Lightroom disaster

[bkpix]

I've had Lightroom for years; it's an essential part of my fine art photography.

When I upgraded to LR5 last year, I began to have sporadic crashes, mostly involving image importing and tagging. By "crash" I mean the whole computer suddenly shuts down, destroying any work in progress with other programs. Machine is an HP Pavilion with 8g memory, running Windows 7 Professional.

In the past month the issue began to accelerate. Soon LR became unrunnable.

I upgraded last week to LR6, thinking that might solve the problem.

Instead, it's become far worse. At first I got blue screen crashes every time I opened LR and ran it for more than five minutes. Now it's accelerated to the point that the computer no longer functions, even if I don't run LR. I'm about to do a system restore to get things going again.

Anyone else have this experience? Adobe customer service is non-existent. I can find no way to email them, and customer "chat" hasn't responded.

At this point I'm weighing several options:

Give up on Lightroom. It's expensive and bloated. I could run everything off Linux if I didn't need LR. Trouble is, there is no other single program that does image management and processing as well for me.

Give up on the HP computer. This seems to be a rare problem. Another computer might solve the issue and get me back to work. I could use a faster one anyway.

Give up on Windows. Thing is, I rather like Windows, and despite some years of experience with that other system, I don't much like Apple. (Most recent bad experience: My son, who's travelling the world this year to try to set a world Big Year birding record, was home for a few days last week and needed to upgrade his now nearly nonfunctional iPhone 4. He bought a new iPhone 6, and then learned that the phone store couldn't transfer any of his files from one to the other; the Apple store in town, wouldn't; and the approved Apple solution -- using iTunes to manage the transfer -- required him to install a new version of iOS on his new phone. After hours of downloading iOS, the phone crashed. The solution: I downloaded a $20 program onto my Windows computer and made the transfer of files from one phone to the other in an hour.)

Try to find an installation disc for LR4. Anyone got one?

OK, enough kvetching. Anyone out there got a great idea to solve this?

Thanks.

 

[malch]

When I upgraded to LR5 last year, I began to have sporadic crashes, mostly involving image importing and tagging. By "crash" I mean the whole computer suddenly shuts down

LR is hard on the machine. When the processor has to work this hard, it uses more power and it gets hotter. If the fans are not working properly, it will get too hot and protective devices will shutdown the machine to prevent permanent damage and/or fire!

This sounds like your problem.

Power off the machine, open the case and check for dust and crud. I'm guessing you'll find a ton of it especially around the fans and CPU. Clean that out as thoroughly as you can.

With the covers still off, and your fingers and other body parts well clear, power on the machine and check to see if the fans are all spinning. If not, you may have a dead fan. They're typically quite easy and inexpensive to replace.

 

[malch]

Try to find an installation disc for LR4. Anyone got one?

By the way, you can download LR4 here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5567

 

[bkpix]

Thanks, Malch. I'll give that a go.

 

[olakiril2]

LR is not the problem since you installed a new version and it still happens.

The following are most probable causes:

1. Hard drive corruption. Solution: Change it. Hint: Windows image.

2. Drivers. Yeah too general I know. For example I had a GPU driver issue giving me BSOD at random times. Solution: Check the error message on the BSOD which I assume you get and figure out the driver that needs re-installation.

3. CPU overheating. If you don't get a BSOD then that is highly likely. Check if the cpu fan still operates and install a hardware monitor for temperatures. Push you CPU with a program like prime95 to replicate the problem.

 

[bkpix]

Olakiril2: The problem doesn't happen unless I run LR. Pretty sure that's the issue. There are also other reports online of similar issues.

Malch (and others): In thinking about going back to LR4, which would do just about everything I need, I realize there is probably no way to take my current LR catalog back two versions. Anyone know? A lot of work to start over.

Thanks all.

 

[olakiril2]

Olakiril2: The problem doesn't happen unless I run LR. Pretty sure that's the issue. There are also other reports online of similar issues.

Different programs use computer resources in different ways. For example LR performs extensive harddrive IOs on a single catalog file. And writing on the catalog is more intense when you import photos or tagging like you describe.

If you don't want to go through troubleshooting you can buy a new computer cause LR4 will most probably not solve your issue.

 

[malch]

Malch (and others): In thinking about going back to LR4, which would do just about everything I need, I realize there is probably no way to take my current LR catalog back two versions. Anyone know? A lot of work to start over.

I fear that will be a lot of hassle. It might prove to be a very temporary solution or not a solution at all. Try cleaning the fans and vents first. You really should do this once or twice a year anyway.

Think about how well your car would be running if you didn't change the oil or the air filter for 3 years!

 

[bkpix]

Sorry, didn't mention: The fans are quite clean. I vacuum regularly. At this point LR6 won't even start, so I've uninstalled it and am doing a clean new install.

 

[bkpix]

PS: Agree that LR4 is not a good solution. But it's one I could live with, if I could get the catalog changed back to that format.

 

[hotdog321]

When I upgraded to LR5 last year, I began to have sporadic crashes, mostly involving image importing and tagging. By "crash" I mean the whole computer suddenly shuts down

LR is hard on the machine. When the processor has to work this hard, it uses more power and it gets hotter. If the fans are not working properly, it will get too hot and protective devices will shutdown the machine to prevent permanent damage and/or fire!

This sounds like your problem.

Power off the machine, open the case and check for dust and crud. I'm guessing you'll find a ton of it especially around the fans and CPU. Clean that out as thoroughly as you can.

With the covers still off, and your fingers and other body parts well clear, power on the machine and check to see if the fans are all spinning. If not, you may have a dead fan. They're typically quite easy and inexpensive to replace.

I'm a big believer in adding an extra fan or two and mucking out the computer innards from time to time. But I have cats!

I actually cooked two pricey video cards in a previous computer because it didn't come with sufficient cooling. I got some interesting and erratic computer crashes until I realized the problem was heat related.

 

[bkpix]

Anyone know if there is a way to detect whether it's a heat issue in error messages after a crash?

 

[TonyGamble]

I had to go back to the top to reassure myself that this was not a three year old thread rather than a three hour old one.

Have you been around long enough to remember the upgrade to version 4 debacle.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/971581

I think a lot of these threads have been locked by Adobe now but I remember one that ran to over 1,500 posts - with users talking about 'class action'.

Deja vue if it is running slow again.

I cannot understand how you folk can allow yourselves to get locked into a system that is now a monthly permit to use scenario.

I use something that is (a) better and (b) not a monthly licence.

Have fun with LR - but don't be surprised when it goes wrong.

Tony

 

[Simon Garrett]

PS: Agree that LR4 is not a good solution. But it's one I could live with, if I could get the catalog changed back to that format.

I can only agree with the others: even if that makes the problem go away, it's unlikely to be the root cause. At best, going back to LR4 may mask a problem which may come back and bite you again later.

It sounds to me that your machine is flaky. My advice: make sure you have lots of backups before you do anything.

As the others say, likely issues are:

• Hard disk problem. Do an error check on all drives, and check the "Scan..." option to make it scan the entire drive. Even that may not pick all problems but will find most.
• RAM problem.
• Heat problem - as discussed.
• Power supply problem - faulty power supplies are surprisingly common, and often appear to affect a single program - the one that exercises the processor most, which draws most current from the power supply. Power supplies are also quite cheap and easy to replace.

I know it may sound illogical, but quite a lot of hardware issues can appear to affect only one program, which leads one to think it's a software problem.

Other common mysterious problems can be down to drivers, especially the video driver. Again, somewhat perversely, it's not unusual for a single program to trigger problems in the video driver. The video driver has a zillion different functions, and it's quite possible that LR is the only software on your machine that uses one particular function.

I had problems caused by the wrong Nvidia driver. This was a Dell machine, and only the Dell Nvidia driver would do. The standard Nvidia driver caused crashes in the Epson print driver "print preview" function (but nowhere else for me).

 

[bkpix]

Tony,

I'm completely open to abandoning LR. One possibility would be to use separate programs for image management, processing, and printing. So much the better if they're free and open source, like most of the other software I use.

What photo software do you use?

Bob

 

[Kerry Pierce]

I cannot understand how you folk can allow yourselves to get locked into a system that is now a monthly permit to use scenario.

I use something that is (a) better and (b) not a monthly licence.

I don't have any software that is monthly license, but I'm always interested in hearing about alternatives to the programs that I use.

So, Tony, what is it that you use that is better than LR or other Adobe products?

thanks

Kerry

 

[RedFox88]

You are writing adjustments to a XMP file, correct? If so you should be able to uninstall and then add the photos to a new catalog since it'll read your XMP files and all your settings will be restored.

Upgrading a software twice also isn't great since it won't be as "clean" an install as a fresh install would be. Just like you should never "upgrade"windows. You format your hard drive and do a full install.

 

[bkpix]

Redfox,

Both LR 5 and LR 6 were full fresh installs.

Bob

 

[malch]

One possibility would be to use separate programs for image management, processing, and printing. So much the better if they're free and open source, like most of the other software I use.

This is my preference too. There are not a lot of good free tools for Windows. Many more choices for Linux users if you're open to that.

I use currently use Windows/CS6 for editing and my own home grown tool for image management.

 

[bkpix]

I do like Linux, in fact have it installed on a laptop. But haven't been wild about the photo software for it, except for Gimp (which you can also use on Windows). What do you use?