The other day, I started noticing a major problem with my Adobe Photoshop installation on a particular computer. Every time I went to open an existing file or create a new file, Adobe would lock up or freeze. Sometimes Photoshop would take nearly two minutes to open a file. Other times, the application would simply stop responding and Photoshop would need to be closed with (Ctrl+Alt+Del) Windows Task Manager.
This problem was occurring with both Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop CS3.
How to Fix the Photoshop Lockup or Freezing problem:
It seemed that Photoshop lockups were only occurring on one of my systems. Thinking back to any recent changes made on this particular system (HP laptop), the only recent change I could think of was the addition of a network printer. So I simply removed the recently added network printer from the system and launched Photoshop again. This time when attempting to create a new file, Photoshop responded quickly and instantly created the file as it used to.
To confirm that the added network printer was indeed causing the problem:
I reinstalled the networked printer and ran Photoshop again. Whenever attempting to create a new file, or open an existing file, Photoshop locked up, froze or stopped responding altogether after a period of time.
Photoshop Lockup Solution Conclusion
If your experiencing Photoshop lockups or freezes upon creating a new file or opening an existing file, try to disable or remove your network printer and see if the problem resolves.
Additional Notes: I've noticed that opening files (offsite) from a networked server or shared folder causes slowdowns as well. So, in most cases, it's probably best to open file from your local drive.
