Cursor flickers and deselects menues

[Micke_be]

Hi, I'm using Illustrator CC 2015.3 on a Surface Pro 3 with Windows 10 and every time I start it up the cursor begins (and never ends) flickering it's loading state. I also cannot open menues (they immediately close) or use shortcuts. The program seems to be pulling most of my CPU in this idle state, and the cursor continues flickering when using other programs aswell (such as this browser window). Bug does not appear in any other CC application, but renders Illustrator more or less unresponsive.

Have tried uninstalling Wacom drivers, running as admin, resetting preferences, clean uninstalling (AdobeCreateiveCloudCleanerTool) and re-installing. Also tried the new 2017 Beta with same results.

[CFodge]

I'm having the same issue now. It was fine yesterday but this morning Windows did an automatic update and now Illustrator is unusable. I've cleared preferences, uninstalled, cleaned and have had no luck. I've noticed once I open illustrator there is now a giant spike in disk usage coming from system files that doesn't lower after time has passed, but will go away as soon as I shut illustrator down. I don't have the problem with Indesign of photoshop so I think whatever the issue is, it is specific to illustrator at the moment.

[Micke_be]

I had the exact same experience (CPU spikes), also in Illustrator only. Since doing a full system reset (reinstalling Windows 10) the problem hasn't resurfaced, even though I let Windows do all the updates it's wanted. Nothing's saying it won't happen again, though, under whatever circumstances. The bug doesn't not seem to be common, but hugely disruptive, nearly a deal breaker. Adobe should really want to look into it.

[wearegrid]

Hello, any solution to this problem? After latest Win 10 update my Illustrator cursor flickers and program becomes unusable (can't use menu, can't do anything). When I reverted windows update back problem dissipated. I can't leave my pc ON all the time!!! Please help!

[Monika Gause]

wearegrid schrieb:

Hello, any solution to this problem? After latest Win 10 update my Illustrator cursor flickers and program becomes unusable (can't use menu, can't do anything). When I reverted windows update back problem dissipated. I can't leave my pc ON all the time!!! Please help!

Please contact support:

Contact Customer Care

[davidw66386622]

I'm having exactly the same problem - started last week after the same massive Windows 10 update. Program is now totally useless. Oddly, on a couple of occasions I've been using Photoshop and the issue with Illustrator goes away for a while, but soon returns.

Adobe - you should be all over this! We're dead in the water and losing income.

[laurendobie]

I'm having this problem too.  Anyone find any solutions to this yet?  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times with no luck.

[MediaGotham]

FIXED for now!

I am running the latest Windows 10 Pro, with 3 monitors and CC Illustrator 15.3.

I was having the same issue, after a couple of calls with support, they seemed to have fixed it by deleting this folder: "CEPHtmlEngine"

Path: C:\Program Files\Adobe Illustrator CC 2015.3\Support Files\Contents\Windows\

So far no issues. Call support or try at your own risk!

-MediaGotham

[davidw66386622]

I've tried the fix. Made a copy of the "CEPHtmlEngine" folder first.

Yes it does work but it's clearly a workaround. I get a scary looking error message when opening Illustrator and then on closing, Windows thinks Illustrator is not responding and tries to fix it. Also things like displaying Recent files as thumbnails goes away.

FYI: all the main Cloud Apps have their own "CEPHtmlEngine" folder, so it's clearly an important component (I'm not a Windows geek).

Be careful out there!

Hope Adobe provides a real fix soon.

[CFodge]

Just tried it and it worked for me as well, also with the error message. Thanks for posting your result! I agree though, this is probably only a temporary fix.

[aesphetic]

thanks so much!

[pilchowski159]

Hello, from the folder "CEPHtmlEngine" I removed only "icudtl.dat" file - problem is fixed - there is no error message on the start and no error message while shutting Illustrator down. After starting the program there are no thumbnails of last work, but File / Open last files (I have czech version so sorry if it is not properly translated) works.

Seems like the best solution for me so far, but ADOBE should really do somenthing since we are paying for badly working software trying to fix its bugs by those dangerous experiments.

[CFodge]

Just tried removing the .dll and had the same results. No more error messages and (so far) hasn't crashed suddenly like it was doing while I had the entire folder removed. Thanks for posting! Please solve this Adobe!

[davidk39982975]

Thank you pilchowski159​!! This seems to have fixed the problem for me too!!! Illustrator was completely unusable because of this problem.

[LoneStorgaardDesign]

Thank you, David. It works for me too.

Adobe, pls. fix now

[Edward_Blakeborough]

Best thing ever thanks homie!

[thesignpost]

Yep, just after the windows 10 update, have the same issue. Lets go ADOBE, we need a fix.

[MarcinKrzyzaniak]

Same here, but i will not perform a scarry experiments as long as previous version (cc 2014) works fine for me. But still it would be nice to have an fix i have a lot of files save only as pdf's by the 15.3 version and older version can't read properly that files.

[JustDiana]

Hi everyone,

I just contacted the support through chat and the situation is now fixed using a different method. I have Windows 10 and the Illustrator 15.3 version. No scary pop ups for me, acts normal again. Here is the chat transcript, sorry its long. The rep kept giving me very short instructions:

Darakhshan: May I Know  which version of Illustrator you are using ?
Diana Da Silva: the most recent 15.3
Darakhshan: ok
Darakhshan: please close Illustrator
Diana Da Silva: its closed
Darakhshan: are you using mac or windows ?
Diana Da Silva: windows
Darakhshan: please choose c drive
Darakhshan: choose program files
Darakhshan: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CC 2015.3\CEP\extensions
Darakhshan: please go to  above location
Diana Da Silva: yup
Darakhshan: in extentions folder choose co.adobe.svgwriter and com.adobe.experimentations
Diana Da Silva: k
Darakhshan: delete these two files
Diana Da Silva: the entire folders?
Darakhshan: yes , delete both folders
Diana Da Silva: ok both are deleted
Darakhshan: at the top where it shows the path
Darakhshan: type %appdata%
Diana Da Silva: k
Darakhshan: open Roaming.
Darakhshan: > Go to Adobe> rename illustrator20setting > rename Illustrator20settings.old
Diana Da Silva: k
Darakhshan: did you rename it
Diana Da Silva: yup I renamed the folder
Darakhshan: ok
Darakhshan: do you see any folder named as adobe Illustrator
Diana Da Silva: just adobe illustrator, yes I do
Darakhshan: please rename that folder
Diana Da Silva: add old to the end of that one as well?
Darakhshan: yes
Diana Da Silva: ok I have done that
Darakhshan: please launch Illustrator
Diana Da Silva: Its fixed!
Diana Da Silva: awesome thank you so much that was driving me nuts!
Darakhshan: great
Darakhshan: you are welcome
Darakhshan:
Darakhshan: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Diana Da Silva: Nope that's it. Have a great day!

[thesignpost]

Nope, it didnt work for me. I opened illustrator, it was fine. I opened a file, the same freaking flickering.

[JustDiana]

Yup, I take it back. It worked for me to change the settings for a new file which it didn't let me do before then went back to being screwy when I tried to work the file. Ugh, so annoying.

[jenp73]

Did not work for me. . .

[Animat]

Didn't work for me either. I've tried almost everything. I evwn used Adobe cloud cleaner. Deleted and reinstalled all the apps. Didn't work.

I suspect that the problem lies within Windows insider builds. Did a Windows re-fresh. Installed Illustrator and it works fine now.

However, I hope there is another way to fix this issue without re-installing Windows...

Gud luck guys!

[tobyc72517730]

how did you do a windows refresh? thanks

[Micke_be]

Depends on your Windows version, if you've got 10, hit the Windows key (if other than win10, press F3) and type "refresh" or "restore". The procedure "Refresh your PC without affecting your files" worked fine for me. Then I had to reinstall all my programs, of course.