Expert: Amy - 1/23/2008

Question
QUESTION: I have been using Adobe Illustrator CS2 for Mac recently on a project. Today
when I tried to get into AI CS2 I was presented with the following message:
An unknown error has occurred (-108). Adobe Illustrator will now quit. This
happens everytime I try to start it. How do I resolve this problem so I may
continue work on my project? Thanks.

ANSWER: Hi Curt,

That's a common error with many different causes.
Did you happen to notice what the Illustrator splash screen is stuck on when the error occurs???  Is it "loading fonts?"

Try this:
1 - Quit ALL ADOBE APPLICATIONS
2 - locate all adobefnt*.lst files on your computer, where * is a number and delete them. Make sure to only delete .lst files.
3 - Restart AI and try to recreate the error.

And try this:
1 - Quit ALL ADOBE APPLICATIONS
2 - Locate the AIprefs file on your computer and delete it.
3 - Restart AI.

Let me know if either of these helps you and how far AI loads before it crashes.
-Amy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I don't even get the splash screen. The error message is the only thing that
pops up. I tried both of your solutions and neither one worked. What I do
know is AI was open when it froze up. I was trying to open an AI file that I
was working on.

Answer
If you are trying to open Illustrator by double clicking on the document you were working on and it is crashing then the problem is most likely that the document is corrupt. Unfortunately, in most cases, the document is gone/corrupted beyond repair.

If you cannot open Illustrator at all... even without opening a document at the same time, then you might need to do a clean reinstall of the program.

There are other things you can do before resorting to a reinstall. Deleting the Finder preferences, turning off all unnecessary extensions before launching Illustrator, turning off Antivirus, deleting the ENTIRE Adobe Settings folder (the folder that held the preferences) are among those things.

There is also a thread at Adobe.com that you might want to read. Go to Adobe Forums and search for "unknown error 108" - there is a thread with over 140 posts... there, people discuss many causes of this error, including other applications that conflict with Illustrator. One person even reports that resetting the Mac's clock was the cause.

The error you're experiencing is very common. I hope you figure out what's causing it on your machine.