could not initialize photoshop because of a problem using the adobe color engine (Win 7)

[Guest]

Was running the lastest version of Photoshop CS5 and added a second quad graphics card and 4 more monitors.  Now PS will not start and I get the error message "could not initialize photoshop because of a problem using the adobe color engine."
Computer has 2 NIVDIA Quadro4 NVS420 graphics boards with 8 Samsung SyncMaster 1920x1080 monitors.  If I disable 4 of the monitors CS5 starts normally.  I do not have to remove the added graphics card.  When I extend the desktop again to all 8 monitors I get the error above.

How do I trouble-shoot the problem?  Is it Photoshop, NIVDIA or Windows 7?

[Guest]

Hi,

PS does not support SLI.

[Guest]

There are 4 Quadro NVS 420 reported for both graphics cards.  Viewing System Topology in the NIVIDIA Control Panel shows Disabled: SLI Multi View for all of them.

[Chris Cox · Accepted solution]

Either a display profile is corrupt (in a way we haven't seen before), or the OS color engine is returning bad data about the installed profiles and displays.

My guess is that it's the OS and displays.

That could be a driver problem, but I suspect it's the OS.

[Michael_Verheyden]

My 8 monitor system was running PhotoShop fine with 3 nVidia based GTS250 cards

plus onboard graphics. (No SLI Bridge installed)  Since I rebuilt my machine last month,

ugrading my drive systems, as well upgrading all three graphics cards to GTS450s,

I am currently having the same issue with PhotoShop.

I'll post again if I find a solution; please do the same.

PS:  If your version of the nVidia control panel still has a checkbox for SLI, make sure

       it is unchecked. Meanwhile I'll try disabling all but two monitors to see whether I

       can get PhotoShop to crank over. If it does, I may just have to install the previous

       nVidia driver (260.89 vs. the newer 260.99), in which the control panel did have a

       checkbox for SLI, if my memory serves me right. Although none of that should

       really matter as long as no physical SLI Bridge is installed.

PhotoShop CS5 Extended

Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit

& a ton of hardware (almost literally)

[Michael_Verheyden]

Well, not exactly a full solution yet (at least for my setup), but I am certain now that this issue is (mostly) caused by nVidia's drivers. You may be able to fix your setup by simply installing the latest drivers for your NVS420 cards (266.45 for Win 7/64 rel. 01/12/2011).

Since you are using two identical cards, this could do the trick.

Caveats - Make sure you:

1. Select Custom Install, the Express Install will most likely not work properly.
2. Unselect the Audio Driver (if available), the nVidia HD(MI) Audio driver could
    screw up your speech recognition (if you use it) or other audio software - it did for me.
3. Select Clean Install. If you don't, files like C:\Windows\System32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
    and several other driver related files will not be overwritten, causing all sorts of neat effects.
4. After the Install is complete, reboot your system whether the Installer prompts you or not.

After testing various configurations, disabling two - six of my eight monitors I am at this point:

I am now using nVidia's lastest and greatest piece of crap (read driver), version 266.58, released just two days ago. After an initial snag with maximized windows extending to the bottom of the main monitor (underneath the taskbar), a re-install & reboot solved that issue.

All three driver versions tested (260.89, 260.99, 266.58) now allow me to start PhotoShop without any problems; providing I first disable the two monitors fed by my onboard graphics (nVidia 780a based), leaving me with six monitors connected to three GTS-450 cards.  I can even re-enable the two other monitors once the program is open, and it continues to work fine. However, I must disconnect them again for the next start of PhotoShop.

On an interesting side note:

After disabling six monitors (leaving only two on a GTS-450), I was also able to open and run SoundBooth CS5, which previously would not open, citing the audio driver as the problem. After sucessfully starting SoundBooth I could re-enable all six other monitors (incl. onboards),

and that program now opens and works fine with all 8 monitors connected. [ODD !!!]

Other than Adobe Software, I've had only one other issue with my setup:

When playing online poker at PokerStars, occasionally and quite randomly one of multiple tables would freeze up. I'll try disabling the two onboard monitors for that program as well to see whether the random freezes stop.

Overall, while I think that Adobe produces fine software and nVidia has been in need of an overhaul for quite some time now, I also think that Adobe and nVidia software engineers need to work more closely together to ensure that problems like this don't arise in the first place after a product has been released to the public. IMHO, this is avoidable!

PS:

Here's a link to a great tool for multiple monitors, Display Fusion by Binary Fortress.

I use the free version, it allows you to do cool things like have individual wallpapers for all

your monitors, or stretch a single image across all monitors. With the Pro Version ($25),

you can also add individually customizable taskbars to each monitor, and a lot more.

http://www.displayfusion.com/

[Guest]

The NVS420 driver I had before was 259.81 dated 8-2-2010. I updated to 266.45 has you described below including Clean Install.

After a re-boot I still get the error, Could not initialize Photoshop because of a problem using the Adobe Color Engine.

Before the error I also get the following message several times, "The monitor profile "Samsung - Natural Color Pro 1.0 ICM" appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.

In the NIVIDIA Control Panel I tried "Use NIVIDIA settings" and "Other applications control the color settings" but still get both errors above.

Selected Control Panel - Display - Screen Resolution - Advanced settings then on the Color Management tab clicked Color Management

Under All Profiles tab removed "Samsung - Natural Color Pro 1.0 ICM (file SM2233SB.icm). Now the second error is gone but the first error is still there so I'm still stuck with Photoshop not working.

Only 1 monitor, the main windows display or default windows monitor had a ICC Profile associated with it, "sRGB display profile with display hardware configuration data derived from calibration (default)" (file CalibratedDisplayProfile-15.icc). I deleted this also even though there was no error message because Photoshop tries to start on this monitor. This also did not prevent the error.

I tried changing the main windows display to be the same display that the BIOS boot shows up on and this also did not correct the problem.

Of course if I making any progress I will let you know.

[Guest]

Installed the latest Nvidia drivers 267.17 dated March 2, 2011.

Photoshop still crashes on start up with the same color engine error described above.

[andrewpweyrich]

Has anyone figured out a solution to this besides updating drivers?  I have 7 monitors and when I disable 1 and go back to 6 monitors - it works fine.....but it is annoying - oh and I have ATI cards....

[Chris Cox]

We're still investigating a problem with an OS API when 6 or more displays are connected.

[andrewpweyrich]

Chris,

I hope you all have a workaround or can post an update.  I have to disable a monitor everytime I need to do work in Photoshop.  I know so few people have over 7 monitors but some of us do.  I just got my 7th monitor and now I may have to do get rid of it because Photoshop is such a crucial part of my day...

[flood84]

Chris,   Any update on this Issue ??  

[Chris Cox]

No, the ACE team has been rather slow to respond on this one.  Apparently they're having trouble getting together an 8 display system to test with...

[andrewpweyrich]

Chris - many of us Multimedia gurus have more than 6 monitors - I am up to 10 now.  I do 3D animation and use all the CS5 tools at the same time on those screens....6 just isn't enough.  I will send money for the extra video card and monitors to the Adobe ACE team so they can test and fix this.  I am serious.  I have to turn off 4 monitors constantly just to use Photoshop - which is sooo frustrating....and this has hindered me for years....

Here is my setup...

[ben-erwin]

Andrew,
I feel you brother.

It's inconvenient enough that I can't run my seventh monitor full time. My eighth is my 40" HDTV across the room which I don't run full time anyway. I'm running my eight across 3 cards and I have 3 ports free. Expanding to 10 or 11 monitors would be futile because of this stupid bug, but I would definitely do it.
So, an update since I made my original post back at the end of May. I actually called Adobe and got bounced around and spoke to a few different people. Finally, someone said the dreaded words to me.
"We don't support above 6 monitors"
Wha...?
Now seriously folks, it costs less these days to BUILD a rig, my rig, from scratch than it does to buy the Master Collection retail.
Saying "  Apparently they're having trouble getting together an 8 display system to test with..." is even lamer than saying "we don't support this".
As of this moment, Adobe has 14.4 Billion dollars in Market Cap and you can't build a $2000 computer? Please...

If there are any true power users out there, they are running the Adobe Suites, and NO ONE, not even hardcore gamers can justify having more screen realestate than us. I'm sure solving it is easier than say, inventing Dynamic Link.
It even tells you where the bug is right there in the error message.

So Photoshop team, I suggest you get this fixed before the Screen Real-Estate Barons of the world unite against you and publicly shame you into fixing this bug.

I want this fixed in the next CS5 update.

For the record, this isn't the usual error thrown when PS crashes. It used to say error starting the color engine. I don't know if this is since the last update, but there's a screenshot of the crash just now.

(Win 7 Enterprise, 16GB RAM 3.14 GHz Quad Core <-None of that should matter)

[Chris Cox]

>> So Photoshop team, I suggest you get this fixed

We want it fixed as well. But we're dependent on another team who seems to have different priorities.

[ben-erwin]

Thanks Chris,
Us Screen Real Estate Barons don't give a darn about Adobe internal politics. To us, you're one company.
Kindly report this thread over their heads and tell "the other team"'s superiors we mean business.

Can I get an amen?!

[ben-erwin]

I will add...
Photoshop is arguably  the most important and used pieces of creative software in the world, yet..
why is this bug not only unique to Photoshop inside the Adobe Suites, but for ANY other software.
I can't think of a single software from the most humble piece of freeware to the most bloated productity software that crashes when I load it. Can anyone else?
So I amend my previous comment, please tell the ACE team we're disgruntled and that our priority is their priority.

[andrewpweyrich]

Amen Ben!!

Chris - I will literally donate a 3 output video card that I have - and send it to an address of yours at Adobe so you can pair it with a newer 4 output video card that someone at your company must have.......so you all can troubleshoot this problem first hand - I have an extra ATI 5xxx series video card and it works.....let me know - I will ship it out this week...

I am so desperate on this issue - that the only work around I can think of it to literally buy a second desktop machine - and have photoshop only run on that machine - but plug it into my main 30" monitor - into the second input - so that it can run with my other monitors and then run Windows Live Mesh for file synching between the two machines.  That is a really desperate move but its the only 'technical' way I can think to get around this...

Like Ben and the others - I am begging for a fix for CS5 on this issue - but if it comes out resolved in CS6 - I will be happy with that - it just means my workflow has to suffer for 8 more months until it is definitely in stores....it sounds like you all don't even care about fixing it for CS6!

Andrew

[ben-erwin]

Having a user offering to send a $200 video card to a $14B company should be more embarrassing than this bug.

Desperate I am, but I will remain disgruntled if it doesn't get fixed in CS5. I don't want to wait, and I don't want to pay (I really wasn't all that satisfied with the CS5 upgrade in the first place) to have something fixed that shouldn't be in the first place. I'll buy CS6 on merit, but not to fix this. Nice thought Andrew, but don't give them an out. No wait, no $, we want monitor support to the limit of the OS and we want it yesterday.

[Noel Carboni]

Ben-erwin, et. al., in all seriousness the biggest thing going against you is that the number of people running more than 6 monitors probably makes up less than 0.001% of Adobe's market.  You have to admit that you're kind of out there on the "lunatic fringe".  I mean that in a good way. 

What if 100 times as many people are having trouble with OpenGL crashes with particular video cards, or any number of other known bugs?  Where, as a manager, would you put the priorities of your troubleshooting and testing teams?  Plus, however trivial a fix may be at its core, it seems unlikely they'll make a patch just for you at the risk of destabilizing the system for a million other users who have one or two monitors.  They appear to be EXTREMELY conservative when it comes to releasing patches.  Look at past history...  Photoshop CS5 is the first version to make it even as high as x.0.4.

-Noel

[ben-erwin]

I'll take that Noel, but I prefer to think of myself, et.al as a small vocal minority with a genuine productivity limitation induced by a failure of vision by Adobe; rather than the lunatic fringe.
I have more than 6 monitors for several reasons, but none more important than enhanced productivity for multi-tasking across the Abobe suite.
Having a central piece of software restrict the use of an entire system's potential is not a trivial matter. Try it, you'll see what we mean.
If it's as trivial a fix at it's core as you say, and Adobe can make it work on 6+ monitors, then it shouldn't be a risk to a million people who run two monitors.
The plain fact is, hardware is cheap and that diminutive market share we occupy is growig rapidly.

That said, as a manager, I don't buy your argument.

[Noel Carboni]

I'm absolutely in agreement with you that when something just flat doesn't work it can be a terrible limitation.  And I'm a multiple monitor user, too - I just don't have more than 6 of them (yet).  Believe me when I say I fully sympathize with your position.

Please understand I'm not trying to justify your problem away, just explain why it might not be at the top of Adobe's list of problems to be solved, however obvious and reproducible it may be. 

Organizations building products for the masses (hundreds of thousands or millions of sales) simply just can't/don't cater to the problems of the individual, and unfortunately that's what you are in this case.  As consolation we get to pay only a few hundred dollars for something that cost hundreds of man-years to make, because the cost is spread over such a wide user base. 

The offer to send in a video card is silly.  Now, if you send in, say, a quarter of a million dollars, it's possible Adobe would put a bunch of folks on your problem right away.

Note that this very thread has been around since January of this year, and the interim updates to Photoshop haven't addressed this.  I wouldn't bet on a fix in CS6, personally, though I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

-Noel

[Chris Cox]

BTW - on version numbers, we had 1.0.7, 3.0.5, and 4.0.8 (I know because I had to do all the plugin dots).

I am fussing at the people responsible for this area, but I can't make them all get the pieces together...

(and I have a suspicion about where the bug lies, but can't do a bloody thing about it until they assemble a system for testing)

[Noel Carboni]

Chris Cox wrote:

BTW - on version numbers, we had 1.0.7, 3.0.5, and 4.0.8 (I know because I had to do all the plugin dots).

Okay, I stand corrected.  I didn't go back quite that far in my pre-post research - I only looked as far back as 5.0.2 on the download page.

-Noel