Bridge "stops working" and displays split thumbnails and previews.

Question

When working with Windows XP, my Photoshop/Bridge CS3 was working fine. On my new computer with Vista, Bridge acts up in strange ways. It sometimes shuts down spontaneously, causing a Windows "Bridge has stopped working" message to appear.
At other times, Bridge displays thumbnails that are split or only half there, with the preview image also split in half with the sides reversed. If I wait a few minutes, the proper thumbnails and preview finally appear, but this is a nuisance. BTW, the same copy of Bridge works just fine on my laptop with XP. When I contacted Adobe, they blamed it on Windows. When I contacted Windows, they blamed it on Adobe. Anyone with similar problems and suggested fix?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Gerry,
as it is nearly two months since your initial post, you may have already solved your problem. In which case I'll continue with this reply for the benefit of anyone else who suffers the same affliction:
My problem was Bridge CS3 running on a 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP1, Intel Core 2 CPU T5300 @ 1.73GHz and 2GB of RAM (if that makes any difference). Like Curt, I'm no computer expert either but I was experiencing a very similar problem to your's in CS3 Bridge.
The error message contained something about the "nvlddmkm.sys" not working. The 'nvlddmkm.sys' refers to the driver for my graphics card, a 'NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300', whose driver I had recently updated (to solve a separate conflict between an updated BIOS - it never stops!).
After some fiddling, I discovered that changing the 3D Graphics setting on the Nvidia Control Panel made Bridge once again behave.
Open the Nvidia Control Panel (right click on the 'desktop' to access it).
Under the '3D Settings' task, select 'Adjust Image Settings with Preview'. This should reveal a window with an image of a slowly spinning, three-dimensional Nvidia logo. (I understand that the Nvidia Control Panel is common to all its cards.)
Under the spinning logo image there are three options for 3D settings. On my computer, while my Bridge was broken, the "Use my preference emphasizing: Balanced" option was selected. I changed the option to, "Let the 3D application decide" and crikey! - when I restarted Bridge the previews were once again working. (It may be my imagination, but Bridge appears to now be going better than ever.)
I switched the Nividia preferences a couple of times just to make sure. The change appeared to have done the job.
NB: I noticed another discussion in the forums entitled "Suddenly No Images in Bridge" which appears to be a similar problem. They resolved it this way;
"Depress and hold Ctrl-Alt-Shift when you start PS or Bridge. A menu comes up with three options. Check them all."
I didn't see that fix until I had sorted mine so I haven't tried it... but now that 'it ain't broke', I 'ain't gonna fix it'!
Hope this helps you or someone else.