Nik plugins crashing Photoshop on startup

Photoshop crashes just when completing startup. No changes were made to the video drivers, photoshop, or the plugins.

Photoshop and the Nik plugins worked ok all night, but the next morning Photoshop won't start. The plugins have worked ok for months and all of a sudden, for no reason, now prevent Photoshop from starting.

I have isolated the cause to the Nik/Google plugin: Selective Tool

When it is included in the photoshop plugin folder, it crashes. When Selective Tool is removed, Photoshop starts ok.

I've done the research and others have reported the problem. But I have made all recommended fix attempts and nothing works. I've: updated video drivers as well as installed previous versions, plus completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Nik package.

any ideas appreciated.

Edit: Nik support has been contacted. No reply has been received yet.

What version of Photoshop are you using?

Sorry. Meant to include info:

Win 7 Pro 64-bit
PS CS5 64 bit
Nvidia GeForce GT 640
Both the 32 and 64 bit PS exhibit the same behavior: include Selective Tool, it crashes. Remove it, PS runs.

Thanks for reminding me to post the info.

And what version of the Nik Collection?

Google pushes background updates; the last such update was 1.2.0.7 on July 16, 2014. You can see this by looking at the C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\Do​wnload folder.

I'm running Photoshop CC 2014 and I'm noticing some weird behavior too...when I tab away for Photoshop and keep it running in the background it just locks up when I attempt to go back to it and the only way to restart is using Windows Task Manager. I noticed a small panel flashing quickly before it locks but I haven't been able to read what it says...so given your post I'm wondering if its the Selective Tool causing it to lock up.

Thanks. Don't have Nik running right now, but it's the latest. Downloaded it yesterday (7/26) for the uninstall - reinstall. The filename is nikcollection-latest.exe.

I noticed that update info. And yes, Google has a bad habit of pushing updates without notifications.

But I ruled that out because I use the Nik suite extensively every day, and I had no problems with running Nik between 7/16 and 7/25. Used it all night 7/25, turned the machine off, started it 5 hours later and PS began crashing. So I assumed if it was the 7/16 update it would have crashed before 7/26.

And yes, Google has done this before. I remember a short while ago when they released analog efex 2 it caused problems. I had to reinstall myself. Still, Nik ran ok between 7/16 - 7/25 so I'm assuming it was not that update.

Thanks for the feedback.