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rivrbend Calculating status...

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Error message: Adobe InDesign CS5 has stopped working

Feb 6, 2012 7:26 PM

Hi,

I am having a strange problem. When I open an InDesign file, I get the error message above. Then windows is looking for a solution. I close the window and reopen the file and it opens right up. This problem does not occur if I open InDesign first then open the file. Only when I try to open the file and InDesign starts to run. I am running Windows 7 64bit. Any ideas out there?

4287 Views 32 Replies Latest reply: Peter Spier, Mar 26, 2012 4:04 PM

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1. Peter Spier,

Feb 7, 2012 2:29 AM in reply to rivrbend

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Windows 7 doesn't do a lot of error reporting, but there might be some clue in Event viewer.

IN the meantime, it won't hurt to trash your prefs. See Replace Your Preferences

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2. rivrbend,

Feb 7, 2012 8:36 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Hi Peter,
thanks for the help, It helped with (at least I think at this point) with something else that was going at the same time, but I am still getting the same error message if I try to open up the file without opening up ID first. It always opens up on the second try. The other problem i didn't mention which hasn't started up again (yet) is that I would click on one file, another previously opened file would open first and then the desired file would open. Renaming the files seems to have cleared up that problem. Going into the event check didn't help me figure out any issues. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Clark

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3. Peter Spier,

Feb 8, 2012 5:40 AM in reply to rivrbend

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rivrbend wrote:

The other problem i didn't mention which hasn't started up again (yet) is that I would click on one file, another previously opened file would open first and then the desired file would open.
That actually sounds like auto-recovery kicking in after a crash. I would expect to see this if another file had been open at the time of the crash. At next launch ID should open an "untitled" document with the last recovery state for every file that you had open when it crashed.

I'm suspicious that you have some sort of software conflict, or possibly just a damaged installation. Do you have any third-party plugins installed, or do you use a font manager? What about anti-virus or malware scanners?

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4. rivrbend,

Feb 8, 2012 11:18 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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no installed plug-ins or font manager. I am running Zone Alarm anti-virus, which has caused conflicts in other areas in the past, but never ID. This is a new computer and everything is a frest install. Maybe I will uninstall the anti-virus and see what happens to the problem and go from there.
Thanks,
Clark

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5. rivrbend,

Feb 8, 2012 4:51 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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After an uninstall of InDesign and the antivirus software, no solution to the problem. I went into the startup menu and started doing selected start ups. I was able to narrow down the conflict to the "windows management instrumentation" program. When this is not running, I get the message that my ID has reached its activation limit and I need a new number or it needs to be deauthorized on at least one computer. There are a couple of other programs that need WMI to run as well. I did go in and delete the preferences since nothing I had was hard to recreate. Can the other files in the cache be deleted as well? Will ID look for them and recreate them such as the one in the recovery folder? Anyway, I had one document that I have been working on be rescaled-very strange. Everything else was unchanged. One other thing, when I would get the error message, I would close and then reopen the document without any problem. However, when I closed it again, even if all i did was view it without changing anything, I would get the prompt if I wanted to save the changes.
So does that help at all in narrowing down the problem? I have reinstalled the antivirus, and it did not affect anything. As long as I don't run WMI, I don't get the error message.
thanks,
Clark

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6. Peter Spier,

Feb 9, 2012 8:16 AM in reply to rivrbend

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You should be able to move everything out of the folders where your prefs are stored and ID would rebuild on next launch. This is starting to sound like an issue inthe licensing/activation system, but that might be a red herring. How many machines have you installed on?

You might, at this point, want to deactivate from the help menu, unistall from control panel, run the clean tool (Resolve installation problems with CS5 Cleaner Tool), then reboot, run MSconfig to turn off all non-essetnial startups and services especially zone alarm and any browser toolbars or helpers, iTunes, and messengers, reboot again and reinstall, then run MSconfig again to restore normal startup.

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7. rivrbend,

Feb 9, 2012 5:19 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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will give that a try. I have not used the cleaner tool, so maybe that is what I need. I have only installed on two computers, the first one having crashed before I could deactivate. Still should be OK since two was limit. When I open up ID, I get the message that need to either buy another license or deactivate on one computer. When Windows Management Instrumentation is running, I don't get this prompt.
Will let you know how it goes.
thanks,
Clark

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8. rivrbend,

Feb 9, 2012 5:24 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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one other question,
should I uninstall photoshop as well even though I am not having any issues with it? The instructions for the cleaner are for CS, I only have ID and photoshop.

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9. Peter Spier,

Feb 9, 2012 5:29 PM in reply to rivrbend

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If the cleaner will leave photoshop in place, I think that's OK. I've never had to run it myself.

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10. rivrbend,

Feb 9, 2012 7:48 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Well, the problem did not resolve with the cleaner, uninstall, and reinstall. I even uninstalled the zone alarm before I reinstalled. Weird........

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11. Peter Spier,

Feb 10, 2012 5:32 AM in reply to rivrbend

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OK. Sorry that didn't work.

This happens only when trying to open a file from Explorer or Bridge? Do you have Q2ID or Suitcase?

You might also want to try disabling SING. I think the normal issue with SING is a hang, not a crash, but see SING Removal

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12. rivrbend,

Feb 10, 2012 2:23 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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I have only had the problem when I open directly from windows. If I open ID first and then open a file, it opens cleanly or it brings up the file I was trying to open from windows. I do import a lot of decorative fonts and I have had font issues in the past before I reloaded Windows. I will try the SING removal-I would not be surprised if it has a font conflict at the root of the problem.

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13. Peter Spier,

Feb 10, 2012 3:21 PM in reply to rivrbend

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I doubt this is a bad font issue. A bad font would crash ID no matter how you ope the file.

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14. rivrbend,

Feb 10, 2012 3:49 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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I moved the SING files to the desktop, did not delete them, and the problem persisted. ID does not crash, it hangs. Usually after a few seconds, I get the error message that it is not working and windows is looking for a solution. Of course, it hasn't found one yet! Sometimes it just hangs without any message.

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15. Peter Spier,

Feb 10, 2012 3:55 PM in reply to rivrbend

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It was a long shot.

At this point I can't think of anything else to try off the top of my head, but maybe tomorrow in the shower -- that's where I do my best thinking.

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16. thre3,

Feb 15, 2012 9:45 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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"Do you have any third-party plugins installed, or do you use a font manager?"

I'm having the same problem and I have FontExpert 2011 installed..could that be the case of my indesign 5.5 not working?

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17. Peter Spier,

Feb 15, 2012 10:15 AM in reply to thre3

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Haven't heard of Font Expert causing trouble, but that doesn't rule it out. Remove the auto-activation plugin, if it has one, from InDesign and see if tit helps.

Have you tried the other stuff discussed here?

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18. thre3,

Feb 15, 2012 10:18 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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yea nothing seems to work...this happened after I installed fontexpert. I uninstalled it and restarted my comp, still nothing. I'm going to reinstall and see if that helps I guess

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19. Peter Spier,

Feb 15, 2012 10:21 AM in reply to thre3

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How long ago was that? Perhaps a System Restore would be easier to start.

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20. thre3,

Feb 15, 2012 10:23 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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heh, that was the first thing I did...I'm going to troubbleshoot for a while and see if I can come up with anything

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21. NoPhD,

Mar 21, 2012 10:57 PM in reply to rivrbend

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I'm having the same problem since installing Windows 7.

Why is it that all my problems are on my PC at work while my Mac at home humms away nicely.

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22. Peter Spier,

Mar 22, 2012 4:20 AM in reply to NoPhD

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NoPhD wrote:
Why is it that all my problems are on my PC at work while my Mac at home humms away nicely.
Probably more to do with it being a work computer and lots of users or poor configuration than anything related to platform. Every job I ever held had more trouobles at work than I have at home, and at work it was always Macs, with Windows at home.

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23. Manko10,

Mar 26, 2012 11:08 AM in reply to rivrbend

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I'm also experiencing similar issues. I have two (larger) InDesign files which I can't open anymore. When I open them, Indesign crashes and the next time I start the program it asks me to recover the file. If I click yes, it successfully recovers everything, but then crashes again immediately.
Both files were created on another computer but with the same InDesign version (CS5 on Windows 7). I also have another file which has been created on the same machine that actually works (just a small file).
This problem definitely has nothing to do with any old InDesign settings etc. I had installed InDesign to a virtual machine and had the problem there. Now I have a fresh installation on my notebook (completely different system, not a VM, no old settings migrated) and have it here as well.

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24. NoPhD,

Mar 26, 2012 12:36 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Peter,
I'm sure you're right. I've worked on both platforms since the 80's - DOS pre Windows and Apple 2E before Mac, but Apple was always my home computer so I've always been partial to Apple. But I'm so thrilled that Adobe products can, for the most part, work smoothy on Mac's OS and Windows - the minor glitches are not a problem .

Manko10
I had an issue with an InDesign document that kept crashing for days that I couldn't figure out for . It turned out to be a 'text on a path' issue that the program didn't like. I earned a few grey hairs on that one. I sometimes wonder why I didn't go into banking.

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25. Manko10,

Mar 26, 2012 12:45 PM in reply to rivrbend

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The document doesn't contain any text on paths. And it's not just crashing for days, but for months.

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26. Peter Spier,

Mar 26, 2012 12:50 PM in reply to Manko10

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Manko,

If you are able to keep the file open long enough before crashing, thry opening and IMMEDIATELY exporting to .idml. See Remove minor corruption by exporting

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27. Manko10,

Mar 26, 2012 3:34 PM in reply to rivrbend

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Not possible. It crashes before the contents are loaded. And then when I start ID again it crashes immediately after recovery.

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28. Peter Spier,

Mar 26, 2012 3:39 PM in reply to Manko10

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Probably won't work, but worth trying. Say no to recovery, then try oening the original as a copy.

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29. Manko10,

Mar 26, 2012 3:42 PM in reply to rivrbend

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Doesn't work. Opening as Copy also crashes InDesign.

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30. Peter Spier,

Mar 26, 2012 3:50 PM in reply to Manko10

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You're probably looking at remaking the file, or paying for recovery then. Check out Bad InDesign or Quark File Recovery Submission Form

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31. Manko10,

Mar 26, 2012 3:59 PM in reply to rivrbend

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I guess it's more an InDesign bug since InDesign's recovery seems to be successful. At least it doesn't show an error message and I can see the contents after recovery. The only problem is that I can't access them because Windows immediately shows the message that the program stopped working.
And besides that, a program shouldn't crash anyway just because of a corrupt file. If a file is completely broken and can't be recovered the program has to show an error message instead of crashing.
I also tried copying the file to another place and opened it. Before crashing it told me that there are about 150 broken links to files used in the document. So it can't be completely broken. InDesign is able to read at least most parts of the document.

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32. Peter Spier,

Mar 26, 2012 4:04 PM in reply to Manko10

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Be that as it may, the pragmatic solution is to do what it takes to get the file usable.

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