Question Can only boot Windows 11 Pro in Safe Mode after installing Adobe CS6 and Windows Update ... Auto-Repair, System Restore, etc. all fail

[timoteo1]

I recently needed to install Adobe CS6 Production Premium (software from circa 2012) on my Windows 11 system. Install went fine for all apps, but I did notice it installing MS Visual C++ 2005 Redistributables, and wondered if that would be an issue. Everything seemed fine, and my system was running perfectly.​

However, I went to restart it a day or so later and Windows 11 refuses to launch in anything but Safe Mode. There was a system update performed around this time as well I do believe, so I am wondering if the two conflicted somehow.

I have tried all the automatic repair features, booted into Safe Mode and removed CS6 as well as all the Visual C++ runtimes it installed, but nothing works. I have
run chkdsk, system repair tools, even restore point ... everything fails. I ran sfcscan /scannow and it did find and repair corrupt file(s) and I thought maybe that was going to be it, but still no go. I also ran the various DSIM commands (DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth, etc.) and all of those passed without issue. This is a weird one.

As mentioned, I CAN boot into Safe Mode. I tried disabling all startup items and unplugging all peripherals except for mouse and keyboard and monitors of course. I also tried disabling all services except for Microsoft services, and still the same issue. Which leads me to conclude it is indeed some type of MS driver/service conflict issue.

How can I see which driver is causing the hang at boot-up? With the older OS's you could instruct it to display all the drivers as it loaded Windows and you could see which one was hanging the system. I don't see a way to do that now. I am really at a loss on how to fix this other than a complete wipe and reinstall. I was REALLY hoping to avoid that though.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Corwin65]

Take a look at this -

can CS6 install in window 11??

Hi All, I want to know if CS6 can intaill in window 11?? If so, is it work well?? Many thanks Best Regards, Eva

community.adobe.com

Additionally, where did you get this 11 year old piece of software?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I went to restart it a day or so later and Windows 11 refuses to launch in anything but Safe Mode.

What does that mean?
Do you get any errors? BSODs?
Can you show a screenshot?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[ubuysa]

When you say it 'refuses to launch' what exactly does it do?

 

[timoteo1]

Take a look at this -

can CS6 install in window 11??

Hi All, I want to know if CS6 can intaill in window 11?? If so, is it work well?? Many thanks Best Regards, Eva

community.adobe.com

Additionally, where did you get this 11 year old piece of software?

Thanks, yeah sounds like it might be very temperamental, unfortunately.

I own the software. I still use it all the time on my older system. It is the last version before Adobe went full-on subscription (sadly).

 

[timoteo1]

What does that mean?
Do you get any errors? BSODs?
Can you show a screenshot?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

When you say it 'refuses to launch' what exactly does it do?

Sorry I wasn't more clear ...

It just hangs at the MSI logo ... black screen with the logo. It will stay like that indefinitely unless I trigger the Repair mode with reboot(s). Getting the "99" code on the motherboard, which I believe is just a code that indicates that there is a problem that is preventing the OS from loading properly. Which jives of course.

 

[RandomRyzenLover]

I recently needed to install Adobe CS6 Production Premium (software from circa 2012) on my Windows 11 system. Install went fine for all apps, but I did notice it installing MS Visual C++ 2005 Redistributables, and wondered if that would be an issue. Everything seemed fine, and my system was running perfectly.​

However, I went to restart it a day or so later and Windows 11 refuses to launch in anything but Safe Mode. There was a system update performed around this time as well I do believe, so I am wondering if the two conflicted somehow.

I have tried all the automatic repair features, booted into Safe Mode and removed CS6 as well as all the Visual C++ runtimes it installed, but nothing works. I have
run chkdsk, system repair tools, even restore point ... everything fails. I ran sfcscan /scannow and it did find and repair corrupt file(s) and I thought maybe that was going to be it, but still no go. I also ran the various DSIM commands (DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth, etc.) and all of those passed without issue. This is a weird one.

As mentioned, I CAN boot into Safe Mode. I tried disabling all startup items and unplugging all peripherals except for mouse and keyboard and monitors of course. I also tried disabling all services except for Microsoft services, and still the same issue. Which leads me to conclude it is indeed some type of MS driver/service conflict issue.

How can I see which driver is causing the hang at boot-up? With the older OS's you could instruct it to display all the drivers as it loaded Windows and you could see which one was hanging the system. I don't see a way to do that now. I am really at a loss on how to fix this other than a complete wipe and reinstall. I was REALLY hoping to avoid that though.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Judging by this post, I feel like you might've pirated this software and installed an update. Perhaps you could've either contracted a virus or the update broke your install. Go into a Windows 11 Installation USB prepared from a perfectly working system (you can have a friend help you if you need) and find a way to do System Restore to before the update occurred. If you get a BSOD or an error code please upload via Imgur and send it here.

 

[SkyNetRising]

It just hangs at the MSI logo ... black screen with the logo. It will stay like that indefinitely unless I trigger the Repair mode with reboot(s).

Any disk activity leds blinking during that time?
How long did you wait?

 

[timoteo1]

Any disk activity leds blinking during that time?
How long did you wait?

No. Well, when it first happened I left for the night, and when I came back the next day noticed it. So that time it was like 12 hours or more. Obviously much less now after the "500-or-so reboots" I've done now trying to fix it, but in the beginning, many minutes. Normal boot time is 10-15 seconds.

 

[timoteo1]

Judging by this post, I feel like you might've pirated this software and installed an update. Perhaps you could've either contracted a virus or the update broke your install. Go into a Windows 11 Installation USB prepared from a perfectly working system (you can have a friend help you if you need) and find a way to do System Restore to before the update occurred. If you get a BSOD or an error code please upload via Imgur and send it here.

A) Definitely NOT pirated, got it directly from Adobe, and B) There is/was no update. This was the final version. The last update was in May of 2012.

 

[Colif]

what was the windows update?

installing photoshop shouldn't cause windows to not boot... but your title mentions windows update, so that going wrong could be reason?

have you tried rolling back the update?

 

[systmcrsh]

found the same question on ms's forums, i'll post the same reply here:

i had the same problem with cs6 and windows 11. after installing cs6 the pc wouldn't boot normally, only safe mode.

the problem seems to be PxHlpa64.sys that is installed by the cs6 installer.

after many hours of research and troubleshooting, the solution for me was:

open regedit and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PxHlpa64.sys

change the "Start" reg_dword from 0 to 4 and reboot normally

*edit*

also... i have an external usb dvd optical drive that also stopped being recognized due to pxhlpa64.sys... to also fix this problem:

opn regedit and navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

delete, or rename the key LowerFilters. i renamed mine to LowerFilters.0

i also renamed LowerFilters to LowerFilters.0 at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

and then my optical drive worked normally

if you google PxHlpa64.sys it seems to be a common problem that's not unique to cs6

 

[Consequator]

found the same question on ms's forums, i'll post the same reply here:

i had the same problem with cs6 and windows 11. after installing cs6 the pc wouldn't boot normally, only safe mode.

the problem seems to be PxHlpa64.sys that is installed by the cs6 installer.

after many hours of research and troubleshooting, the solution for me was:

open regedit and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PxHlpa64.sys

change the "Start" reg_dword from 0 to 4 and reboot normally

*edit*

also... i have an external usb dvd optical drive that also stopped being recognized due to pxhlpa64.sys... to also fix this problem:

opn regedit and navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

delete, or rename the key LowerFilters. i renamed mine to LowerFilters.0

i also renamed LowerFilters to LowerFilters.0 at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

and then my optical drive worked normally

if you google PxHlpa64.sys it seems to be a common problem that's not unique to cs6

I know this is a somewhat old post but this post saved my bacon.
The PxHpa64.sys is the culprit of Win11 not booting after a cs6 install for those who shelved out good money to adobe in the past.

 

[Ralston18]

Closing thread to further posts.