Adobe Lightroom crashing...HELP

[David John]

I have used Lightroom with CS2 for quite a while with NO problems. I decided to install the 30-day trial version of CS3...after it expired, Lightroom continued to ask if I wanted to open exported photos in CS3, so I uninstalled CS3 and ran CS3 Clean Script (level 1). Ever since then, I cannot get Lightroom to work. I open it and within a few minutes I receive the dreaded "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has encountered a problem and needs to close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience." (Yeah, I'll bet.)

Photoshop CS2 started to do the same thing, but I was able to repair it through "Control Panel / Add-Remove Programs / Repair". I have uninstaled and reinstalled LR several times, even trying older versions 1.0 and 1.1 to see if it made a difference...it didn't. The last uninstall I deleted all the catalogs and files, and even all registry keys associated with Lightroom, but when I reinstalled the same thing happened.

I attempted to "repair" the install (through Add/Remove Programs) like I did with CS2...but I get the following error message:

"The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.
Click OK, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package
'Adobe_Lightroom.msi' in the box below.

The box (mentioned above) currently contains the following path:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C:\DOCUME~1\ME\LOCALS~1\Temp\{22BD4AAF-E147-4995-82E3-B105B55ADAC2}\
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and when I click "OK" the file cannot be found. I ran a search on all my drives for "Adobe_Lightroom.msi", but nothing came up.

Anyone here have an idea on what could be the problem?

[KarlMarsh]

Sounds like you might have a corrupt database. Have you tried restoring an older backup of your lightroom database? Sounds like LR is looking for CS3 at startup and not finding it which is causing the error. You need to restore a old version of your LR database (catalog) that is from before you installed CS3.

Its probably a bug because LR assumes you would never remove CS3. If I ever remove CS3 I will be sure to remove it from LR first as my external image editor.

[EOSAddict]

Can I suggest a deep clean of all LR-related files across your whole HDD after you uninstall?

This appears to be a bit of a common problem with Adobe programe (I Had it with PSE3) whereby a corrupt preferences file deep in the HDD can make all the difference.

[partsman]

Try this fix first, then try launching Lightroom. My copy of Lightroom was not crashing but I had to do this to make CS2 available again ever after uninstalling CS3. Worth a try.

From the Lightromm Extra FAQ:

Lightroom does not recognize Photoshop CS2 - Windows

Perform this at your own risk.
Here's how to fix it:

1) Run regedit.exe from start menu->run
2) Look for this folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\App Paths\photoshop.exe

In that folder, there should be a key "Path" and its value should be the folder where Photoshop CS2 (or any other Photoshop version) is installed."

If your registry does not have that folder, created it and add a "Path" key with the value being the path to Photoshop CS2:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\

[David John]

Can I suggest a deep clean of all LR-related files across your whole HDD after you uninstall?
{SNIP}


Its DEFINITELY CS3 that's causing the problem with Lightroom. I ran CS3 Clean Script again, this time choosing &quot;Level 2&quot; (which removes aditional shared CS3 files as well as Acrobat 8.1) and then reinstalled Lightroom. Voilà ...Lightroom worked perfectly. My first assumption was that Acrobat 8 was the culprit, so I installed the retail version of CS3 Extendant. Well, to my dismay, Lightroom crashed again!!</p>

Guess if I want CS3 I'm going to have to use Camera Raw 4.1. This sucks, I really liked Lightroom...but the only other option I can think of is a fresh install of my OS, and with as many programs as I have installed I shudder at the thought. I tried calling Adobe Support several times, but I get placed on permanant hold...and I just dont have two-hours during the work week to sit on hold.</p>