Preferences file being corrupted

[Doc_Pit]

I'm having to reset my Preferences almost daily to correct problems such as loss of scrubby zoom and brushes not working correctly.  Are there factors known to cause problems with the Preferences file?  Basically, is there anything I can do to avoid this?

[S_Gans]

It always helps us to help you if you please include your version of the software, your OS platform and version, and any other pertinent technical information. Thanks.

[Omar.Fathy]

What about your GPU ?! Please check it and see if it is working well or not. I think that it is Radeon AMD or other with a problem in driver.

[Derek Cross]

Good point, try unchecking it in Photoshop preference.

[Doc_Pit]

Thanks very much for the responses.  I was pretty stingy with information.  Sorry about that.  The machine I'm running is a Dell M7710M Precision (Mobile) Workstation with 32GB of SDRAM and an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v5 quad core processor.  OS is Windows 10 Pro.  GPU is Nvidia Quadro M5000M w/8GB GDDR5.  Photoshop CC 2018 is set up to use a max of 85%  (24941MB). My C:\, D:\ and M:\ drives are designated as scratch disks.  All are fast SSDs.  History and Cache are set up for Huge Pixel Dimensions because I routinely work with very large files.  According to Device Manager, my GPU is working properly. I have the latest driver.  There is no way I could work w/o  Use Graphics Processor being checked.

[Pause] Actually, your responses prompted me to check the Dell website for driver updates regardless that Windows is saying I have the latest drivers.  The Dell site does have newer drivers.  I'm in the process of installing those.  Perhaps that will help.  Thanks very much for your responses.

[Derek Cross]

But have you tried it to see what happens when it's unchecked!

[Doc_Pit]

To use an analogy: If I want to know which circuit breaker controls a particular set of outlets, I can flip various breakers on and off until I find the one that controls that circuit.  No real time loss.   If I reset the Preferences, I know that for at least a day I will be able to function. It may be two or three days. Let's say that, during that time, I test the GPU by keeping it unchecked.  Those are days that I'm wasting.  I need to make sure the GPU is sound and test with it on.

[D Fosse]

NVidia has a driver for the Quadro M series cards. Might be worth trying to bypass Dell here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-5000m-us.html

Preferences do get corrupt, mainly because they're rewritten every time you close the application - but not on an almost daily basis. Then you'd have a serious and much bigger disk problem.

[Doc_Pit]

Based on your replies, I did some research.  Last time I did this, Nvidia did not have a Quadro M5000M driver that had been specifically tested with Photoshop.  Now they do, so I'm going to try that driver. Again, thanks very much for your responses: