PS CS freezes and locks up entire system when selecting

[Timothy_Coen@adobeforums.com]

PS CS on dual G5/1.8 Ghz, w/1Gb RAM, OS v.10.2.3

When attempting to create selection, PS CS stops responding, cursor alternates between selction tool icon and spinning beach ball.
More importantly, Cannot Force Quit Applications -no resultant window after keyboard command, Cannot access Finder by clicking or 'command+tab' , Docked applications do not respond.
Only way to recover seems to be power off from shutdown button on G5 front -not a good solution.

Have tossed /User/Library/Preferences/Photoshop CS Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS Prefs.psp
and
/User/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Photoshop.plist

Have rebooted in single user mode and run fsck -fy which found and fixed problems, rebooted normally, re-launched PS CS and problem recurrs.

Have experienced similar problem in Illustrator CS.

Suggestions? Solutions? Known Issues?

Thanks for all feedback.

[Chris_Cox@adobeforums.com]

How are you creating the selection?

Are you using the magic wand?

[Timothy_Coen@adobeforums.com]

Yes.

[Timothy_Coen@adobeforums.com]

ah, oops, wait; sorry —hadn't had any caffeine yet...

No. Not the magic wand, rather the lasso tool.

Thanks,

[DYP@adobeforums.com]

Have you tried changing your video resolution or refresh rate?

[Chris_Cox@adobeforums.com]

OS X shouldn't lockup unless there is a serious driver problem or hardware problem.

My first guess would be a problem with a hard drive, then the RAM, then a bad OS install.