Photoshop Rulers and Fonts not working!

[TJ Hassmer]

I need help from those fluent in Photoshop! I'm using version 9's Elements (I know it's old). Anyway, I was using it Friday just fine. When I was done I decided to play Star Wars Battlefront to unwind. However, it kept minimizing upon launch so I researched the problem, and I found that people sometimes had to go to MSCONFIG and disable a bunch of the Startup features. I did that and rebooted, and the game worked fine. I also downloaded and installed a few Windows Updates that evening.

Here's the problem. When I went into Photoshop the next day, the rulers won't show up and the Text tool won't work! I tried turning the rulers off and back on. The rectangles for their placement are there, but they're blank except for a white square where they intersect in the top left of the work space.

More importantly, the following characters "--21474836.,(" keep getting stuck in the Text tool's Size selection box, which Photoshop realizes is not a valid size so text won't show up in the text box in the work space. I try to manually change the size to a real number, but nothing happens. When I press ESC to cancel the tool and draw a new text box in the work space it just goes back to showing "--21474836.,(". I've tried using the Reset Tool and Reset All Tools options on the Text tool, and those don't work either.

I've tried re-enabling those Startup options in MSCONFIG. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop Elements 9 from my disc. I've tried rolling my system back to before I originally made those MSCONFIG changes and downloaded the Windows Updates. That just gives me a new error message saying, "System restoration could not be done. Computer files and programs have NOT been changed. Information: A unknown error occurred during system restore. (0xc0000022)."

I've also been searching Google and Adobe's forums for help with this, but I don't see any pre-existing posts listing these problems.  Adobe's phone tech support is closed on the weekends so I can't get help there.

I've even tried getting Geek Squad to try to fix the problem. All the guy from there did was uninstall and reinstall Photoshop Elements 9, reinstall the Windows Updates, and tell me I need to buy the latest version of Photoshop (50 damn dollars per month because Adobe won't let you outright buy permanent licenses to their products anymore). I'd like to pursue all possible solutions before taking this route especially since I can't even be sure this problem won't persist in the new version of Photoshop.

[davescm]

Moved to Photoshop Elements forum where you are more likely to get specific help for your issue

Dave

[hatstead · Accepted solution]

  Adobe's phone tech support is closed on the weekends so I can't get help there.

Adobe won't let you outright buy permanent licenses to their products anymore

Adobe tech support will not help because they don't support your version any longer.

To the best of my knowledge the license for PSEv.15 (the current iteration) is permanent and not contingent on a time frame. If you have creditable information to the contrary, please provide documentation.

The next step is to reset global preferences to default in your program. No guarantee, but you have nothing to lose:

• Close Photoshop Elements.

• Press and hold Ctrl Alt Shift (Mac: Cmd Opt Shift) and keep holding these keys as you restart Photoshop Elements. Timing with the keys is critical, and you may have to do it a couple of times.

• When you get a dialog box that says: Delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements settings file? you can let go of the keyboard keys and click Yes.

We look forward to your progress.

[TJ Hassmer]

Thanks for the tip, but it didn't work.  A coworker of mine said that there could be a problem with 1 or more registry keys that have been corrupted.  I'm going to try taking it to a repair shop that has corrected bad registry keys for me in the past.

I was able to install Photoshop Elements on my wife's computer, and it works just fine.  Also, I noticed that at the end of the installation process it required her computer to be rebooted.  My computer never instructed me to reboot it when I was reinstalling the program on it.  I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but it seems to me that it shows Photoshop hasn't been completely uninstalled from my machine even when using IObit Uninstaller.

[TJ Hassmer]

I take it back!  Your tip was mostly right!  After I posted my previous comment I decided to give it 1 more shot.  Once I was in the program, I used the Reset All Tools command on the Text tool, and it's now accepting real numbers in the selection box!  I'm still going to take my computer to the shop to see if there's more going wrong with my computer, but at least I can finish the project I was trying to complete!  I can't thank you enough, hatstead!!!

Since your solution was part of the equation, should I mark your comment as Correct Answer even though it wasn't the complete answer?

[hatstead]

You're very welcome. Yes, mark it correct, as that may help someone else in the future.

[OsmelFabre]

I'm having the same probl but it happens only when I try to write on a png file...If I open a new project it works normally. I've tried to reinstall, use the key combination, the tool reset but nothing changed... any other suggestion?