Adobe Illustrator CS6 Won't Launch in Windows 10

[bfieldsnc]

Hi! I'm new to posting to the Adobe forums.

I was using Adobe Illustrator CS6 today on my Windows 10 system, and after a certain period of time, it ran out of memory and crashed.

So I restarted my machine to clear the memory.

When I attempted to launch Adobe Illustrator CS6 again, it wouldn't launch / open and gave me the message:

Adobe Illustrator CS6 has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

I went to the Windows Event Viewer and found the Application error message:

Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 16.0.3.691, time stamp: 0x50bb2f51

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.15063.674, time stamp: 0x6d16dd24

Exception code: 0xc00000fd

Fault offset: 0x000e332b

Faulting process id: 0x1b3c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d3478e07d0e973

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS6\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: 8a84a3ac-6cf9-4209-9b04-90cdc03c9484

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Logged: 10/17/2017 5:22:39 PM

And a matching Windows Error:

Fault bucket 109203764031, type 1

Event Name: APPCRASH

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: Illustrator.exe

P2: 16.0.3.691

P3: 50bb2f51

P4: KERNELBASE.dll

P5: 10.0.15063.674

P6: 6d16dd24

P7: c00000fd

P8: 000e332b

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER8626.tmp.dmp

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER8C22.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER8C21.tmp.csv

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER8C32.tmp.txt

These files may be available here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Illustrator.exe_f7adcadd9fc415a1fcb6d0a8a6f8e5932b6d4f6_78de5479_1e30a3ef

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 8a84a3ac-6cf9-4209-9b04-90cdc03c9484

Report Status: 268435456

Hashed bucket: 9f34afc8355dc107d801c1dde395bb5f

Logged: 10/17/2017 4:55:11 PM

I started troubleshooting by reinstalling Adobe Illustrator from my CS6 Design & Web Premium package. This did not resolve the problem and Illustrator CS6 still won't launch.

Since the Application Error referenced driver KERNELBASE.dll version 10.0.15063.674, I looked up 15063.674 and found that there was a recent Microsoft Update of KB4041676 (OS Build 15063.674) on 10/10/17. I thought that this might be the cause, so I uninstalled that update and restarted my system. This did not resolve the problem and Illustrator CS6 still won't launch.

I now got this Application Error for a different driver:

Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 16.0.0.682, time stamp: 0x4f6e45b7

Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.15063.608, time stamp: 0x8274fd8b

Exception code: 0xc00000fd

Fault offset: 0x000000000002cc33

Faulting process id: 0x1ef0

Faulting application start time: 0x01d347a0507db1ce

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS6 (64 Bit)\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

Report Id: 69478ade-2baa-44cb-9221-679af027bb81

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Logged 10/17/2017 7:33:28 PM

And a matching Windows Error:

Fault bucket 120855094635, type 4

Event Name: APPCRASH

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: Illustrator.exe

P2: 16.0.0.682

P3: 4f6e45b7

P4: ntdll.dll

P5: 10.0.15063.608

P6: 8274fd8b

P7: c00000fd

P8: 000000000002cc33

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER5BC2.tmp.dmp

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER5E34.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER5E35.tmp.csv

\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER5E55.tmp.txt

These files may be available here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Illustrator.exe_eda97ff012fd63cc983a7d9c6bff7f1bcd4549_9e79b365_2746696e

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 69478ade-2baa-44cb-9221-679af027bb81

Report Status: 268435457

Hashed bucket: a61ec53aa5bc2806129013ba7b5d5884

Logged 10/17/2017 7:33:32 PM

This error referenced 15063.608, which represents another recent Microsoft Update of K4038788 (OS Build 15063.608), so I uninstalled that update and restarted my system. This did not resolve the problem and Illustrator CS6 still won't launch.

I get TWO Application Errors now, one for each driver, and each with a matching Windows Error.

ntdll.dll driver:

Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 16.0.0.682, time stamp: 0x4f6e45b7

Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.15063.0, time stamp: 0xb79b6ddb

Exception code: 0xc00000fd

Fault offset: 0x000000000002cc43

Faulting process id: 0x31d4

Faulting application start time: 0x01d347b059ebe1a6

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS6 (64 Bit)\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

Report Id: 16d0c405-c8be-4972-80e8-c04ea2e33363

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Logged 10/17/2017 9:28:16 PM

and

KERNELBASE.dll driver:

Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 16.0.0.682, time stamp: 0x4f6e762b

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.15063.0, time stamp: 0xdfee5d09

Exception code: 0xc00000fd

Fault offset: 0x000e324b

Faulting process id: 0x1ef8

Faulting application start time: 0x01d347b06752623d

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS6\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: 7e57e367-07f9-49d0-8db9-cc445f48f26a

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Logged 10/17/2017 9:28:40 PM

This takes Microsoft Windows 10 back to the Windows 10 Creators Update, so I'm not sure that further reversals of the Microsoft Windows operating system or updates will resolve the issue.

Next, I wondered whether updating Illustrator CS6 would resolve the problem. The problem is that Illustrator CS6 won't open or launch, so I opened Photoshop CS6 and checked for updates. I updated all of my CS6 programs, including Illustrator CS6 and then restarted my system. This did not resolve the problem and Illustrator CS6 still won't launch.

To be clear, when I say that Illustrator CS6 won't launch, I mean that neither version of Illustrator CS6 will launch - the x32 nor the x64 versions.

I'm still getting errors for both drivers: KERNELBASE.dll and ntdll.dll.

This has been very frustrating and I've been troubleshooting this for more than 7 hours.

Any suggestions or other things to try or crazy ass ideas that just might work would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

[bfieldsnc]

P.S. I have Bitdefender Total Security 2016 installed as my antivirus antimalware protection. I also turned Bitdefender OFF and tried to launch Illustrator CS6, but that also did not resolve the problem. So Bitdefender is back on.

[Vishu_Aggarwal]

Hi,

Did you try resetting the preferences of Illustrator manually because sometime uninstalling the software wont delete the old preferences...you can try resetting the preferences  - How to set preferences in Illustrator

[bfieldsnc · Accepted solution]

Thank you, vishuagg19, for reminding me about the preferences files.

I navigated to C:\Users\{myusername}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\ and deleted the Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings folder and all its contents. (Please note that I save my important files elsewhere, such as swatches.)

Removing the Illustrator CS6 preferences folder resolved this problem.

Illustrator now successfully launches. Quick trip to Edit > Preferences to set things back up the way I like them.

Thank you! This is now resolved.

[ahheiss]

Unfortunately deleting the CS6 Settings folder did nothing for me.  Illustrator still just shows the initial logo, displays several files and disappears.  Same for both 32 and 64 bit versions.  Trying again multiple times seems to change the  number of files loaded, but the ill won't start.

Very frustrating -- any ideas appreciated.