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R
radeldudel
Participant
November 30, 2013
Answered

Video driver crash, gpu sniffer hogs cpu on surface pro 2

  • November 30, 2013
  • 5 replies
  • 22051 views

I'm using PS CC on my Surface pro 2 - when starting PS I get a system message stating the video driver has crashed.

This is not a problem, PS CC runs anyway.

The problem is the task gpu sniffer, which keeps running and hogging one cpu, burning away my battery.

I know I probably need a new video driver, but there is none available. So how do I disable the gpu sniffer for now? It is annoying to have to kill the process after every start of PS.

Thanks Sam

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer

I already disabled this option, PS still starts the gpu sniffer (which crashes the grafic card and runs wild).

I already tried if I could find this using your information, but could not. I don't mind using regedit and know how to make a backup of the stuff I change etc. I just need to know which regedit keys disable the sniffer...


This is not the one I was thinking of but look at this:

The workaround given is to disable the gpu sniffer until the fix is issued. 

1. In the Photoshop CC folder, Ctrl-click on Adobe Photoshop CC.app

2. Choose "Show Package Contents" from the context menu.

3. Open the Contents > MacOS folder, look for "sniffer"

4. Keep that file, but rename it by placing a tilde in from of sniffer: ~sniffer

5. Close the finder and PS CC should launch normally.

5 replies

S
Skyfish
Inspiring
August 24, 2015

Hello people from the past, I have this problem now In 2015. I use Sony vaio fit flip (flippable touch screen laptop hybrid with ntrig technology pen pressure and all that) uses intel. I appear to only sometimes get the gpu sniffer crash with CPU hogging after, yesterday I used photoshop fine for eksample. I don't know what is a fix for this. I have tried to update drivers in the past but the vaio only accepts official sony vaio drivers and intel general driver is not ok. I have similar issues with similar programs as reported by most surface pro users so I suspect there is something they share in common that is at the heart of almost all the drawing program related issues I have had. (there are... many)

What is the cause of the GPU sniffer crash?

S
seaoasis
Participant
February 19, 2014

I am using the Surface Pro 2 and recently (Feb. 19th) updated the Intel drivers and reinstalled Photoshop CC ("applications are all up-to-date") and still have the "Display driver stopped responding" alert and AdobeSniffer running 28% of my processor. At one point the Sniffer had four instances running keeping my processor at 100%. Luckily an old version of Expression Studio works and will wait for an update from Adobe. Sure wish I didn't buy the $50/month version. What a waste of money. I was hoping today's Photoshop update would have fixed it but to no avail it is the same as the past months.

Chris Cox
Chris Cox
Legend
February 19, 2014

We are still working with Intel and Microsoft to get a fix released in updated video card drivers.

A
acc3d
Participant
March 6, 2014

Just got my Surface Pro 2 last week and also ran into this issue. It's been a while since Adobe/Intel commented, so I went ahead and installed the latest Intel drivers.

The problem seems to be totally fixed! I will say that the Intel drivers have some annoying startup programs that I had to disable.

So much for timely customer support. Leave it to the users to find their own solution I guess.

L
LSobrado
Participating Frequently
December 30, 2013

so, seems adobe doesn't care about the intel 4400 chipset? The only support I can get from them is help updating my credit card which they are happy to charge every month with CC...

Chris Cox
Chris Cox
Legend
December 31, 2013

So far it sounds like this is a driver bug introduced relatively recently by Intel, but we're still investigating.

B
BJanssen
Participating Frequently
December 31, 2013

I have the same problem with my Surface Pro 2 (Windows 8.1) and it only seems to affect the 64 bit version of sniffer.exe

In 64bit Photoshop CC the video driver crashes and the PS settings can't initialize the GPU (settings -> 3D -> no VRAM etc available), and sniffer.exe runs at 30% cpu all the time and I have to close it manually.

In 32 bit Photoshop, there are no problems and I can choose to use 2gb of VRAM in the settings -> 3D

The temporary solution mentioned in this thread by renaming sniffer.exe does not work for me since it crashes Photoshop all together. My temporary solution is to use the 32 bits version of Photoshop CC.

L
LSobrado
Participating Frequently
December 20, 2013

I get this problem also. Adobe PS CC also crashes the video driver of the surface 2 almost every time when you're using it if the tablet is attached to an external monitor....

A
Anonymous
December 20, 2013

Perhaps the card does not have enought power to light up an external monitor.

L
LSobrado
Participating Frequently
December 20, 2013

nah the intel chipset is rated to drive a 4K external display or two 1080 displays in addition to the device display. its just photoshop that causes this issue. lightroom has no problem, and neither do any other apps.

A
Anonymous
November 30, 2013

I have seen one post where user went into registry and disabled it.  But not for fainthearted, and it may affect getting updates as PS might see it as error.

R
radeldudelAuthor
Participant
November 30, 2013

But you don't happen to know which registry key does the trick of disabling it?

A
Anonymous
November 30, 2013

It was not just a click it was rewriting the code, but can not find post.

Can you go into preferences/performance and uncheck "use graphics processor"?

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