How do I allocate more memory to a program that won't open?

Factual Questions
1

Greetings, Computational-Engine Savants!

I have a problem. I have a cheap, old, copy of Photoshop 3.0. Yes, I know - but I only need it for some photoretouching processes and don’t need al the modern bells and whistles of the newest version.

Anyway, it was working fine, but now when I try to open it, it tells me “Could not initialze Photoshop because of a program error.”

Now, I recall that the Photoshop of old was a memory hog, but I’ve got 120 gigs of hard drive and 512 MB of RAM. I’m guessing that something is not allowing Photoshop to have the memory that it thinks it needs to open.

How do I let it have more?

Or is this another problem completely?

Thanks,
-H.

2

What makes you think a “program error” is a “memory error”?

What OS version are you running?

3

Is PhotoShop 3.0 compatible with Windows XP? I am assuming that is your operating sysem.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Adobe+Photoshop+3.0+for+Windows+now+available%3B+new+version+comes+with+…-a015922291

That release date is in 1994, so it predates XP by nearly 8 years, so there may be a compatibility issue.

4

If you figure this out, be sure to let NoCoolUserName know so he can test to see if it solves his problem!

5

Since it ran just fine for about six months I’m guessing that yes, it’s compatible. And yes - I’m running XP.

I’m thinking that it’s a memory-allocation issue because reinstalling the program didn’t help.

6

Did you uninstall before reinstalling?

7

Do you have a patch for that version, that you need to install. It may be an incompatible .dll which happens a lot. I don’t know how you’d find out without the help pages that are no longer there.

8

No, I’d hoped it would see a copy already there and just replace the corrupted bits. For my next trick I dump the whole copy in the bit bucket.

9

Okay, that didn’t work. I dumped it, reinstalled it and I still get “Could not initialize Photoshop because of a program error.”

10

Getting a 13-year-old program to run on any modern computer is going to be a task in itself. Are you sure you need Photoshop to complete your photo retouching tasks? There are several modern photo-editing alternatives (and many free ones) available if you don’t want to shell out the cash for a new version.

11

All I really want from it is for it to allow me to maniuplate the photos and export them to something that my copy of PageMaker will use to lay out my CD jackets.

All I really use from Photoshop is:
Image/Adjust/Levels
Image/Adjust/Curves
Path Tool
Crop Tool (both free and Specified Size)
Image/Adjust/Desaturate
Mode: Lab Color
Save as: (gif, jpeg,bitmap…)
…and some filters to add noise or something

If there’s a way to do those things, I’d be happy to dump Photoshop. Can you point me to something good?

Thanks,
-H.

12

Thread on free graphics programs.

13

Some programs can be adjusted to take more memory (or do other load configurations) by launching them with a command line switch, like c:\software\photoprogram.exe /use_all. I forget whether you use forward slashes or dashes. It seems like there are times when one or the other is used. But the program typically would make use of the switch before it finishes loading and starting.

14

Do you have a restore point set to before the trouble began? If so, could you roll back your computer to there? You said it worked for 6 months, so something more recently installed probably clobbered it.

If no restore points, did you install anything new? If so, could you uninstall that, then uninstall/reinstall Photoshop?

FWIW, I’ve used several versions of PS on many models of computer and all the combinations I’ve tried so far have worked fine.

15

I don’t follow your logic.

16

Thanks! I’ve got that bookmarked, and I’ll do a thorough investigation.