Error when I start Photoshop "Monitor profile appears defective"

[newbieking]

Over the past few weeks I have gotten a error popup message when I open Photoshop that says:

"DELL E22IOH  G2.2 D65" appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.

If I choose the IGNORE option I can go into Photoshop error free. BUT, if I choose USE ANYWAY I get into Photoshop and the colors are off. There is no more white color (it's not a pale yellowish color).

I haven't changed any settings in my Photoshop recently (why tinker with something when it's not broken?). Regardless, this error message isn't going away and would like to correct this problem. Anyone ever experienced this before? I've googled the problem and have seen some weird so-called solutions but figured I'd go to the pro's to get a answer I can trust.

If it matters, I use Windows XP.

Thanks

[Noel Carboni]

I'd say your monitor profile is corrupted, or at least unusable by Photoshop.

Did you install a new monitor, or bring in new software or an update to where your system now knows more about the monitor hardware than it did before?  Did you update Photoshop to a new revision?

This would not be a settings issue with Photoshop, but rather what profile you have associated with your monitor via the operating system.  Right-click your desktop, choose Properties, then the Settings tab, and [Advanced] button.  Systems differ at this point, but look for a Monitor tab and Color Management function where you can choose a monitor profile to associate with a particular display monitor.

Ultimately you want to try to determine what monitor profile file is being identified by "DELL E2210H G2.2 D65" and see if you can get another copy of it (e.g., from Dell.com).  Note that you misinterpreted the 10 as IO in your original message, so a search for the string as I have listed it here may turn up more results.

-Noel

[newbieking]

Noel Carboni wrote:

I'd say your monitor profile is corrupted, or at least unusable by Photoshop.

Did you install a new monitor, or bring in new software or an update to where your system now knows more about the monitor hardware than it did before?  Did you update Photoshop to a new revision?

This would not be a settings issue with Photoshop, but rather what profile you have associated with your monitor via the operating system.  Right-click your desktop, choose Properties, then the Settings tab, and [Advanced] button.  Systems differ at this point, but look for a Monitor tab and Color Management function where you can choose a monitor profile to associate with a particular display monitor.

Ultimately you want to try to determine what monitor profile file is being identified by "DELL E2210H G2.2 D65" and see if you can get another copy of it (e.g., from Dell.com).  Note that you misinterpreted the 10 as IO in your original message, so a search for the string as I have listed it here may turn up more results.

-Noel

Noel,

Did not install a new monitor or a new version of photoshop or anything else for that matter.  I did however update a windows update several weeks ago. Im not sure but I think the error occurred after that update.

I was able to follow your steps and found the color management function, but there was only one profile listed.

[Chris Cox]

Well, that profile is corrupt.

You need to replace it with a valid profile for your display.

[newbieking]

Chris Cox wrote:

Well, that profile is corrupt.

You need to replace it with a valid profile for your display.

Chris, a walk though would be apprecaited. I dont want to start messing around with settings unsure of what I am doing.

[Noel Carboni]

newbieking wrote:

I was able to follow your steps and found the color management function, but there was only one profile listed.

Can you screen grab what you see there and post it.  It's been too long since I used XP to remember what is where, and my XP VMs that I test with here don't have a color management tab in the display properties.

Chances are, if you can get the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile associated with the monitor in place of the one you have, this will work around the problem.  But then you have the issue that the sRGB profile may not describe your display's color characteristics as well as the factory profile.

I did run across a post on one of Dell's forums where someone had the same issue as you, and the Dell guys claimed (of course) that it's Adobe's problem.

-Noel

[newbieking]

Noel Carboni wrote:

newbieking wrote:

I was able to follow your steps and found the color management function, but there was only one profile listed.

Can you screen grab what you see there and post it.  It's been too long since I used XP to remember what is where, and my XP VMs that I test with here don't have a color management tab in the display properties.

Chances are, if you can get the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile associated with the monitor in place of the one you have, this will work around the problem.  But then you have the issue that the sRGB profile may not describe your display's color characteristics as well as the factory profile.

I did run across a post on one of Dell's forums where someone had the same issue as you, and the Dell guys claimed (of course) that it's Adobe's problem.

-Noel

Noel, here is the screen shot you requested. I noticed there is a color monitor and a default monitor. Not sure if that is correct.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6345/colormanagement.jpg

[Noel Carboni]

Since the [Add] button is grayed-out, I suspect there's a nVidia control panel somewhere that has taken control of the monitor color profile association.  When you right-click on the desktop, do you see a nVidia Control Panel or similar entry in the menu?

-Noel

[newbieking]

Noel Carboni wrote:

Since the [Add] button is grayed-out, I suspect there's a nVidia control panel somewhere that has taken control of the monitor color profile association.  When you right-click on the desktop, do you see a nVidia Control Panel or similar entry in the menu?

-Noel

This is what I see when I right click on the desktop, and click on nView Properties.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/133/nviewoptions.jpg

[newbieking]

Noel Carboni wrote:

Since the [Add] button is grayed-out, I suspect there's a nVidia control panel somewhere that has taken control of the monitor color profile association.  When you right-click on the desktop, do you see a nVidia Control Panel or similar entry in the menu?

-Noel

Sorry, I took a screen shot of nView and not nVidia. Here is the nVidia Control Panel

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5538/nviada.jpg

[Noel Carboni]

That's the Video color settings dialog; not what we want.

What's in the Adjust desktop color settings entry under the Display heading?

-Noel

[newbieking]

Noel:

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/6429/nviada2.jpg

[emil emil]

When you updated Windows it installed a new color profile for your monitor provided by Dell. This happens when you are using the default monitor profile settings from the system. Apparently Photoshop doesn't like your new monitor color profile. You should be able to reverse that by removing the new color profile from your system. On Windows 7 the location is C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

[newbieking]

emil emil wrote:

When you updated Windows it installed a new color profile for your monitor provided by Dell. This happens when you are using the default monitor profile settings from the system. Apparently Photoshop doesn't like your new monitor color profile. You should be able to reverse that by removing the new color profile from your system. On Windows 7 the location is C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

Thanks for the feedback emil emil. Because youre asking me to delete something on the C drive in the System folder, Im going to wait until what some others here have to say about that before I do this.

[Noel Carboni]

Emil is likely on the right track; normally you can set another different profile to be associated with your monitor(s), and I'm suggesting the sRGB Color Profile might be a good choice to start with.  But the dialog in XP where you should be able to do that has the button you need to use grayed-out, meaning that something else may be controlling the profile choice.  Unfortunately, due to my lack of familiarity any more with XP I'm unable to advise you specifically where to find that - I had hopes for the Desktop Color section in the nVidia driver, but apparently that's not it.

Someone who's still running XP and ideally with a nVidia card will need to step in here.  Your goal should be to associate the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile with each of your monitors.  This profile's filename is sRGB Color Space Profile.icm.

I don't know what the filename of the possibly defective Dell profile you currently are using might be, but I'll hazard a guess it will have the name Dell and/or E2210 in it.  Look in the folder Emil suggested (C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color).

If you're unsure about deleting it, just move it temporarily to another folder.  You'll want to reboot after doing this so that a default profile can be re-established by the system.

-Noel

[newbieking]

Noel Carboni wrote:

Emil is likely on the right track; normally you can set another different profile to be associated with your monitor(s), and I'm suggesting the sRGB Color Profile might be a good choice to start with.  But the dialog in XP where you should be able to do that has the button you need to use grayed-out, meaning that something else may be controlling the profile choice.  Unfortunately, due to my lack of familiarity any more with XP I'm unable to advise you specifically where to find that - I had hopes for the Desktop Color section in the nVidia driver, but apparently that's not it.

Someone who's still running XP and ideally with a nVidia card will need to step in here.  Your goal should be to associate the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile with each of your monitors.  This profile's filename is sRGB Color Space Profile.icm.

I don't know what the filename of the possibly defective Dell profile you currently are using might be, but I'll hazard a guess it will have the name Dell and/or E2210 in it.  Look in the folder Emil suggested (C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color).

If you're unsure about deleting it, just move it temporarily to another folder.  You'll want to reboot after doing this so that a default profile can be re-established by the system.

-Noel

Here is a screen shot of the color folder. There is a E2210H.ICM icon (bottom left corner). So I should make a folder within this color folder and drop the E2210H.ICM icon into this new folder and my error should go away?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/228/systemsfolder.jpg

[Noel Carboni · Accepted solution]

I don't know whether the system enumerates folders under the main color folder, but I doubt it.  Make a folder called Disabled or Faulty or something, move E2210H.ICM into it, and reboot.

The expectation is that your system will return to associating the default sRGB Color Profile with the monitor, and that should be acceptable to Photoshop.

-Noel

[newbieking]

Thanks so much. I'm now pop up message error free when starting up Photoshop. If there is a FAQ site then this thread should be in there to help others in the future.

Thanks again

[Noel Carboni]

Glad to hear things are working consistently again for you.

The root cause is a questionable profile from Dell...  They should really correct a color profile that's not compatible with Photoshop.  I wonder what's unique about their profiles that's causing this.

Oh, and FYI the next step, for those interested in achieving a high degree of color accuracy, would be to obtain a profiling device and generate a custom profile based on the specifics of the monitor.  But many folks for whom perfect color matching is not critical just use the Windows sRGB default profile (as you are now doing) for acceptable color rendition.

-Noel

[Mylenium]

I haven't changed any settings in my Photoshop recently (why tinker with something when it's not broken?)

But have you updated your graphics driver? Sure sounds so to me. The message otherwise very much tells you what's going on - re-run calibration or reinstall the manufacturer profiles that come with the monitor.

Mylenium

[newbieking]

Mylenium wrote:

I haven't changed any settings in my Photoshop recently (why tinker with something when it's not broken?)

But have you updated your graphics driver? Sure sounds so to me. The message otherwise very much tells you what's going on - re-run calibration or reinstall the manufacturer profiles that come with the monitor.

Mylenium

Mylenium, I didnt update my graphics driver (unless it did so automatically with the last windows update)?

Any suggestion on how to re-reun a monitor calibration? I havent found anything on my desktop settings that allows this.

Thanks