Common Cause of Adobe Reader (5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0) Hangs and Crashes

Contributed by davak July 16, 2005  
Tagged: Windows

If your version of adobe reader is hanging or crashing, make sure temporary directory is not full. This is the most common adobe issue that I see in our environment. All versions experience this problem.

Last week I witnessed a common occurance. Adobe hangs with just the splash screen sitting there. Upgrading adobe doesn’t help. If you kill the task, the adobe screen dissapears and what is left is a square image on screen where the splash screen used to be

Sadly, adobe doesn’t give an error message or anything… it just hangs.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. In the textbox type %temp% and click OK

[list]Your temporary directory should open. It should similiar to this location where yourusername is replaced with your profile name:

[list]C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Local Settings\Temp

4. Delete all the files you can in this directory. If you are worried about hurting something, just delete all the *.tmp files you see.
5. Reboot

If the above doesn’t work, is too complicated, or too scary… just run the Disk Clean-Up Wizard to clean out your temp directories:

1. Click Start
2. Select All Programs
3. Select Accessories
4. Select System Tools
5. Click Disk Cleanup