Xp Freeze

  • Thread starter Thread starter Parvardigar
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Parvardigar

I run a small advertising business. A few minutes ago I received from
the art department this alarming message.
One of our Adobe users had spend the whole day working in Photoshop on
a large scale poster. Mulitple layers and dozens of image inserts.

This note says in a most alarming tone that 'xp crashed - Andy's work
is damaged - the system is frozen' and the message concludes that the
workers left the computer on ; in the frozen state.

Is there any method to save this work in progress in the suspended
frozen state? I will look at the machine in 12 hours. I hope that by
Xp sitting without user intervention it may recover. When I look at
this compromised computer in twelve hours and it is still frozen - is
there anything I can do to save this project? I heard long ago that if
the computer is 'unplugged' that the work is 'redemmed' and upon
starting up the computer fresh, that the 'lost' file is returned in
the state at the moment of the abrupt shutdown.

This is just horrible. I hope there is a soluton. Please let me know
if there is any solution to unhanging/unfreezing the xp computer.
Thanks John Marshall
 
This is just horrible. I hope there is a soluton. Please let me know
if there is any solution to unhanging/unfreezing the xp computer.
Click to expand...

Hi John,

The answer will depend a lot on exactly which way the computer
"crashed". Not to be unhelpful; but there are many, many possible
variables here and troubleshooting it via a newsgroup is probably not
the best method. Ideally you'd get a knowledgeable computer technician
to examine the machine, hands-on.

However ...

If the machine has truly crashed - in other words, it has hit a Blue
Screen error - then all processing on teh machine has halted. There is
no way to recover excpet by rebooting. Data files, such as Photoshop PSD
and PDD files, will be at the same stage they were, the last time they
were saved. If the user last saved his Photoshop work 5 minutes before
the machine crashed, then the files should be back at that point. So not
a whole day's work lost; just 5 minutes.

If the system is hung, but not actually blue-screened, then there may be
some way to get into the box; eg a Remote Desktop session from another
machine, or a telnet session. See if you can ping the box from another
workstation. If the network on teh hung machine does not respond, you're
back to intervening via the local desktop.

If the normal desktop is displayed, but frozen, you can try hitting
Ctrl-Shift-escape. This will bring up the Windows Task Manager, *if* the
system is still responding to commands. In Task Manager, look for and
kill and hung processes, until the machine starts working normally again.

If the system was writing to the Photoshop file at the very moment the
system crashed, it's possible that the data file has become corrrupted.
This is not uncommon; and as a result there are several utilities out
there which try to recovery usable Photoshop files from a corrupted PSD
or PDD file. A search on Google for "Photoshop PSD recover" will give
you links to many such utilities. A well-known and relaible recovery
tool is this one:
http://www.datanumen.com/apsr/index.htm
But there are many others as well.

Finally, you'll probably want to examine the event log on the XP
machine, to determine *why* it crashed in the firstplace. Then take
remedial action to prevent it happening again.

For Photoshop-specific questions (as opposed to Windows XP questions)
you're best bet would be a Photoshop forum, such as:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop/photoshop_windows

Other folks may have extra ideas for you; hope this helps a little bit.

Good luck,
Andrew
 
first of all, such a machine should be
solely dedicated for the purposes of
photo shop because it is your bread
and butter, per se.

click on start>run>msconfig.

disable all startups except the antivirus.

"however, while working on the project
and not browsing on the net, the av
should simply be "exited/close" via
the task bar."

no need for extra progrmas running
if the machine is isolated and dedicated
to the project at hand.

next go to services and hide all microsoft
services.

then disable what remains.

then set the virtual memory to custom
size.

"sometimes if it is too low and windows
tries to resize the vm it will stall the
system."

the custom size should have an
initial size that is stated at the bottom of
the virtual memory dialog window.

the max size depends if you are running
winxp or vista.

if winxp is the o.s. then set the max to
1.5 times the amount of ram on the
system.

also, if you have a blank partition I
would move the virtual memory
off the c drive and into a blank partition.

this will keep the vm contiguious and
from co mingling with the system files.

then reboot.

-------------------

now that the computer is dedicated to the
photo shop,

ensure that photo shop is configured
correctly.

go to its menu bar>edit> preferences.

ensure that the scratch disk is targeted off
the c drive and is instead targeting a blank/
empty partition.

ensure that there is enough space assigned
to the scratch file(s) as well.

if the disk drive does not have multiple
partitions, then you should use a program
like acronis disk director to create them
"or" add a slave drive that is used exclusively
for the scratch.

since it is a business then I would recommend
both of the above, ie multiple partitions and
extra disk drives.

the idea here is to keep the user files off the
"c" drive where the system files reside.

comingling them can cause the system to
stall.

-------------------

keep in mind that until the finish product is
finalized,

your artist should be making copies via multiple
saves after a major retouch or work on a section.

such copies and drafts before the final project is
flatten can be in excess of 80 megs, each.

but it is well worth the trouble. otherwise one
would have to start from scratch again and it
simply makes us want to cry over a beer
when it happens.

----------------

so the above ensures that the machine is
dedicated to the project at hand.

other things to look into that can attribute
to freeze ups / stalls are:

machine overheating - which can be alleviated
by removing the side panel and directing a
desk fan into the chassis

low performing hardware - which can be
alleviated by adding more memory or adding
a higher performing graphics card or buying
a more powerful cpu, like a quad core or icore,
or all of the above.


--
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DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
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"share the nirvana mann" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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