Scrambled images

Could it be upgrading to version 7?

The Question: Scrambled images: Just upgraded from 5.0 to 7.0 The images in 7.0 are often broken, scrambled, but not always. Sometimes I'm able to adjust to "fit on screen" and that corrects problem. But when I attempt some functions (especially extract) this does not work. This did not happen with 5.0 Any ideas?

Our reply to a question sent in by: Roy Nelson
 

Specifically what do you mean by "broken"?
Scrambled images mean they have

1. become corrupted on the hard drive (Not a Photoshop problem)
2. were interrupted during the "Save" process
3. are mislabeled (dot jpg files are actually dot gifs) Make sure the extensions are correct for the file type.
4. Saved in a resolution no longer supported by your system
5. Video Card or firmware problems.

Save As...

Try opening a "broken" file, and without changing anything go to the FILE menu and select "Save As..." and re-save the file with a new name. This time set the file type as a native Photoshop file with the dot-psd extension.
   Quit Photoshop and then open the file again. If it is not in perfect working order, then there are other problems we would need more detail on.
 
Not satisfied with my own answer, and not finding it in any of the Photoshop books on the Design Bookshelf, I turned to some of our resident Photoshop gurus to see if they could help us out a bit:

Video Drivers under Windows ME

Joseph Kling, pre-press guru, friend and colleague suggests:

This does NOT sound like a Photoshop problem (per se) as much as potentially an issue with PS 7 and Windows ME not playing nicely with an older video card or driver that needs to be updated. I would recommend that they visit the website of the manufacturer of the video card and make sure they have downloaded and installed the most recent driver. I haven't heard of any problems like this, but there are so many combinations out there, it's hard to keep up.

Richard Lynch, author of the fantastic "Using Photoshop" series had a similar prognosis. However he also mentioned video ram problems and potential scratch disk problems:

I am suspicious of the installation since the problem started right after you installed version 7. So, the first thing to do is remove all the old parts of Photoshop 5 and 7 properly (use uninstall and make sure nothing is left behind -- remove preferences...everything!) then reinstall version 7.
    If that doesn't do the trick then the behavior suggests something happens when pushing memory to the max; either the video card, RAM or scratch space. After the reinstall, do a check disk, delete .tmp files, and defrag. Next, set the scratch disks to some wide-open spaces. If these fixes don't help, then you've got problems outside of Photoshop all together.

Hopefully we've provided some solutions ranging from simple to complex. A big thanks goes out to Richard and Joe for answering the call.
 

From Photoshop 911 Case #0211-02

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