Remote deactivation of Photoshop CS4

I use two Macs, on which I use Photoshop CS4 but one has recently crashed so I cannot deactivate CS4 on that machine and therefore cannot activate it on my replacement Macbook Pro.
Is it possible for Adobe, remotely, to deactivate CS4 on the "dead" machine for me so I can use CS4 on the new one? it's already happily installed.
If so how do I get this done?
Thanks
Paul

We cannot deactivate the serial number on a dead computer. You can contact Adobe Customer Support for assistance. They will help you with the activation. You can reach them real quick via the chat option. They will activate the product for you.
Hope it helps,
Bobby.

Similar Messages

Deactivating a photoshop cs4 trial license

Does anyone know how to deactivate a photoshop cs4 trial license?
Basically i need to deactivate this license so i can use the creative suite 4 i have just bought.
So every time i try and open the photoshop application, a window opens saying 'license expired'.
Plus there is no 'help' option at the top of the screen in order for me to deactivate the license, the only option
reads 'photoshop' containing 'hide this' or 'hide all'.
The adobe support team have been useless in trying to help me.
I would be very grateful if someone knew of how to go about deactivating this license.
Regards.
Tom Haywood

Hi again, i have followed your advice but the same thing is happening again. All of the other programs on the
suite are working apart from photoshop. which keeps saying the license has expired.
Do you have any other suggestions please?
Thanks.

How do I correct an "undetermined error" when trying to reload Photoshop CS4 remotely on a Mac Air?

How do I correct an "undetermined error" when trying to reload Photoshop CS4 remotely on a Mac Air?

Hi dsalacain,
Are you trying to run the setup from network location. If yes please copy the installation file to the desktop of the Mac and try installing again.
Regards,
Romit Sinha

"Deactivating" button in Photoshop CS4 is dimmed out preventing deactivation

I want to deactivate Photoshop CS4 on an Imac. Unfortunately I mistakenly uninstalled instead. Realizing my mistake I reinstalled the Photoshop but now "deactivate" button is dimmed out and so I can't move on to the "deactivate permanently" button which would complete the job. Does anyone know the way round this?

Then this is a well documented error and the steps listed in http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/error-licensing-stopped-mac-os.html should resolve your difficulties.
If you continue to face problems with deactivating please contact our support team. For the best assistance, I recommend our chat support at http://adobe.ly/yxj0t6. Our chat representatives can provide a personalized experience to resolve your issue.

I deactivated photoshop CS4 so I could reinstall on windows 8.1. Now it will not install and errors

I deactivated photoshop CS4 (one of many times) to reinstall on windows 8.1. It errors with a message that it could not install and advised I contact support. I also tried to install on my laptop with the same results.

use compatibility mode to install.

Photoshop CS4 Extended will not open file from Bridge.

This is 2nd time this has occurred. Last time I uninstalled CS4 and re-installed to fix it. Prefer to not do that again.
System: XP Media center, SP3, 3 GB memory, Athlon 64x2. Generic - motherboard graphic card. 18 GB disk space remaining.
Typical work flow is edit DNG files in Lightroom. Once done, select DNG files in Bridge and under Tools run the Photoshop Image Processor which changes color profiles, sharpens and converts to JPEG and saves. Done this probably a thoudand times. Ran a batch Sunday afternoon fine.
I may have interrupted an Image Processor batch that was just starting and glitched something.
Now Bridge will open Photoshop but nothing gets imported with the Image Processor. Also Bridge will not run a Batch. Bridge will open Adobe Raw for editing a DNG but cannot load it into Photoshop.
Once I try any of these things, Photoshop will usually not close/exit and many menu items are shaded out. For example, opening a file or starting a new file is not available. Activate/Deactivate not accessible. Can Deactivate and Activate through InDesign. Photoshop seems OK otherwise if re-started after re-boot.
Any ideas?
Thank you.

So far, no good. Here is what I have done and current symptoms.
1) I backed up all the settings and workspace files, then deleted them. No change.
2) No matter what I do, everytime I hold down the control, alt and delete keys when starting PS CS4 all I get is the Windows start settings "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Properties" box where you can select "Target" and "Start In" paths. I do not get any dialog or confirmation to reset anything.
3) Bridge successfully reset preferences using the Control key while starting it up.
Everything about Bridge has appeared to function corectly before and after these changes. But when the Tools/Image Processor or Batch is called, it starts Photoshop OK but nothing in imported to be processed.
Photoshop opens (either from import or stand alone start) with menus partially functioning. Under the file tab, nothign important works. Cannot open a file, cannnot start a file, cannot exit - all grayed out. But keyboard shortcuts do work and I can open a file or start a new file using the shortcuts. Once I get a file open with the keyboard shortcut, most of the menu functions come back under the file tab and can be used and can exit PS. The "X" in the upper right corner to close the program still remains greyed out and not functional. The Activate/Deactivate options under Help remain grayed out.
4) I deactivated the Suite from within InDesign and the I uninstalled only PS using the Windows uninstall utility. I reinstalled PS from the CS4 Suite which of course reinstalled Bridge and some other utilities. I reactivated from within InDesign and ran all updates from within InDesign since updates were still grayed out in PS. Encountered an error (Adobe CSI CS4 1.0.1,Adobe Drive CS4 1.0.1,Adobe Extension Manager CS4 2.1:Failed to install.)
Problems still exist as described.
5) Finally I deactivated again from within InDesign and re-installed the whole CS4 Suite without uninstalling anything before hand. I noticed that process did an uninstall before each module was re-installed.
Problems still exist as described above. I did notice that Photoshop showed itself still Activated (but grayed out) in the help menu even though I had previously deactivated the suite before the re-install. Ran complete Updates from within Bridge. Encountered an error (Adobe CSI CS4 1.0.1,Adobe Drive CS4 1.0.1,Adobe Extension Manager CS4 2.1:Failed to install.) but continued on. Everything else updated OK.
I looked through the registry settings for the settings path as noted in referenced forum links and all looked correct.
Additional Notes: I installed the OnOne Plugin Suite 4 a few weeks ago. Everything has run smothly since then until this problem poped up. After the Uninstall/reinstall the OnOne menu option appears as normal. As do my old Nik plug ins. I doubt this has anything to do with the issue.
Any more ideas outside of starting all over on a clean drive/machine which I really dread even contemplating?
Thank you.

Photoshop CS4 won't recognize file and won't save

Help! I have Photoshop CS4. I have had trouble in the past with photoshop not recognizing my raw files from Nikon (NEF). Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Now I can't get PS to save any file, jpeg or ps. Can anyone help me please?

Cherichman wrote:
…What next?
• First of all, click on the following link and READ it in its entirety. Then provide basic information.
Please read this FAQ for advice on how to ask your questions correctly for quicker and better answers:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419981?tstart=0
• What exact version of Ps CS4 are you using? 11.0.2?
• Exact version of the OS?
• You are not working over a network, are you?
• Have you tried creating a fresh, new account and logging in as a different user?
• Have you Repaired Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility?
• Check the read and write permissions on the folder(s) and volume(s) to which you are attempting to save.
This is the boilerplate text often used in connection to saving to a network (please NOTE the part where it explains that normally, it does work, but that it is impossible to troubleshoot someone else's network remotely, and that's why it's not supported by Adobe):
If you are opening files over a network or saving them to a network server, please cease and desist immediately in the event you are currently experiencing problems with one or more files. Working across a network is not supported.
See:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/406/kb406793.html
Copy the CLOSED file from your server to your local hard disk, work on it, save it again to your local hard disk, close it, and copy the closed file back to the server.
Of course, the fact that Adobe does not support working across a network does not necessarily mean it won't work. It should.
Adobe's position is that there are too many variables in a network environment for them to guarantee that everything will work correctly in every network, especially given the fact that if something does not work properly, it's probably the network's fault, and Adobe has no way of troubleshooting your network.
If you can't work locally, you are on your own, and if something happens, you're on your own. If you must work from a server, make sure your network administrator is a competent professional.
When problems arise, a lot of valuable work can be lost.

Photoshop CS4 serial number flagged as invalid on reinstallation.

Photoshop CS4 Serial number flagged as invalid when I know it's OK. I have been transferring my software to Windows7 from XP by running two operating systems on separate volumes so I can keep working while dealing with compatibility problems. I have my original CD with serial number that I have been using for years. I have wasted a lot of time on this but I am now at the stage where I have deactivated and uninstalled PS from XP, reinstalled from download from Adobe on Win7. When I install I'm asked for the serial number which is accepted OK. When I try to run PS I'm again asked for s/n but this time it's flagged as Invalid. I have had to resort to running as 30 day trial while I trying to find a solution. I'm now desperate, Help Please!

Thanks for that. Yes, I had seen that before and tried it. It made no difference unfortunately.
BUT the good news is, I have tried again this new day and NOW it goes through. Go figure!
Thanks to everyone in this Discussion for your suggestions.
Problem somehow resolved itself?!

Photoshop CS4 - new report, old problems

Hi there,
although i have posted many of the following problems in another thread, i will recall them here, because the other thread has gone slightly off-topic.
I have been "using" Photoshop CS4 that came as part of my Production Suite Premium Package for as long as it is out now and i have to say, that for me it is the worst release ever.
I work with Photoshop since Version 3 and every new release has had it's flaws that were fixed after a while. So i really hope this might also be the case with CS4.
So here are my System Specs again:
Intel Dualcore E8600
NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GX2 (Driver: 180.48)
MSI P35 Neo-2 Motherboard (Bios: 1.90)
3 GB RAM
Wacom Intuos 3 A4 (Driver: pro610-5)
Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
The System is brandnew, the Windows-Installation is fresh, before the CS4 Suite there has not been another Adobe-Program on the machine.
While I am quiet happy with the other programs (Illustrator, Flash, After Effects..even Bridge is starting to become useful), Photoshop CS4 shows several glitches and problems on my system. These are:
- If activated, the GPU-OpenGL setting deactivates randomly. There's no obvious reason for this, just in the middle of work, the rotate canvas-tool is no longer available, zooming is no longer smooth. While the box in the preferences is still checked for OpenGL and my graphics-card is recognized correctly, OpenGL features just stop working. After I close and restart Photoshop everything is normal again, until the next time settings are deactivated.
I am so far not able to trace the reason for this behavior, seems to happen quiet random.
- No "marching ants". In the same matter, the "marching ants" of selections sometimes disappear. While this is not a big problem I think i should note it here for reasons of being accurate.
- Brush tool stops working. I have this quiet a lot. While I paint, the Brush suddenly stops working completely. It produces neither strokes nor blotches anymore. In some cases hefty drawing can result in some strange straight lines but the brush tool can only be revived by restarting Photoshop.
- Crashes. I truly honestly haven't had a crash with CS2 and CS3 ONCE. With CS4 crashes seem to be quiet normal at this point. The application simply freezes, mostly while using the transformation tool. Killing it via the windows task manager is the only option.
- Slow redraw. All the above mentioned problems did occur with OpenGL enabled AND disabled. It really makes no difference. So deactivating this new thing doesn't convert Photoshop back into something useful, but into a slower version of CS3. Redraw of images is considerably slower on CS4 without OpenGL, than it was on CS3, although it gets better after some time working with it. Moving a maximized Image around feels very strange, because the build up of the tiles is somehow slow and sluggish.
- Features I used are no longer there or no longer functional. I use Layer-Comps a lot. With activated OpenGL the Script "Layer Comps to Files" does not work. It produces an error-message that reads:
Error 1: Unable to create Window - OS error (1400) Line: 234 -> dlgMain = new Window("dialog", strTitle);
With OpenGL deactivated it suddenly works... no idea why.
In addition some features like the automatic web gallery creation have been removed from Photoshop, but i figured out how to get them back.
While these are the really bad things about the new version (on my system that is, I heard from Mac-Users who are quiet happy with PS CS4 and keep telling me how fast it is on a Mac.....) there are other things, that i don't understand. I reckon, Photoshop cs4 is first of all a Mac-product and the PC-Version is somehow adapted or converted.
Proof of this for me is the new window behavior. Windows steeling focus and blocking sight on palettes is new for a long time PC-User like me. I also don't understand, why maximizing an image does fill the complete screen thus exterminatin

While I can not help remedy your problems, Pickman, I can tell you I have mostly the same problems as you. I am not the only one either. I hear this from my students. Marching ants disappearing is normal now, palettes hiding behind windows seems common nowadays. Photoshop losing focus, a document suddenly refusing to be the front one and having to minimize the other document(s) to have it back, lasso tool suddenly not showing it's tracing mark, it's all horrible. The error 'unable to create window' is very common.
I didn't even mention the fact that it's no longer possible to downsize the Photoshop window by it's top edge, which is utterly annoying when you have multiple windows open as I often have or the fact that when I scale the main Photoshop window, the documents stay in place and that the tooltips often don't work which is confusing for the novices that I train. I thought they had remedied that in CS3, but it's back in CS4. I have been using Photoshop since version 3 (briefly) then 4, 5 et cetera. This is one of the worst releases ever.

Photoshop CS4 Extended- change from PC to Mac and a lost licence key.

Hi,
I have been trying to get into adobe chat to ask these two questions, however it always comes up with an 'chat is unavailable' and I'm unsure of where else to turn- as there is no email contact and no number.
I bought Photoshop CS4 Extended (Student edition) a few years ago and got a disk which i have been using on all my pc computers (deactivating old computers and re-activting new ones), However i have now changed to Mac- and the disk will not load on the mac as it is set for windows. I have then tried to download, CS4 online- but my licence key comes up with a red cross and it will not be accepted. I have looked at other chats and looked at different sites to download the cs4 (and apparently the extended cs4) however i can never find the right download or its just a read me pdf document.
I just want my CS4 photoshop on my new mac computer and unsure how to get it.
Secondly i lost a licence key when one of my family computers died- and have only had one licence key since then. I'm just wondering is there a way to get this back?rent
Is there a different way to contact adobe? Chat just doesn't seem to work for me- and i would love to get these two questions cleared up.
Thanks,
Rachael

Prior to the subscription models—and of course that includes CS4—the Photoshop license was platform specific, either Windows or Mac, but not both. Your CS4 Windows serial number ("key") will never work on the Mac version.
CS4 is out of the loop as far as requesting a platform swap for a nominal fee. It is no longer supported by Adobe in any way. A platform swap required the destruction of your PC version, so you could not use both the PC and the Mac versions.
For a time, you could have used CS4 to upgrade to CS6 for about $200, but that time window has closed by now. Now you would have to own a legitimate version of CS5 in order to be eligible to buy an upgrade to CS6.
You can of course buy the full version of Photoshop CS6 Extended for $1,000 from the Adobe store:
Creative Suite 6
Alternatively, you can subscribe to Photoshop CC and Photoshop CC2014 on a monthly basis without ever owning the software. If you stop paying monthly, the software ceases to work.
The cheapest subscription is the Photography plan, which includes both Photoshop and Lightroom for $10 a month.
These are user forums; you are not addressing Adobe here. To contact Adobe support directly:
Click on the link below, and after that click on "Still need Help? Contact us."
Then on the next page, click Chat
http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?step=PHXS_downloading-installing-setting-up_licensing- activation.
There is also a phone option. 1 (800) 833-6687

Deploying Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended over Network - issue

Hi all,
I'm hoping anyone can help me with this issue that has plagued me for a few weeks! First of all, here's the details I have:
* Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended - downloaded media from Adobe website
* Creative Suite Deployment Toolkit - again, downloaded from Adobe website
* Installing to Windows XP with SP3
I ran Creative Suite Deployment Toolkit and set it up including our Volume Licensing key and it output some files including the XML files. I double clicked the AdobeUberInstaller.exe file and it got installed without any issue.
However, when I ran it as silent install via our SMS, it always get stuck at Adobe AIR install with the install log from
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\Adobe Photoshop CS4 11.0 09-02-2009.log
with this at the end of the log file:
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:09 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:11 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:13 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:15 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:17 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
[     320] Wed Sep 02 14:12:19 2009 INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
and so on, with no end in sight.
I have left it more than hour. I also have left it all day, the log file is always full of it. I even "told" Creative Suite Deployment Toolkit not to install Adobe AIR and it still tries to install it anyway. I checked the AdobeUberInstaller.xml file and it has <Action>donotinstall</Action> marked for Adobe AIR. So I'm not even sure why it's trying to install it.
This happens on a PC that has Adobe AIR installed. I tried on another PC where it doesn't have Adobe AIR installed and I still get the same thing.
I'm running out of ideas how to get this to work and this is why I'm here to seek further help from you... help?
Has anyone seen this issue before and if so, what was the fix to get it to work?
Many thanks,
Tony Sutton

Hi all,
I received this e-mail from Adobe, so I thought I'd share this with you all for future ref.
Air needs to contact Adobe to get a certificate.   I would recommend not installing this as part of the suite and push out seperately. At any rate, if you AIR remotely, you will need to set the proxy to allow for the certification process. The other option might to create a snapshot of Air with the certificate already in place.
Here is KB article on it   http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/408/kb408168.html
Thanks all.

Reinstalling Photoshop CS4 invalid serial number

I have had this software since 2008. It has been running on the same PC for the last five years, now I have finally upgraded the PC, my serial number is invalid and wont activate. Customer service chat says its an incorrect number and could I provide Proof of Purchase (?) Are you kidding me?! They don't show the software was registered -ever- then why was it functioning just fine for the last five years?! To make matters worse, India chat hung up on me -twice!! So I get to thinking, I wonder what our corporate serial numbers say on the Adobe Volume Licensing site -guess what?! They're invalid too!! Coincidence?! I think not! I want an answer as why any serial number I enter from Creative Suite 2 Premium, Technical Suites 2, 3 and 3.5 and a privately owned Photoshop CS4 Extended are ALL invalid according to Adobe?! Is there a translation error from English to Hindi?! Or are your corporate systems so screwed up, you have no clue as to what is a valid serial number and what is not, so you just lead them around and around and around until you just hang up on them or they get so frustrated and angry, they go get a pirated version and generate a key so they never have to speak to you again. I'm certainly not spending another $800 on another Adobe product that may or may not have a valid key. I want the key I legally own validated!! Today!!!

I too have just been victimized by this same scenario, Windows XP machine replaced by a Windows 7 machine, installed CS4 extended to new machine, no serial # acceptance, deactivated XP CS4, reinstalled CS4 on to Win 7 machine, deleted Adobe PCD cache as seen on blogs and chats, activated Win 7 CS4 and it still tells me invalid serial #'s. No help from Adobe! Adobe!, if you care,
Advertise a phone number that allows us to speak to a human being that knows what to do! Don't use delay tactics like people in India that can't make decisions or hope people just give up and buy a new software package!
This is a situation that has me disappointed in Adobe. I always had great performance and stable software until now. And to find out how difficult it is to rectify the problem only because of Adobe's unwillingness to do so is really sad. This is how companies fail, People will spread the word if something is not done to correct and or at least set up a means to help those suffering this debacle.
I for one, am fed up with the hunt and peck search online for an answer and the lack of getting hold of an English speaking person that has a solution that will correct ADOBE'S mistake here. I, like so many I have read about, have a valid copy/ license of CS4 Extended and have only used it on 1 computer until now for many years. We are licensed to use on two computers at a time at different locations, up to 20 reinstalls! This record of valid users and serial numbers is an easy archive by Adobe and should be self explanatory to anyone that researches it. Activated year one on one computer, used for many years on same computer, being activated on a new computer due to Windows XP no longer being supported! How difficult is that? What makes my serial numbers invalid? No one is accusing me of being a thief or Pirate, Adobe just made my serial numbers invalid for no good reason and I have to spend many frustrating hours chasing it down a dead end road! Adobe! See the problem and come forward with a place users can go for a centralized solution! I am a professional that can not afford this interruption to my schedule. A class action law suit is sure to follow if something is not done soon.
Bad press is sure to follow. Your loyal customers will look elsewhere for what they need. I can't believe this is the plan.
If anyone that cares at Adobe is reading this please call me or email me at:<Removed by Moderator> Adobe records have my contact info from my registration of my software both originally and while trying to set up my new computer.
This software is expensive to buy originally. This software may just get a reputation that it is too expensive to purchase if Adobe is going to randomly shut it down by any claim they choose. Abuse of power? yes! A company that does this sort of extortion to it's loyal clients won't be around long. If this is a way to force users to upgrade or pay more money to Adobe for a product they invested in years ago, with the expectation of uninterrupted use until the clients chose to upgrade, than shame on the corporate persons behind it. If this is just a bad string of poor judgement, than fix it fast- make a solution for the damage being done to your loyal customers.
There are many other software solutions out there that do many of the same things for a lot less money than Adobe. Without the professional support of their product in the long run, Adobe may be just be another Greedy corporate monster that WAS!
Prove me right in my being a satisfied long term customer, believing Adobe supports its products long term, and fix this serial number problem. My new computer and the old computer are both without a working CS4 system now. What are you going to do about this major software BUG?
Nick

Photoshop CS4 Experience, Problems & Questions

Hi all,
i just installed my Production Suite Premium on the following System (fresh install, clean System, no other versions of Photoshop):
Intel E8500 Dualcore
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2 (Driver Version 178.24)
3 GB RAM
Windows XP Professionel SP3
Photoshop has its own Scratchdisk assigned with at least 50 GB free Space.
I know that the 9800 GX2 is considered to be a "Gaming-Card" but as a freelance artist i work for the game-industry on many occasions and I need a decent gaming hardware to test what I am working on. As far as I know, the card meets all requirements for CS4 and Nvidia tells me, that their GPU's are perfect for CS4. (wasn't a problem with any version before, I use Photoshop AND Nvidia-Cards since Photoshop 4)
Here are the things that bug me:
- Photoshop disables the OpenGL Features on random occasions, stating, that it has encountered a problem. This happens either in Two GPU-Mode or One-GPU-Mode.
There's no obvious reason for any errormessage, because IF Open GL is activated it seems to work pretty good, zooming and rotating works quite well and fast. I noticed, that the problem happens either after saving my file or when i open photoshop.
- Photoshop crashed on several occasions mostly concerning heavy transforming of multiple layers. It simply didn't respond anymore in the midst of the transormation-process.
My guess is, that this is also linked to the GPU/Driver. System-Memory is checked, GPU works like a charm in all other applications. CS3 has not once crashed in one year, so i guess it has to do with the changes made in CS4.
Strange thing is, that even with open GL deactivated, the above written problems occur. I would have thought, that with OpenGL dectivated, Photoshop would somehow become kind of CS3 again, but it seems, there had been to much changes to simply disconnect photoshop from it's new OpenGL interface.
Apart from these two Problems, Photoshop CS4 is doing ok. It feels kind of sluggish compared to older versions, but that might also change with some new drivers.
Sad thing is, that the rotate canvas feature and the extended moverange for images, the main reasons why i upgraded to CS4, are only working with
OpenGL activated. I really hope there will be a fix in the near future.
There are other questions concerning PS CS4's usability:
- The Scale-Brush Feature uses alt + right mouse buttons, what seems kind of strange when using a stylus (Even more when using a stylus without buttons like the wacom layout-marker).
I would prefer another combination of keyboard shortcuts plus stylus movement ctrl + alt for example. so far i have not found a way to remap the keys. Am i missing something? Or is this impossible?
- Is there a way to get window behavior back the way it was in CS3? The new way of handling windows is ok, but i liked the old one better. If i disable "floating windows docking" there's no way to maximize a window INSIDE the photoshop workspace. The maximize button on top of every window is right now completely useless because it maximizes the window AND gets rid of all the menus and palettes. I don't see why i want to do that.
That's it. I hope this is useful either for the guys at adobe or for other users. Every new Photoshop-Version has had its problems, i hope that these will just be dealt with like the ones before.
All the best,
Pickman

Photoshop CS4 does cause crashes. I can vouch for that too. When it happens, the first instinct is almost always to assume that something is wrong with the computer and start from there. Comments to this effect are prominent in many threads. It is also Adobe's prevalent approach. So people experiencing these problems will tend not to post on these forums. Statements like 'because there are only a few posts, a significant number of people are not experiencing [these] problems' are therefore unfounded. There simply has not been time yet for people to resolve potential hardware/system problems.
In my case, I started experiencing unexplained crashed with CS3 in July (see below) but it was only when Adobe admitted that they could be partly to blame that I posted my experiences (elsewhere) on this forum.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have installed Photoshop CS4 on a newly reformatted HDD containing a fresh clean installation of Windows XP/SP3, fully patched, with everything working hunky dory, and no legacy installations of Photoshop or other CS software to worry about. All the same PS CS4 keeps crashing. The symptoms are unexplained total freeze ups occurring at random. I may get several hours use, sometimes a lot less, before I am forced to reboot and start all over again. Certainly the ability to do any useful work is severely compromised, and yes, the first inclination is to blame the hardware or system installation.
The thing is I had been chasing a similar, probably related, problem with CS3 (possibly caused by cloning my system drive, see http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b6bd8d/ ) while Photoshop was still activated, so I have had several months head start over anyone who may now be experiencing similar problems with CS4. As a result, Dell, whose support has been great throughout, have replaced just about every component under the hood of my PC, certainly everything that could be causing a problem. (GPU, CPU, memory, MB, PSU, disk controller, disk cables...). As a result, I am running a virtually brand new computer. Hardware and system problems have been all but eliminated. I have all the latest drivers for everything. It is virtually a brand new computer!
Yet PS/CS4 keeps crashing for no reason that can be established. Adobe have given me lots of homework to do to try to find out what affects it or remedies there are. It is all very tedious, but so far, nothing...
I am coming to the conclusion that there must be something intrinsically wrong with PS/CS4 that makes it incompatible with some systems and software installations, but not necessarily because of any fault with the latter. I have to say that, after initially trying to push me away, Adobe are being very helpful and clearly want (need?) to get to the bottom of this. The trouble is that when the system locks up, it is completely and utterly paralysed, so any diagnostic and error reporting systems are inoperative. This suggests something beneath or beyond Windows, and, if it is not hardware, this points the finger of blame squarely at the activation software, which uses rootkit technology. (Would this be the same on a Mac, I wonder?)
For the record, my system is a Dell Precision 370 desktop with Dell/Phoenix BIOS A08, 3.2GHz Pentium 4 CPU, Intel 925X chipset, 2MB ECC SDRAM, Nvidia Quadro FX3450 graphics, 2x Seagate 146MB Cheetah 5.5k disks (SCSI) in non-RAID configuration. From the limited experience I have had, it seems perfectly capable of running the software (apart from when it crashes, of course.)

Installing adobe photoshop cs4 on a windows 8.1 pc

I am trying to install Photoshop CS4 o a new Windows 8.1 PC, but keep getting a message "The Installer Database is corrupt. Please contact Adobe Customer Service" Adobe no longer support CS4 and referred me to this forum. I have already deactivated CS4 from my Windows 7 machine.
Customer Services told me this forum can help.

Run the cleaner tool and try again - this time with sufficient user permissions as admin and security stuff turned off.
Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
Mylenium

Photoshop CS4 licensing problems

We are a secondary school which purchased Adobe Photoshop CS4 back in 2010 with 10 licences, from a company called Ramesys. They provided us with the licence keys which worked perfectly fine. However, we have recently had to update the PCs and although we 'deactivated' the licence before wiping the PC, we are unable to get CS4 licenced again. We have put a 64-bit Windows 7 image on the PCs.
When we try to enter the licence key, we get a red cross automatically come up and clicking next warns you that 'The serial number you entered is not valid. Click OK to retry entering the serial number.' However, we know that we are definitely putting in the correct number. We have tried both entering manually and cutting and pasting from the email we had. Neither work and give us the same message.
We called Adobe - they are less than helpful. They told us that the serial number we have is certainly correct but cannot help any further and suggested we try these forums?!
We tried to contact Ramesys, but it seems that have been taken over by Captita. Not sure if it's worth pursuing this with them or not?
Is there anything that we are doing wrong, that would prevent this from activating? We only have the time it takes the trial version to run out! These computers are being used in our Art department and the pupils use CS4 almost every day. We really need to get the software activated as soon as possible. Any help would be much appreciated.
Kind regards
The Polesworth School
Tamworth

I find it inappropriate that the company would send you to a user to user help forum to try to resolve licensing issues. Neither does any user here have access to the licensing database, nor do we deal with commercial license questions much here.
But I guess I can see their logic: They verified that your serial numbers are correct, so they're thinking something's wrong with the computer systems or installations of Photoshop.
I'm sure you've double-checked all of this, but since they've sent you here the basic questions need to be asked...
Where did you get the Photoshop image you installed (then and now)?
And it IS Photoshop CS4, right?
Have you tried installing it from a download directly from Adobe?
Do your computers reach the internet directly?
Are you entering the full 20 digit serial number, with 5 fields of 4 digits?
You do have different serial numbers for each machine, right?
Have you tried a clean uninstall and reinstall (I know this is a stretch)?
Thing is, I believe an immediate red X (is it immediate?) implies that the software feels the basic format of the serial number is wrong. So the software doesn't match the serial number somehow.
I'm not sure, beyond asking you to verify your most basic things, that we can help you much more than this here on the forum.
-Noel

Remote deactivation of Photoshop CS4

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