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TICKET ARCHIVE -> newly installed IllustratorCS won't open

p0weep00 - Feb 3, 2008 - 3:25 am

I just installed the whole CS bundle on my newly bought macbook and only illustrator crashes of all of the programs. It won't even open. After it's loaded the fonts and what not, i get the message "illustrator quit unexpectedly" or some such. I've been told to trash the program and the plists and re-install, but it isn't working.

A friend told me that it might be a problem with certain fonts and i should move them all to the desktop and by process of elimination, find out which one's giving me trouble.

Is there an easier wy to do this? Is there a font family that usually gives illustrator trouble? Or maybe it's another issue altogether?

thanks a lot for your help,
Paolo

Serenak - Feb 3, 2008 - 6:34 am

Hello Paolo

thanks for using macosx.com and I will try to advise you.

I think the main problem here is that you are using Leopard - and CS predates Leopard by some way (possibly even Tiger thinking about it).

Adobe have quite openly said that the running of CS and even CS2 on Leopard is not "approved or supported" and likely to cause problems - regardless of this I have had CS2 running on Leopard... I never stress tested it but it did install and all the apps opened like they should and could create/save a basic document - I have never tried CS on Leopard though on the grounds that it was of no use to me and that it was unlikely to work.

However a bit of work in Google leads me to believe that it is actually possible to do this - however there are some caveats... Illustrator (all CS versions) appears to be particularly sensitive to HP printer drivers. If you have an HP printer be very sure that the driver installed is the absolute latest available... (or try removing it from the printer list temporarily)

There also seem to be issues surrounding Microsoft Office in someway conflicting with CSx Applications (and possibly Quicken too)

Make sure that all these applications are fully updated (the AI CS 11.0.2 update is here http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=2688) and then trash the Illustrator Settings folder and try again... (or try removing the MS Office Apps temporarily).

As for the fonts... Adobe has a nice habit of chucking a big wedge of fonts into the /Library/Fonts folder... try removing these into a non active folder for now and see if you can get the Illustrator to run.

Hope that is at least some help

p0weep00 - Feb 4, 2008 - 8:29 pm

Thanks for the help, i tried most of it out, but it still won't work. i tried moving the fonts into another folder, tried trashing Word, i don't even have any printer drivers installed yet. i am completely stumped. i think i'll just go ahead and buy cs2 and see if that works, or maybe cs3 even. it's absolutely hopeless.

but thanks for your help though, I really appreciate it.

Serenak - Feb 5, 2008 - 3:42 am

OK

I can say that although CS3 is pricey Adobe do have some pretty good upgrade deals (and they seem not to discriminate over what previously registered version you own. Only caveat is CS3 requests at least 1Gb of RAM - which you have, but if you want to do serious work with it you may want to up that a bit (like to 2Gb...), then again you can run CS3 in less - it just goes slower and you get a lot of memory swapouts!

Sorry I couldn't help much more - do you want me to chuck the ticket back into the ring in case any other Techs have any suggestions?

p0weep00 - Feb 5, 2008 - 7:31 pm

wow, really? slow with 1 gig memory? i did not know that. well, i guess i'll just hold off a little bit longer on purchasing that upgrade. well, i guess since i'll be sitting on it for a while, maybe throwing the ticket back in wouldn't be such a bad idea.

thanks for your help really, i wouldn't have known to try out those other options otherwise.

Serenak - Feb 6, 2008 - 2:48 am

Don't get me wrong Paolo

CS3 is not unbearably slow in 1Gb... and is fine for smaller to average projects - but for "heavy lifting" it (like everything else) will benefit a lot from having some more RAM to make use of. You can run CS3 in less that 1Gb (I have done it on 768Mb but then it does start to grind a bit) - Besides RAM is ludicrously cheap right now... check out someone like Crucial.

Anyway sorry again I couldn't get CS to work for you and I will chuck it back into the ring in case anyone else has any clues...

Natobasso - Feb 6, 2008 - 12:38 pm

I'll take a stab at this from the font angle.

First, stop using FontBook (if you haven't purchased another font program then you are using this mac internal font management software).

Second, download FontExplorer (http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorer) and go to Tools/Manage System Fonts. This cleans your System/Fonts folder and leaves only the required fonts here. Best for performance.

Then, put all your user fonts in the first level of your hard drive and connect FontExplorer to it with 'Add Fonts to Library' (command + letter O, I think). Activate the fonts you need.

Font explorer works great with CS suite specifically and has drivers for same so it might help with stability. While it's true CS is an older version than Leopard, it should still work in Rosetta emulation mode pretty well if you handle this font issue.

You've moved a lot of fonts around, but I think FontExplorer will help you get this back on track.

Let me know what happens.

p0weep00 - Feb 8, 2008 - 6:10 am

i don't believe it. i don't believe it. it flippin' worked man. it worked!!! thanks a lot, really, this really takes a load off. thanks so much!!!!

/paolo