Hi, Im working on a project, the psd is about 165MB, its got aLOT OF layers. I dont want to jig them together yet, until Im totally finished. However, I was working on it saturday, I spent four and a half hours making an arm, and all of a sudden photoshop shut down, and I mean no warning, no not responding, just down, and my system rebooted itself. Somebody told me I have too many layers. Is this true, or is it just my system is not capable of more. Any help gladly appreciated I am going to finish the work today and IM scared to open the psd. Syyd

Without knowing how many layers, or anything about your system, it's difficult to say. It does sounds like maybe you've reached as much as can be handled. Is it possible to split the file into two or more, sharing the layers (and so the load) between files?

Syyd, it's also possible that the sudden shutdown really didn't have anything to do specifically with Photshop. I've known Windows to do that on occasion even when I'm doing something as simple as typing a message post at R'osity. Sudden black screen, instant reboot, no visible cause. So I'd suggest put the suspicion on Windows, go ahead and open the PSD, poke around the layers, save frequently, and I'll bet you're able to finish the image okay. Good luck! :)

It was not necessarily number of layers but the amount of system resources getting dangerously low. Windows will crash when it wants to. What you can do when working for a while on an image, Edit - Purge and select Undo, Clipboard, Histories or All. You can merge certain layers that don't need to be on separate layers anymore. Edit - Preferences - General - Reduce the amount in the history states - Memory & Image Cache - Check your cache levels and the percentage of memory used by photoshop. If running other programs make sure you open photoshop last. Always save your work from time to time if you don't want to risk losing it by a crash.

Thank you everybody. I jigged the layers together into body regions and it reduced the file size nicely. Saved it under another name in case I dont like it and need to refer to the looser version. I got laughed at by my partners for having a psd with 150 layers. Oh well, details, details....Sorry for not answering sooner, and I do appreciate the help, I never got any ebots for this. Syyd

I've been working on the big momma (The Grudge) for a long time Syyd. The file is a little over 500 megs in size. Only now, just after I decided it was finished, does it refuse to open. Fortuantately, I already burned it to cd. Me thinks its just my lackluster system deciding its had enough! Anyways, I'm fairly certain I have as many, if not more layers going than you got (you didn't say how many, and I can't check cause it wont open anymore!), but photoshop 6.0 opened it for me day in and day out for about 5 months. Not only do I have about 40-50 layers going, but they're all in 600ppi as well. just saw it, a 150 layers!!!?????! Shyte yo, that's a lot... Anyways, I have photoshop take up 75% of my available ram on startup, and if I know I ain't doing ANYTHING else, I boost it up to 90%, then restart the program. Point being, you likely have a mondo killer system going, so maybe it was just some random freak accident. God bless LZW compression though for final prints eh?

Also, I used to get random restarts after overclocking my video card by a mere 15 mhz. I dunno what was going on, but that could be a problem if yer doing it. ciao hun, ry

Photoshop can handle over 5000 layers....I'd put the blame on Windoze! Dave

If you have WIN98, get rid of it!!! It's just a piece of junk. Nothing but problems. I was constantly shutting down in those days. Upgrade everything you can and get yourself a separate hard drive and use it as a scratch disk! Works like butter everytime, no matter on the size of the file.