Photoshop CS 5 crashes after updating and then using File -- Automate -- Batch

Question

I am running Photoshop CS5 (build 12.0.4 x32) on my XP 32-bit machine and have done so without major problems until about a week ago.
Then all of a sudden when accessing File --> Automate --> Batch the program crashes and I have to force it shutting down manually after which I can restart Photoshop. When trying to access the batch command hereafter the same crash reappears rendering batch commands useless.
I thought about posting here but then decided to reinstall Photoshop again. This enables the fully working software including batch commands once again. However after a short while the update software asks to download and install some patches for all programs. After doing so the same problem happens again in regards to the batch command. Photoshop crashes when accessing it and won't work at all.
I now repeated this procedure twice and have no idea what to do about it.
Is there anybody that has had this experience or knows about a solution?
Do I have to contact Adobe with an error report?
Any help and comment is welcome and mostly appreciated.

Answer 1

Chris Cox wrote:
Yes, a change in the Adobe update made the existing scanner bug show up more frequently.   No, that does not make your statement correct. The bug exists in the scanner driver, and existed before the Adobe update.
The Adobe update is not the cause of the bug, it just made some unrelated change that made the bug appear more frequently.  That could be something as simple as putting different values in different locations of memory.  We don't know. Only the authors of the scanner driver can know for sure why it is crashing more often now.
Photoshop supports the TWAIN standard, but cannot be responsible for the bugs in the third party drivers that attempt to implement that standard.
The high frequency of bugs in TWAIN drivers is what made us move the TWAIN plugin to "optional" status in the first place -- because too many people were crashing, had a hard time figuring out the cause, and blamed Adobe for something completely beyond our control.
And we already do inform scanner vendors about all the bugs we find in their drivers. But we cannot force them to fix their bugs, nor can we know the nature of all of their bugs to code around them.
I understand that you're angry.  But please stop trying to blame an innocent bystander.
Adobe cannot do anything to fix the bugs in your scanner driver. Only the authors of your scanner driver can fix the bugs in your scanner driver.
Until they provide an update to fix the bugs in the driver, your choices are to keep crashing, or not use that buggy scanner driver.
I am going to make this short.
It depends on how you look at it. From your angle, Adobe did their's and the scanner companies are to blame for their buggy software. What you are saying here would be - if compared - resemble a situation where you would go to a car dealer, buy a car, then drive away just to find that the trailer tow hitch you attached your old trailer to would keep falling off all the time. When confronting the dealer about the issue he would reply to you that you have to talk to the manufacturer of the trailer because the problem is their responsibility. How would you as a client react...?
Maybe it is true that the driver software is buggy. However it still did work though under other conditions before this update. That means that you updated something that made these things appear frequently. Maybe you don't know and only they do. Fair enough. But us customers don't have to work these problems out or live with them nor do we have to use our time on posting and fixing companies' errors and mistakes. That's what we pay you for. We only need to use this application hassle free on the spot. Maybe you should start crash testing in an controlled environment before you apply these updates and then post them. Or make a deal with those companies to do so for you. Maybe they will then ignore you or won't tell you about possible bugs to hike their own skin. Fair enough as well. Create some sort of program, a label or whatever that you apply and hand out only to those companies that are "certified by and working with Adobe software" and that they can put on their products or you on your very own Adobe website for all us customers to see and to use as a type of guidance in order to have working hardware and applications and avoid these errors.
There is this saying that goes...
"Where there's a will, there's a way"...!