Dreamweaver CS3 Crashes At Startup

[running bear]

I installed the CS3 web premium suite and all the programs worked great,
including Dreamweaver. After rebooting the PC the next morning, Dreamweaver CS3
would not launch anymore. I reinstalled DW but still the same problem. Startup
gets as far as reading the site cache and then totally disappears. I've tried
renaming/deleting the Configuration and the registry key
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9), and the DW8 site caches. The
other CS3 programs work fine.

What now?

[David Alcala - Adobe]

See if this TechNote helps:

Troubleshooting Dreamweaver for Windows
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_15481

It's been updated for DW CS3.

David Alcala
Adobe Product Support

[sj41]

I had a similar problem with Dreamweaver and Flash. After a full 2 days of
troubleshooting I resolved it as a conflict between DW/Flash and Logitech's
Setpoint driver for my trackball. Removing Setpoint fixed the problem but left
me without some of the features Setpoint added.

[David Alcala - Adobe]

Thanks for letting us know how you solved it!

David Alcala
Adobe Product Support

[Mythago]

I also experienced the conflict with Dreamweaver/Flash and the Logitech
Setpoint software. I didn't figure it out until booting on my Windows XP
System in Selective Startup Mode. Then, Dreamweaver and Flash both ran
perfectly. When I booted normally and removed Logitech Setpoint, Dreamweaver &
Flash also loaded fine. I tried installing the latest Logitech Setpoint
software version 4.40, but that didn't help. It seems best just to forgo the
Setpoint functionality for the time-being.

[q][i]Originally posted by: [b][b]sj41[/b][/b][/i]
I had a similar problem with Dreamweaver and Flash. After a full 2 days of
troubleshooting I resolved it as a conflict between DW/Flash and Logitech's
Setpoint driver for my trackball. Removing Setpoint fixed the problem but left
me without some of the features Setpoint added.[/q]

[Cyd]

I just ran into this one for the first time. And it was on a day that
the board of directors was waiting to see their site. Stupid me, I
thought I'd use the Spry tabbed panel and show how cool it was. I had
heard that Spry was untrustworthy, but there are so many books and
good press about it, I disregarded the advice. So I spent the entire
day trying to get back to where I could work again.

I completely reinstalled CS3. The other apps worked but DW still did
not. It just started up and was counting HTML (9 of 60) and then
crashed over and over. After finding this thread, I went and checked
the file size of the css and sure enough, it was 8192 bytes. I haven't
tried the fix yet, but since this is documented in a book and is
reproducible, I can't understand why Adobe wouldn't fix this simply to
keep their reputation intact.

Someone posted that it was rare for something to hit exactly this
number, but it's not rare at all when it's the size of a file that DW
puts there when you use Spry tools. Thanks to everyone who bothered to
post their problem and particularly, their fix!

[running bear]

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

[David Alcala - Adobe]

Hi Harry

Can you post your tech support incident so we can investigate the delay?

It sounds like you're up and running now, but you're not sure what change
you made that solved the problem. Sounds like you did a "clean update" of
Zone Alarm and DW worked after that. I'm not sure what a "clean update" is.
Did you reinstall Zone Alarm?

Thanks,

David Alcala
Adobe Product Support

Post by running bear
I can open Dreamweaver now but I don't think the problem is solved. Here's

[stephen_e28]

My Dreamweaver wouldn't start and after reading the other guys problem and he
fixed it with changing his testing folder name I thought I would try it. I had
also been experimenting with Spry in a testing folder, I just changed the name
of the folder and all is well once again. Seems like an odd fix but whatever,
it works :)

Stephen

[Doug R - Sydney]

I can openDreamweavernow but I don't think the problem is solved. Here's what
I took the steps in the article you referenced and some others, re-started the
pc repeatedly with all start-up programs disabled, and waited in vain for the
promised return phone call from a seemingly diligent guy in Tech Support. When
I called Tech Support the next day, they said that the case number and customer
ID had no reference to this problem so someone would call back. OK, fine. I'll
wait.
I did a "clean update" of ZoneAlarm, remembering that this had solved some
other problems in the past. Later yesterday, I was cleaning up some
experimental website file directories and renamed a few of them to make more
sense of what they were.
When I tried to re-openDreamweaverlater, it paused to tell me that it could
not find the directory for the site referenced in the site definition and I
should go to Manage Sites to fix it. SinceDreamweaverhad crashed repeatedly
before reaching this stage, this was a major victory. The site it was trying to
open was one that I had set up to experiment with some of the new features in
DW CS3 after the initial installation. Fortunately, it was one that I had
renamed earlier yesterday.
The offending directory contained a page with some of the new Spry widgets
(Tabbed Panel and Accordian) and a short slideshow that I think I made using
Bridge.
So, I was able to open the Manage Sites panel and pointDreamweaverto another
site definition. It opened fine and everyone lived happily ever after.
Unfortunately, the problem is not solved -- just worked around by coincidence.
Here is some info from the Windows Control Panel's Event Viewer about the last
time that DW crashed: Faulting applicationdreamweaver.exe, version 9.0.0.3481,
faulting modulemsvcr80.dll, version 8.0.50727.163, fault address 0x000142f1.
Hope ths helps Adobe figure out what is causing this crash. Now that I can
openDreamweaverCS3 and use it, I'm really impressed with the upgrade.
Harry

I have exactly the same issue as mentioned above, i have tried doing a
thousand things including loading the older version of the msvcr80.dll
out of my winsxs folder into /system32 AND /system folder... this
fixed it from crashing while loading the site cache but it now crashes
when i try to open any of the sites i used the sprite effects in...

May i add i am dissapointed as macromedia released rock solid releases
nearly every time...

when is the upgrade going to be ready? as some of us rely on this for
our income...

[marceloxx669]

This is weird I have the same problem, but twice. Dreamweaver crashed on my pc
with WinXp, I tried reinstalling it to no avail so I launched dreamweaver in my
laptop(Windows Vista) to continue working (worked right last time I used it)
and CRASHED TOO. I couldn't find related info in the system errors log though.
I have no other chance that move to another IDE. What are the alternatives?
thanks

[Murray *ACE*]

Uninstall before reinstalling.
--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com - Template Triage!
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/ - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================

Post by marceloxx669
This is weird I have the same problem, but twice. Dreamweaver crashed on my pc
with WinXp, I tried reinstalling it to no avail so I launched dreamweaver in my
laptop(Windows Vista) to continue working (worked right last time I used it)
and CRASHED TOO. I couldn't find related info in the system errors log though.
I have no other chance that move to another IDE. What are the
alternatives?
thanks

[marceloxx669]

I did uninstalled before reinstalling to no avail. IŽll try installing an older version, I didn`t pay for the Suite, the company did though.(dissapointed)

[David Powers]

I did uninstalled before reinstalling to no avail. I�ll try installing an older version, I didn`t pay for the Suite, the company did though.(dissapointed)

This is a long shot, but it might explain your problem.

While writing my latest book, I discovered that Dreamweaver crashed
every time that I changed a measurement in a particular stylesheet from
5px to 0. Not only that, it consistently crashed whenever I tried to
restart Dreamweaver, and the only way to solve the problem was to delete
the style sheet. Since the style sheet was installed by the Spry Tabbed
Panels Widget, I wondered if there was a bug with the widget, so I
contacted Adobe.

The answer revealed one of the most bizarre bugs ever. Dreamweaver CS3
crashes if you create a file that is exactly 8,192 bytes (or a multiple
thereof) in length. Try moving your sites (or the contents of the site
folders) temporarily to a different location, and see if Dreamweaver
launches. If it does, it's then a question of locating the file that's
causing the crash. I solved my problem by using 0px instead of 0. That
added 2 bytes to the file size, thereby avoiding the bug.

I understand that Adobe has identified the cause of the bug, and that it
will be eliminated in the next release (I'm hoping that means an
updater, but I don't have any information about that).

As I say, it's a long shot, but it's worth trying.

[Lauren]

Thanks -- this post saved me from a lot of grief. I never would have
figured that out on my own in a million years.

[w***@socialimage.net]

OK. I thought I'd summarize this for those people who were just as
perplexed as I. For months, I had one site (of many) that when I tried
to open any HTML file, it would crash Dreamweaver on Windows XP (I do
not know if other platforms are affected, but I'd think so).

The following entry (or some variation thereof) would be found in the
"Application Log" of Windows Event Viewer:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 12/6/2007
Time: 2:40:15 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ****
Description:
Faulting application dreamweaver.exe, version 9.0.0.3481, faulting
module msvcr80.dll, version 8.0.50727.163, fault address 0x000142f1.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 64 72 65 ure dre
0018: 61 6d 77 65 61 76 65 72 amweaver
0020: 2e 65 78 65 20 39 2e 30 .exe 9.0
0028: 2e 30 2e 33 34 38 31 20 .0.3481
0030: 69 6e 20 6d 73 76 63 72 in msvcr
0038: 38 30 2e 64 6c 6c 20 38 80.dll 8
0040: 2e 30 2e 35 30 37 32 37 .0.50727
0048: 2e 31 36 33 20 61 74 20 .163 at
0050: 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 offset 0
0058: 30 30 31 34 32 66 31 0d 00142f1.
0060: 0a .

OK. Great. If you have this error occurring while starting up
Dreamweaver, you may have site caching set to be "automatically"
recreated. If you can open Dreamweaver, but it crashes upon opening an
HTML file (which is what happened to me), I think I've got it figured
out.

Open the HTML file in a Text Editor (Textpad/Notepad/Wordpad -
anything but dreamweaver) that you were editing and note every and all
CSS files you may have linked inside. Note that this could be from
your templates, linked via an asset or somesuch methodology.

Once you've compiled that list, use windows explorer to navigate your
source files and search for just "*.css" files. Then look at the
details. If windows reports anything around 8 KB or multiples thereof,
open the file in a text editor, and add a comment like:
/** Changing the file size */

Save the CSS file.

Then try to re-launch dreamweaver and/or open the file.

This may seem totally out there, but believe me - after spending 2
months trying to get this resolved, I came across this thread and just
said to myself "hey, wha have I got to loose?" And, lo and behold,
things work again. It's mindboggling and stupid. I would think that
with the updates being sent by Adobe pretty much every other week,
this one would certainly be one to look out for. Or at least have it
DOCUMENTED SOMEPLACE!!!!

Silly me, I have to go to Google groups to figure out this mess. After
having spent hours and hours uninstalling, reinstalling, updating,
upgrading, mucking with the registry, changing folder names,
uninstalling/reinstalling SetPoint/virus scanners, creating site
caches, clearing user preferences, and many more time-consuming tasks,
it was changing the file size of a file!!!!

Yuck!

[c***@web.de]

Thank you for posting this, it saved me a lot of time and nerves!
Chris

[b***@gmail.com]

Unbelievable. I am very glad i found this thread, this byte size bug
was exactly our problem, too. Thanks for the amazing find, I'm a Hero
today :)

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by b***@gmail.com
Unbelievable. I am very glad i found this thread, this byte size bug
was exactly our problem, too. Thanks for the amazing find, I'm a Hero
today :)

I've just had this happen at 32kb also. I wonder if this happens at
all multiples of 8kb?! I'm sure it is this same bug. I edited the file
to add some text and voila, success!

[infuzed]

Thank you so much!
This has been a real waste of time trying to work out what was going on... many installs, uninstall, reinstalls later i came across this nugget!
bizarre bug

Again, you have made my month!
Thank you

[marceloxx669]

Thanks for the reply, t's good to know what's going on.
It makes sense to me , when dreamweaver crashed in the first pc i moved via
LAN the site files to the laptop and it crashed too. I my case the crash was
exactly after I renamed a small gif file(173 bytes). Although I renamed it back
to check but DW crashed anyway.
I'll try moving that folder to a different location in the laptop because in
the desktop pc I already stepped back to DreanWeaver 8 and it's running fine.
Thanks again.

[marceloxx669]

OK, you`re totally right. After I renamed the gif file I updated the name of
that gif in the stylesheet and the result? File Size: 8,00 KB (8.192 bytes).So
I added some comments to the end of the file and now everything is running fine
.
I'll have to double check the file size every time I update a file to the
laptop. I hope Adobe release an update soon to patch this bug.
Thanks for the enlightenment

[Murray *ACE*]

Wow - amazing. That's one for the books....
--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com - Template Triage!
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/ - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================

Post by marceloxx669
OK, you`re totally right. After I renamed the gif file I updated the name of
that gif in the stylesheet and the result? File Size: 8,00 KB (8.192 bytes).So
I added some comments to the end of the file and now everything is running fine
.
I'll have to double check the file size every time I update a file to the
laptop. I hope Adobe release an update soon to patch this bug.
Thanks for the enlightenment

[David Powers]

Post by Murray *ACE*
Wow - amazing. That's one for the books....

It's on page 220 of "The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3". Name of
the author escapes me for the moment... Oh, hang on, it must have been
me. ;-)

[David Powers]

Post by marceloxx669
OK, you`re totally right. After I renamed the gif file I updated the name of
that gif in the stylesheet and the result? File Size: 8,00 KB (8.192 bytes).So
I added some comments to the end of the file and now everything is running fine

Excellent. Sometimes a long shot really works. :-)

Post by marceloxx669
I'll have to double check the file size every time I update a file to the
laptop.

FWIW, the only time it has ever happened to me was with the one file.
Getting an exact multiple of 8,192 bytes is pretty rare.

[running bear]

Unfortunately, I was the one who got to start this thread back in May. I've
been reading the latest posts and Dave Powers' discovery of the rogue 8,192
byte sized file. Looking back in the original trouble directory, I see that
there is a Spry stylesheet that is 8,187 bytes. It looks like it is a default
file called "SpryTabbedPanels.css" Revision: Spry Preview Release 1.4.

By the way, Powers' "Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3" is very good and
explains a lot of PHP and Ajax very clearly. It reads like a book that was
actually read over by the author and by people who don't already know all the
answers.

Harry
workableweb.com

[David Powers]

Post by running bear
By the way, Powers' "Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3" is very good and
explains a lot of PHP and Ajax very clearly. It reads like a book that was
actually read over by the author and by people who don't already know all the
answers.

Thanks, Harry. I'm glad you find the book helpful. Yes, I do read my own
books. Apart from re-reading individual sections of the book as I write
or revise them, I read every single word of the finished book twice
before letting it go to the printer, once in Word format, and again
after it has been laid out in the finished page format. It's a lot of
work, but I think it's important to do so.

We didn't have beta readers, but my technical reviewer was Tom Muck, who
kept me on the straight and narrow, and pointed out when my explanations
missed out vital points.

[Malcolm N_]

Post by David Powers

Post by running bear
By the way, Powers' "Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3" is very good and
explains a lot of PHP and Ajax very clearly. It reads like a book that was
actually read over by the author and by people who don't already know all the
answers.

Thanks, Harry. I'm glad you find the book helpful. Yes, I do read my own
books. Apart from re-reading individual sections of the book as I write
or revise them, I read every single word of the finished book twice
before letting it go to the printer, once in Word format, and again
after it has been laid out in the finished page format. It's a lot of
work, but I think it's important to do so.
We didn't have beta readers, but my technical reviewer was Tom Muck, who
kept me on the straight and narrow, and pointed out when my explanations
missed out vital points.

It shows David - you have an excellent writing style, and I never have
to stop to think - what does he mean. Well ok I have to re-read some
parts a second or third time because they are challenging technically
;-)

[JesseLY]

I realize this is a pretty old thread, but I also encountered the problem of DW
crashing on start-up. Just like stephen_e28 I found that it had to do with
using a Spry widget.

Immediately after installing the Spry Tabbed Panel widget DW crashed. I
couldn't get it to start again, even after reinstalling. Then I came across
stephen_e28 's comment about Spry. I went into the web folder and deleted the
Spry stuff and DW started right up!

-Jess

[r***@hotmail.com]

Dreamweaver CS3 was crashing on loading for me, too. I remembered that
the time the fault began coincided with my changing the local root
folder for one of my site definitions. so i switched it back to the
previous root folder and the problem immediately disappeared.

I checked to see if there were any file with the 8192 byte size (or
multiples), expecting to find some. There were actually none. So i'm
not exactly sure what was causing the problem. Dreamweaver clearly
didn't like something about the new root folder that I was pointing
the site at.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, try to remember any other events or
changes that you did around the same time as the problem occurred.
Then roll back that event or change and see if that fixes the problem.

[webstpaul]

I experienced the Dreamweaver CS3 site cache crash starting the second time I launched.
My fix was to remove all single quotes [ ' ] from my css.

[N***@gmail.com]

I have experienced the same crash (as soon as I saved my stylesheet)

The stylesheet is exactly 16,384 bytes (twice as large as 8,192).

This is an absurd and hilarious bug. I'm glad I found the answer so
quickly, or I would have been upset. But fix it dude, comon.

Also, fix Bridge. It can't resolve a layout on a second or a third
monitor. This sucks, because a non-primary monitor is exactly where
bridge is most usefully positioned.

[SanuraW]

Hi, I have Dreamweaver MX 2004 on a Mac. There were problems with my computer
that required me to clean reinstall of my Mac software. I've recently
reinstalled my computer back to Version 10.4.11. Now, my Dreamweaver
application crashes when it starts up. I've removed the software to the trash
and reinstalled it. And, the application continues to crash. What can I do to
get this software working again? It was running fine on the previous Mac
software.

[betachz]

I had this exact error... Wasted 48 hours of my life. Amazing that DW would
have such a stupid error in it that they won't fix. This was amazingly painful
for me to go through and since my clients were wanting me to meet a deadline
and I had to go through this mess. Makes me want to find something else to
develop under. FIX THIS PROBLEM PLEASE... maybe a patch for CS3 is in order?
What a mess.

[Murray *ACE*]

Give us steps to reproduce this crash every time, and I'm sure someone will
take a look. Without those, it would be impossible to troubleshoot.
--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================

Post by betachz
I had this exact error... Wasted 48 hours of my life. Amazing that DW would
have such a stupid error in it that they won't fix. This was amazingly painful
for me to go through and since my clients were wanting me to meet a deadline
and I had to go through this mess. Makes me want to find something else to
develop under. FIX THIS PROBLEM PLEASE... maybe a patch for CS3 is in order?
What a mess.

[Anton]

Post by Murray *ACE*
Give us steps to reproduce this crash every time, and I'm sure someone will
take a look. Without those, it would be impossible to troubleshoot.

That's simple enough:

1. Create a site connection in Dw.

2. Include a file in the site that is exactly 8,192 bytes long (a
text file is probably easiest.)

3. Synchronize the remote and local views.


Voila!!

[r***@gmail.com]

8192 bytes bug

Wonderfull