAM testing device.
Software tests will only catch the most obvious problems (which probably would have made the machine fail to boot in the first place).

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33. WebWendy,

May 18, 2011 10:21 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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So far we have tried:
1. Simply Reseating the RAM - which made Photoshop happy for about a half an hour during which I pulled on resizing handles with abandon and then it started crashing again.
2. Rearranging the RAM - stacking the MAC RAM differently with one over the other and the Third Party RAM one on top of the other - same result. Looked like it was working, but ultimately started crashing again.
I guest the next step is to completely remove the third party RAM - sounds like that is working for some of you!

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34. Zee Cornelius,

Nov 3, 2011 8:02 PM in reply to WebWendy

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Hi Wendy

Thank you for your insights. We are having the same problems here.

It's been a headache as we bought two 27" iMacs in March 2011; and we've had even BOTH iMacs exchanged.
After exchanging, same thing happened. We then got all 16GB of RAM on each iMac replaced.

But we noticed that the auto-shutdown problem happens with files on 300dpi. We are contemplating on changing them to 299dpi though haha!

Unfortunately, here in Singapore, we don't have a physical Apple store. We only have Premium Resellers.
And the other unfortunate thing is, when RAMs are upgraded these Premium Resellers sell 3rd party RAMs.

I supposed we'll have to deal with this for now until we have enough funds to replace ALL 32 RAMs to original Apple RAMs (which will cost abt another USD1600!!) ..

Hope this forum helps others as much as it finally helped me understand the issue we're having.

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35. Chris Cox,

Nov 3, 2011 8:33 PM in reply to Zee Cornelius

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Not all third party RAM is bad or going to cause problems -- but then again, not all third party RAM actually meets the tolerances needed for Apple's computers.

I tend to use third party RAM a lot, but I order from very reputable RAM dealers who will accept returns if the RAM does not work. It's still 1/3 the price of buying it from Apple, even if it's a little more expensive than cut rate, no-name RAM I could get at the local computer store. And it's been years since I get incompatible RAM.

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36. Zee Cornelius,

Nov 3, 2011 8:36 PM in reply to Chris Cox

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May I know then which Brand of 3rd Party RAM you're using, Chris?
I'm using Strontium and they exchanged ours for free. Would like to find other Brands of 3rd Party RAM then to try.

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37. Chris Cox,

Nov 17, 2011 10:44 AM in reply to Zee Cornelius

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I usually use Kingston or Crucial.

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38. Zee Cornelius,

Nov 17, 2011 2:38 AM in reply to Chris Cox

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Hi Chris, I can't seem to get any Kensington here in Singapore. They keep referring me to Kingston instead. They are not the same by any chance, right?

Do you have a direct link where I can purchase Kensington or Crucial online? The one I found only sells security locks.

Thank you in advanced!

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39. Chris Cox,

Nov 17, 2011 10:44 AM in reply to Zee Cornelius

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Whoops, yeah - I made a typing mistake: Kingston RAM.

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