Photoshop CS + Panther crashes

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Trying to contact sheet or open 2 or 3 files at once in Photoshop CS crashes.
I am using a G5 with 2.5 gb RAM 230 gb H/D. OSX Panther 10.3.3.
Can anyone help ?

Thanks Geoff

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Trying to contact sheet or open 2 or 3 files at once in Photoshop CS crashes.
I am using a G5 with 2.5 gb RAM 230 gb H/D. OSX Panther 10.3.3.
Can anyone help ?
Thanks Geoff

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

does if crash if you make a new user and use that account??

what have you done to try and solve the problem??

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

I have tried reducing the RAM to 90% ( 2.5 in machine), I have unchecked "put drive to sleep when possible", I have disabled background processing, I have set cache levels to 4, I have taken the primary scatch disc off the hard drive and put it on an empty drive.
Non of these worked.

I have not tried the new user account, but I will try that next.

Thanks Geoff

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

try this <http://www.gballard.net/psd/troubleshootpurgepsd.html>

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Thanks gballard,
I have reduced my RAM to 50% and this seems to work ok.
This seems very strange. I have been using 1gb+ of RAM for some
years now, (before CS) and as I only use photoshop I have left it at 90%. This
was with a PC but now with a Mac G5. Do you know why I can't use all my RAM ?
I always though Photoshop liked a lot of RAM, but if this is the answer it's only
using 900mb of the 2.5gb available. A backward step ?

Thanks again Geoff

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

Don't know, is it possible the ram is bad on the end?

What happens if you swap slots??

PS:

I only have 1.5gb, you need to compare numbers with someone who knows.
I would think you could go 100%, with nothing else open, and not have the ram be the problem???

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

65% seems to work well for most people -- you do need to leave enough for the System itself.

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the reply Anne, but the G5 ships with 512mb and if the % theory is correct it's using about 1gb for the system ?

Thanks Geoff

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Geoff,

This was discussed recently in other threads. The percentage refers to available memory after the system grabs its initial allocation. If you set it close to 100%, and since any application can use up to 2GB, then the system and other applications could not have enough additional RAM if needed afterwards.

BTW, it's not a "theory" but one of the facts the programmers work with. Do a search on Cox RAM percent. on this forum

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

Ramón,

I read where Ian said Photoshop's Memory preference setting at 100% can only 'grab' 2gb of ram.

In other words, if we have 2.5gb of ram, a 100% setting gives PS 2gb and leaves 500mb for the OS and other open apps.

Is this correct???

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

G B,

Not quite. There was a recent thread in which Chris Cox cleared this up for us, if I understood him correctly.

If you have 2.5GB of RAM and set Photoshop to 100%, it will take up to 100% of whatever RAM is available, not necessarily 100% of the nominal 2GB limit it can use (Chris explained that limit is really appx 1.9GB or something like that because of some overhead). The system, because it obviously starts up first, takes up its initial chunk of memory; but Chris confirmed that it's still possible that the system will eventually require more memory, which it needs to grab after other applications have launched. If it doesn't find enough free RAM, a slowdown will occur as the system makes more intensive use of the swap file.

In other words, the % of RAM you set is a limit, rather than an actual allocation like we had in Mac OS 9.x. The allocation is gone in OS X. The application will be given as much RAM as it needs subject to availability at any given time, and subject to the 2GB limit and the % set for the application. That does not mean that 2GB are being "reserved" exclusively to the application.

So, even with Photoshop set at 100%, it may only be able to use a portion of its 2GB limit if the System and other applications are using more than 512MB in your hypothetical 2.5GB RAM example.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Clarification:

If you have 2.5GB of RAM and set Photoshop to 100%, it will take up to 100% of whatever RAM is available, not necessarily 100% of the nominal 2GB limit it can use (Chris explained that limit is really appx 1.9GB or something like that because of some overhead) it can be less but not more than that appx. 1.9GB limit.

[Geof_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Thanks everyone for the help with this RAM problem. I have been having the problem with RAM allocation with Mac OSX panther and Photoshop CS on a twin processor machine.
It didn't happen with Photoshop 7
and it didn't happen with OS 9. It didn't happen with a PC running windows 2000 on Photoshop 7.
There must be a conflict with Panther and CS, the RAM allocation suggestions seem to help but it seems bizarre to only allocate 800mb of a possible 2.5gb when only running a single programme (Phsp).

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

<< It didn't happen with Photoshop 7 and it didn't happen with OS 9. >>

Two totally different animals!

I have found NO conflicts between Photoshop CS and Panther 10.3.3 -- if you are having trouble, it has to lie elsewhere. Font duplication or corruption perhaps?

The memory thing doesn't work in quite the way that you think it does in OS X: just give Photoshop CS the nominal 65%, as I suggested previously, and it will have access to all the RAM that it needs.

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

can't read where you've ruled anything out or done any disk maintenance or any troubleshooting or much else besides lowering the memory pref (which gives you a valuable clue) if it was a conflict between CS/8 and 10.33 there would be more people (than you) here with the problem

it could be as simple a bad font or corrupted user account or even bad usb

you may save some time by reviewing this thread

PS: Thanks, Ramón...

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

I tend to agree with Geof...the "theory" suggests 100% to Photoshop -- with 2.5gb installed -- would be good with nothing else running.

The fact that PS is crashing, not just lagging, leads me to corruption or bad hardware...

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

But other things are almost certainly "running" (email, browser, utilities and … FONTS (they count as "applications" too).

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

Geof, if you open Terminal (in Utilities Folder)

Type "top" (without the "")
press Enter

do you see anything hogging ram?

[g_ballard@adobeforums.com]

Okay, Ann.
I conceed your point

Though I would think 500mb would be plenty ram to run the OS and what needs to run in the background?

My point is when I want maximum ram available in PS -- with 2500mb of ram -- I should be able to give PS 100% (2000mb) and not crash???