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Astonishing_detail5D2A
Astonishing_detail5D2A
Participating Frequently
May 23, 2023
Question

Photoshop CS4 crashing

  • May 23, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 1513 views

I've read into some fixes, nothing working so far. I have windows 10. Computer 4 1/2 years old. Rarely use photoshop these days but everything just fine until today. 5/23/2023. Last loadup about 4 weeks ago. Photoshop crashes 4 seconds after launch and does not state reason. Flexnet services was indeed off, turned it back on... No Go... Suggestions anyone?? 🙂

 

Thanx!

John Moss

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Peru BobCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 23, 2023

Does it open in Safe Mode?

Astonishing_detail5D2A
Astonishing_detail5D2AAuthor
Participating Frequently
May 23, 2023

Negative sir... Generates Error 148.3 "Licensing for this product has stopped working"

JM

R
Retune
Participating Frequently
May 31, 2023

I don't know if that's a red herring from using Safe Mode, but an old thread suggests running this tool to fix a problem with a similar error message:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/error-code-148-3-photoshop-cs4-for-windows/m-p/1572682/page/2

https://www.adobe.com/support/contact/licensing.html

No idea if running this is still a good idea now that the activation servers have been nuked - messing with licensing might do something irreversible.

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    jane-eCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 23, 2023

    @Astonishing_detail5D2A 

     

    Since you are using CS4, you don't want to roll back to a previous version, as the activation servers have been shut down for CS2, CS3, and CS4. If you uninstall CS4, you will not be able to reactivate.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/activation-deactivation-help.html

     

    Instead, you can try resetting Preferences to see whether or not that helps.

     

    Jane

     

    Astonishing_detail5D2A
    Astonishing_detail5D2AAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 23, 2023

    Hi Jane, thank you for a straight answer :)... Seriously... Only problem is the system dies so fast I can't even get to preferences... If I may, do you know when these servers were shut down? My most recent use was like 4 weeks ago. No problems... This suite was bought & paid for back in the day. There has never been a subscription. I still have my activation license info...

    JM

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    jane-eCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 23, 2023

    Hi @Astonishing_detail5D2A 

     

    I don't remember when the activation servers were shut down, but it was several years ago. Cory is staff and he may have that information. What I do know is that you will never be able to activate CS4 again, as the activation servers no longer exist.

     

    There are two ways to reset Preferences in Creative Suite. Quit Photoshop first.

    • Hover three fingers over Ctrl+Alt+Shift
      Launch Photoshop
      Immediately press and hold those three keys
      You will see a dialog asking if you want to reset preferences if you did it correctly
      The timing is tricky — you have 1/10 of a second between launching PS and pressing the keys

    • The second is manual. If you delete the Preferences file, it will recreate itself when you relaunch. If you have customizations that you have not backed up, you can rename the file instead of deleting it so you can restore it. 
      Details here:
      https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

    Note that resetting through the Preferences dialog won't be available to you in CS4, so ignore that part.


    Since you didn't change your hardware or CS4, the only other variable is Windows OS. Did it do an update? I'm on macOS and Mac shut us out a long time ago. Windows will eventually if it hasn't already.

     

    Jane

     

      CShubert
      Community Manager
      CShubertCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      May 23, 2023

      Sorry to hear this @Astonishing_detail5D2A we can only suggest to rollback to whatever version worked before as this version of Ps was released in 2008 and not fully supported anymore.

       

      https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html

       

      Astonishing_detail5D2A
      Astonishing_detail5D2AAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      May 23, 2023

      Thank you for responding Cory but there is no rollback here... This has worked perfectly fine on this computer for years, last use 4 weeks ago. Now crashing... I am not a professional, just use on occasion. Forgive me, but this makes the second  "Oh Well it's so old it just died" response. No it did not. Something has been installed and I intend to find what,  who, why, and take action. Respectfully I do understand inherencies in hardware updates & corresponding discrepencies there-to in software interactions... In this case, this is a same computer, no changes to hardware, only changes are windows updates. So... If I may... What or Who do you think is responsible for this? Microsoft generates a report when there is a crash. Nothing of the sort here. This in my opinion is Adobe generated security measure? I am the original and sole user of this software bought and paid for, roughly $1500.00 as I recall for the CS4 suite. Again, pardon my annoyance here, but what 'support' is needed if no changes to hardware?  At this stage and long ago for that matter I most certainly would not be expecting updates to it. But to die on start-up... Uh uh... I want to know why and how to resolve... Respectfully my question stands sir... What is responsible for this?

      -John

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