Program not responding | End task....

[watermelon]

Any idea how whenever photoshop (and many other apps) crash, or I

click the close button of a nearly crashed app, XP opens a box saying

Application not responding, end task? that NEVER works!

 

Pressing End Task on this box has no affect, yet pressing

Ctrl+Alt+Delete and ending the photoshop.exe proccess has imediate effect.

 

Anyone else noticed this? Realy started to anoy me now iv noticed it.

[pjmeade]

Hello Andrew, Yes, I have noticed it. I have Windows XP Pro with the latest service pack (2 or 4?) and I do get hit with this a fair bit with Elements 2, not Elements 1. Elements 1 has never locked up W2k, but I don't have Elements 2 on that machine, so I don't know if it would have the same effect. From time to time, the lock up needs a shut down and restart but as a rule giving it a few seconds and closeing from Ctr Alt Del do the trick. The lock ups can be spontaneous, but I think they tend to occur when opening a file or folder at the same time as another function is at work.

 

I think you can work around it most of the time by not asking your computer to do too much whilst Adobe is in use. But why should we have to use our computers like we are stil in the 1980s?.

 

Your right, blood pressure goes up and quality of English goes down.

 

Anyone got a working solution?

[wbowman]

<i>Anyone got a working solution?</i><br /><br />

Yes, my working solution is to use Mac OS X.

[beauh44]

Yeah, Mac's never have any problems. In the mean time, you might try a program like Process Viewer - it's a free utility from PC World. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,6102,00.asp">Here's the link.</a> Here's the blurb: "Find out detailed information about the processes running under Windows. PrcView gives you the full list of DLLs for each running application, including full path and version information. You can also write scripts and debuggers to more closely examine processes. The program shows all parent/child relationships to system processes. This latest version displays all DLLs currently in use, as well as which processes use a DLL you select."<P>

 

I'd also look into spyware that might be running, a virus check would be a good idea too. Also check available RAM and disk space. PC World has tons of free utilities that can help so look around the site. Good luck!

[Ed_Ingold]

Perhaps this affects you. A recent security patch issued by Microsoft, KB896423, causes Photoshop CS2 to lock up on my computer when attempting to open an image file. The "end program" dialog box never goes away. I'm running W2K, and the patch is for a vulnerability in the spooler. The problem ceases if the patch is removed.

[jano_lukac]

ctrl-alt-delete method is an immediate kill process technique (kill -9 for unix types). Think of it as kicking an open door shut as hard as you can.

 

The "end task" method is slightly different, obviously, and my guess winXP is simply waiting to get its fingers on the door handle before slamming it shut (door handle may be a bit greasy so it's trying to wipe it down). If you wait long enough it'll work.

[steven_clark]

Yep. I think when you do an end task it may be analyzing a memory dump from the affected process to send off to microsoft. With memory intensive programs like this that takes a loooong time.

[dave_osborne]

Yeah often when a program is being shutdown in an uncontrolled manner the system tries to do a memory dump (look for dumprep.exe in the process list after you hit End Task)... this really doesn't help matters when the system is usually struggling already. Annoys the crap out of me.

Try switching off error reporting - right-click My Computer -> properties -> Advanced tab -> Error Reporting -> Disable error reporting