Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 10/29/2008

Question
QUESTION: the photoshop portion of my creative suites opens, but everything on the screen appears 'posterized' or filtered somehow. even the taskbar at the bottom. i checked the compatability and placed it in the most current setting i have, tried opening it deleting the presets (ctrl-alt-shift) and now wonder what else to do. when i had it previously installed, everything was crystal clear down to the pixel, but what appearing is much different. when i save a sample work as a pdf and open it, its clear to the pixels - just like the original photo, but how am i suposed to work on my pictures the way my photoshop is opening now? thanks. ge3

ANSWER: Hi Gerald,

A couple of questions. First, what version of PS and OS are you running? You mention that "when you had it previously installed" it worked. Is this a new computer or install? Also, you say that the taskbar is posterized. Is the menu and toolbar as well?

My first thought is that your monitor settings on your PC are set to the wrong color (it should be millions). But if other apps on this same computer are appearing ok, then my only other thought is that either your PS is not compatible with your computer or the install somehow failed.

Let me know about the questions so I can narrow this down.

Thanks

Kevin

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

QUESTION: hi kevin,
PS (photoshop version 9 is what the windows software identifier tells me) and is part of adobe suites deluxe. i have windows xp as the (OS) operating system. originally i had the programs installed on a partitioned external harddrive - that recently crashed because somebody using my computer disconnected it without first dismounting it. i dont think this would have anything to do with what is on the software disks info that im trying to reinstall on my local c drive (at least until i replace the external device). a side note is illustrator wouldnt open until i changed the hidden file AIPrefs to AIPrefs_old - stating missing plugins bsr pen tool and pathfinder suite error. thats all the same as when i originally installed it so i got that part of it running. the rest of the suite all appear good. i havent checked my monitor setting (laptop) but havent changed anything... when i mean posterized, even the start bar at the bottom has some sort of masking other than the default blue, the PS toolbar isnt the same, i dont remember what the default is but its now grey, the welcome/new features window is also 'posterized', texts are all std.
one thing MAYBE, (i checked my freespace first, plenty) is i have autocad and viz hogging up some of the local drive as well, but really with the plenty of gigs available it shouldnt make a difference.

somehow im imagining something is wrong with just the PS application of the creative suites?

before reinstalling i went thru and made sure as much of the previous adobe files, folders and program data as i could find where sent to recycle, knowing adobe is a very proprietary system, to make sure i wouldnt have to deal with an already installed message somewhere along the way.

thanks for the quick response. i'll check the monitor settings after sending this. OH! would the PS settings matter - i think its set to rgb/8 for an hp 7200 series printer (u.s. std.?)just an after though. i think those were my old defaults but again i could be wrong.

Answer
Hi Gerald.

This now makes sense. When you installed onto your laptop, there could have already been some adobe preference files installed due to Autocad or other apps that need to be compatible.

Believe it or not, Windows is very particular as to what order you install applications. I know it sounds stupid, and it is. The fact that you have Autocad or other apps installed first, may have written newer pref files (thats why you had to manually change the AI Prefs).

My only suggestion is to uninstall the adobe suite completely using uninstall and wipe out anything with "adobe" attached to it. Then try to do a fresh reinstall.

However, PS 9 could have fallen out of compatibility with your XP. It is possible to update beyond an older apps usage. But try the fresh reinstall and see what happens.

Thanks

Kevin