Photoshop CS3 problems and Mac OSX 10.6.3

[RichGibson]

I haven't found this issue; sorry if it's a duplicate.  Recently I was trying out my CS3 in advance preparation for my newly ordered CS5 and to my surprise   Photoshop wouldn't start.  A search  found that a routine update from 10.6.2 to 10.6.3 causes the problem.  It has to do with Apple adding another character to it's new line of hardware which have 12 character serial numbers (my 2009 13" MBP has 11).  Apparently when Photoshop CS3 interfaces with 10.6.3 which recognizes the 12th character,  Macs with 11 character serial numbers stop loading.  This does not occur with CS4, just CS3.  Fortunately I hadn't backed up my standby boot drive so it still had 10.6.2.

Thanks,

[francois]

I haven't found this issue; sorry if it's a duplicate.  Recently I was trying out my CS3 in advance preparation for my newly ordered CS5 and to my surprise   Photoshop wouldn't start.  A search  found that a routine update from 10.6.2 to 10.6.3 causes the problem.  It has to do with Apple adding another character to it's new line of hardware which have 12 character serial numbers (my 2009 13" MBP has 11).  Apparently when Photoshop CS3 interfaces with 10.6.3 which recognizes the 12th character,  Macs with 11 character serial numbers stop loading.  This does not occur with CS4, just CS3.  Fortunately I hadn't backed up my standby boot drive so it still had 10.6.2.

Thanks,

The issue is also present for those who have had their Mac's motherboard replaced. Often, in this case, Apple leaves the serial number blank.

A workaround would be to download a trial version of CS4. Hopefully, CS5 should be available before the 30-days trial period.

Reverting to 10.6.2, is probably a "cleaner" way to handle the issue.