Cannot install CS4

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

I'm having serious problems trying to install CS4.

I have CS3 running on my machine, and it is running perfectly. Although I
recall that I had problems, when I initially installed it.

I'm running a high end machine, which I built in 2006. It has XP SP3
installed, 2 GB of RAM, 4 internal drives totalling 1.6 TB, and another TB
or so in external USB drives, an AMD 64 4400+, Athlon X2 processor, an EVGA
GeForce 7800 GT CO, driving a 30" Dell LCD monitor, an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
NF4SLI 939 mobo,and 2 Plextor 16X 716A optical drives.

The machine runs smooth as silk, and Photoshop CS3 and Bridge CS3 run
perfectly.

When I inserted the CS4 DVD, it took a while for the first install screen to
display, but it finally did, stating that it was initializing. After quite a
while, a new screen came up entitled "Checking System Profile". That stayed
on screen for 3-4 minutes before anything showed on the progress bar. Then
the progress showed about 25% done. Then things stalled, for about 6-7
minutes, when the progress bar went to 100%, and then the window closed, and
that was the end of things. Nothing further happened.

I then shut down AVG anti-virus, and tried again - no better. When it
stalled, I called up the task manager, after looking through the various
tabbed windows, XP suddenly crashed hard to a blue screen, with the usual
list of suggested actions. I rebooted, and all was normal.

While I was sure that my C drive was without problems, I ran the full chkdsk
from the disk management window, after calling for a reboot, to start that
lengthy process. All 5 stages of the chkdsk operation showed zero problems
of any kind

I then booted into safe mode, and tried to install CS4 - after a little
while, a message came up stating "system error" contact Adobe.

I also figured that I'd try to copy the DVD onto my F drive, and install
from there. That sometimes works for situations like this. But for some
reason the copying process was extremely slow. The CS4 DVD has about 1.5 GB
of material on it. But the copying rate was about 1% per minute, indicating
that it would take 100 minutes to copy it - crazy, so I gave up on that. My
optical drives read at proper speeds, as I have recently copied a full DVD
of files onto a hard drive, and the copying took only a few minutes.

Photoshop is a fantastic program. But trying to install it has become very
difficult lately.

Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions, or know what's going on?

And, does anyone know the proper phone number to call Adobe support to get
some help on this fiasco I'm encountering?

Ron Hirsch

[Wolf_...@adobeforums.com]

Start here: Adobe Support <http://www.adobe.com/support>.

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your reply.

I have been there, and got a number which should be usable on the next
weekday.

What I would love to find is an e-mail address that I could use to send off
a copy of what I've posted here. I might stand a better chance of getting
through to someone.

When I see in various mesages on this forum that people are having problems
with varous video cards, drivers, and things like that, I get quite
concerned about what Adobe's doing. I have had every version of Photoshop
since 2.5. They all installed perfectly, with no trouble up to CS3. CS3 was
a real headache, but I finally got it installed. CS4 won't install at all.

Photoshop is the only program that has given me such problems in all my
computer years. If I can't resolve the CS4 issues, I'll just have to stop
going to the new versions - which will be very sad. Photoshop is a program
that works magic. After many years of doing color print processing, and
"editing" using a fine brush and watercolor "paints" digital editing is pure
magic.

Ron

<Wolf_...@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:59b73...@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[Trez...@adobeforums.com]

You know, the fact that you are having a problem copying the DVD to your
hard drive would seem to indicate there is someting amiss with either the
drive or the DVD. We're talking about a simple data-to-data copy, something
that has nothing to do with the install program per se. If you know for
certain that your drive is OK, you may have a defective DVD from Adobe. You
might check this by copying a known good commercial DVD (not one burned by
the drive in question) to your F drive. Perhaps the CS3 DVD would be a good
test.

[Wolf_...@adobeforums.com]

Ron, that is why I posted the link. Follow it to the Customer Support Portal page. You can then submit you concerns directly to Adobe.

[Bob S.]

<Ronald...@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:52BCDB5D69DDACEC...@in.webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

> I'm having serious problems trying to install CS4.
>

snipe of good description of problem:

Ron,

I can't give you any specific reason why CS4 won't install for you but
I can give you troubleshooting help. I have CS4 and Lightroom 2 loaded
on this system running very similar hardware and had a few problems
myself.

1. Minimize and isolate. Disconnect all USB or other external devices
that may be connected to your RS232 or Parallel ports.
2. Download and install the latest video and Northbridge/Southbridge
chip drivers from the nvidia.
3. Turn off any AV , firewall or other spyware detector software
4. Start > Run and type in msconfig to bring up the System
Configuration Utility. Select the "Startup" tab and click on the
"Disable All" button then "Apply" then "OK"
5. Reboot

Now try installing CS4.

Still a problem - go to Safe Mode and try.

If the same problem persists then you may have to remove any option
boards you might have installed. Be sure you have the latest drivers
for all your hardware from the manufacturers site. If you have done any
hardware driver updates from the MS Windows Update site - remove those
drivers and install ones from the manufactures site. There are
differences.

Also if the system is overclocked (motherboard, GPU) put the settings
back to normal.

You have some good hardware and although CS3 ran well on your system,
CS4 is more demanding - especially on video drivers and chipset
drivers.

If you get it loaded and running okay, start turning things back on and
test.

Bob S.

[John Joslin]

Footnote: 2 Gigs will work but it's not high end any more Ron.

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

John,

I know that 2 GB is not high end anymore, but it was pretty high end 3 years
ago. Hey, my first machine was 512 KB - and that was high end in 1986.

Ron

"John Joslin" <backin...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:59b73...@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

I recognize that copying a DVD bears no relationship to installing CS4, and
I've come to the same conclusion - it has to be a bad DVD.

I will contact Adobe when things open up tomorrow, and request a replacement
DVD.

The install process was involving my C drive. The copy process was to my F
drive. Since both failed, and my C drive checked out perfectly, it's 99%+
that it's a bad DVD.

And, I did copy a DVD to my F drive last week with no problems.

Ron

<Trez...@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:5AC9B8BC91581888...@in.webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Wolf,

I have been there several times. And I registered my CS4 (Photoshop 11), and
signed in. But I could not find a path to sumbit a "written" question,
Things just seemed to go around in circles.

I am now fully convinced that my DVD is defective, and I want to get a
replacement DVD. So tomorrow, I will call Adobe and hopefully can manage
that.

Thanks for your help.

Ron

<Wolf_...@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:59b73...@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[boblevine]

Ron,

PLEASE, kill the autoquote.

Bob

[Ronald Keller]

Ronald,

My Plextor drive could not read the Photoshop DVD at all! Using the drive on my wife's computer caused no problems so I was able to copy the files via my network.
Maybe you could find a friend and try on his computer and copy the files via an USB stick?

Ronald

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

Ronald,

Just a thought....

On your computer do you have any games installed that have starforce as a copy protection? There are a lot of people out in the gaming world that have plextor drives that they say were trashed by starforce copy protection. Same problems as you write about.

[Free...@adobeforums.com]

Starforce III: The Revenge of the Plextor.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

heh! :)

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

(actually, that's not funny! ;) )

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

No, I play no games, nor have any installed

<David_E_...@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:59b73...@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

That is a thought. I do have several other computers in my home, and I will
give that a try.

If the Plextor cannot read the DVD, that would be pretty sad. When I built
the machine, the Plextor 716A was a high end premium optical drive - so I
installed two of them.

Ron

"Ronald Keller" <ronald...@scarlet.be> wrote in message
news:59b73...@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI...

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

Bob,

OK will do. Autoquote will not be used any more

I read your mesage last, so there are still autoquotes in some added replies
from me.

Ron

[Free...@adobeforums.com]

actually, that's not funny

Guess not. I just get nervous when I hear of yet another copy protection, and when I get nervous I start blabbering. It's THE FEAR.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

I hear ya.

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

I had already tried both of the Plextor 716A drives in my main machine, and
both had troubles reading the CS4 DVD.

So I tried your suggestion, and went to another machine, intending to copy
the CS4 DVD to an external USB drive.

At first the copy started off fine, and within a few seconds, it noted "3
minutes remaining". But that number then was all over the place, ranging as
high as 65 minutes. It appeared that there were sections of the DVD that
were very difficult to read, or unreadable.

So I'll call Adobe tomorrow, and get a replacement DVD. I didn't think my
Plextors were the problem, as I had installed several DVD programs in the
past week or two that had up to 4+ GB of files on them, and they installed
very smoothly.

There seem to be some negative comments below on the Plextors. But there was
no elaboration, so I don't know what problems people had.

Ron

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

sorry,
I had no idea people were so sensitive :) lol

Yes, it was a crying shame to read about the DVD players/burners dying a slow death. I have a seperate computer for the simulators I dab in.

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

By the way, if anybody has removed/installed hardware there is a way to see what is not showing in device manager. Maybe everybody knows this anyways. This will work in vista:

This will show non-plug and play and devices that have been removed but still are in device manager but can't see them: Just go to device manager, view menu, then click on show hidden devices.

Another way to show items, if this does not meet your needs or to force vista to show is to:

Start,
Type in cmd.exe then click the .exe file that shows and your command prompt will pop up. Better anyways!!

type in set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices hit enter
type in cd\windows\system32 hit enter
type in start devmgmt.msc hit enter

Device manager should open click on View
Click Show hidden devices

Light grey enteries usually mean hidden. sometimes these items are removed but still show up in device manager and may cause problems. just delete them if you no longer use them.

This may help. Some will be surprised at all the crapola still lingering around in their computer.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

good tips david. also note that you can remove any device that's misbehaving in dev mgr, reboot and windows will "re-discover" it and allow you to update drivers if necessary...

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

yupper!! :)

[Ronald Keller]

Mine is a Plextor PX-760 A and no games whatsoever in this computer...
Explorer thinks there are no files on the disk.

My wife has a Plextor PX-716 A and this one read the disk without problems...

Ronald

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

might be a longshot, but have you checked plextor for a firmware update?

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

Dave,

I tried copying the DVD on two different machines. Machine 1 had 2 Plextor
716A's. Machine 2 had 2 DVD optical drives, (different from Plextor). All
attempts were unsuccessful. The copying process on all attempts started, and
then essentially stalled, with "time remaining" jumping all over the lot,
and into big numbers such as 65 mintues.

This totally convinced me that the problem is a corrupted DVD. I contacted
Adobe tech support - which is now in India apparently. I finally convinced
the tech person I spoke with (who was far from technically qualified, and
obviously reading from a prepared script), that the DVD was bad. And they
are sending me a replacement.

Ron

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

sure sounds like a bad disc. good going calling tech support.

[Ronald...@adobeforums.com]

Here's a final report on my troubles installing Photoshop CS4, that may
hopefully help anyone else who has similar problems.

As I related, trying to install from the Adobe DVD just dragged on, and the
starting install window did not show up, even after 15 minutes. I tried 3
different DVD drives on 2 different machines- same problem.

I tried copying the DVD to a hard drive on 2 different machines. While that
started off OK, the "time remaining" on the progress bar rose to big
numbers - 65 minutes and higher, and then bounced all over the place, with
the progress bar not really advancing.

I contacted Adobe tech support, which is now in India. It took some
convincing, but the tech I was talking to finally agreed to send me a
replacement DVD. He was obviously working from a printed script, as he had
to continually talk to his supervisor.

The replacement DVD arrived in 3 days, and I restarted my install
activities. Once again, things moved at a snail's pace, with nothing really
happening on my main machine. I killed that install attempt, and went to my
backup machine, and put the DVD in one of the 2 optical drives there, and
set things to copy the DVD to a folder on an external USB drive.

The copying started off smoothly, showing 3-4 minutes remaining. But then
that number started jumping around again, but never got as high as with the
first DVD. It continually hopped around displaying times from 4-40 minutes.
But, the progress bar did continue to advance slowly, and the filename
display above the progress bar was constantly changing the displayed file
name, indicating that it was indeed copying files. So I let it continue. It
took almost 40 minutes to copy the DVD (a lot of time!!), but it did appear
to finish cleanly with no "crashes" of any kind.

I then took the USB drive to my main computer, and ran the setup again from
it.

Things now appeared to be happening much more rapidly, and within a short
time, the opening window came up, asking for the registration ID number. I
had not previously been able to reach this window from the DVD installs I
tried, I entered my ID number, and the install now moved along very
smoothly, with no glitches. Shortly after, the install was completed, and I
ran Photoshop and Bridge. They appear perfectly normal, and all appears well
now.

I know that there were some earlier comments about my Plextor 716A DVD
drives. But the troubles I was having also showed up on 2 other different
DVD drives, and 2 different machines. And, I've never had any problems like
this with any DVD's in the past. I don't know what Adobe is doing
differently from other companies, but their Pgotoshop install DVD's sure
seem to behave differently.

There don't appear to be any problems with the #2 DVD which is the
"tutorial" DVD. It played perfectly. In prior Photoshop versions for the
tutorials, Adobe used a different protocol, requiring installation of
"stuff" et al, which has caused various problems in the past. The latest one
uses Adobe Flash, and runs very smoothly with no glitches of any kind, and
no install of any shell to run the disk.

Thanks again to all those contributing to my thread here.

Ron Hirsch

[Bill...@adobeforums.com]

Better copy the files you rescued to the USB drive to a CD/DVD for a bit more security.

[Vito_...@adobeforums.com]

I had the following run-up of problems on a vista (Siemens Fujitsu, 6 months old): except for one of the four none of the disks in the package could be read. I tried it on the system DVD reader/burner and on an external (Philips) DVD rdr/burner.

Looks pretty much the same as as top of the thread.

In an act of quiet desperation I stuck one of the DVD (Application 1) into my McMini - AND IT OPENED WITHOUT A HITCH.

Looks like there's DVD units and then again DVD units.

smo

[Vito_...@adobeforums.com]

I had the following run-up of problems on a vista (Siemens Fujitsu, 6 months old): except for one of the four none of the disks in the package could be read. I tried it on the system DVD reader/burner and on an external (Philips) DVD reader/burner.

Pretty much the same symptoms as discussed all the ways from the top of the thread, I would say.

In an act of quiet desperation I stuck one of the DVD (Application 1) into my McMini - AND IT OPENED WITHOUT A HITCH.

Right now I am following the common-sense procedure of backing it all up on the network drive.

Moral: looks like there's DVD units and then again DVD units. Wonder at ADOBE's policies though. Could it be, that DVDs have been produced with some kind of green technology? This side of the tunnel there's not much green left, given the amount of (electrical and human) energy spent so far. Note I have yet to start to install.

Regards

smo