Photoshop 6 EXTREMELY Slow!!!

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 1:06pm #1

Hey, I just ran Photoshop this morn for the first time since installing BB and wireless router. It takes forever to do anything and it keeps saying "not responding". This happens for the most basic tasks, ie: dragging a marquee!!!.

I'm running version 6.0 on a PC (WinXP Pro SP2).

Any ideas??

Wertz · 31-07-2005 1:59pm

How much RAM have you? Are you using a large enough cache size/virtual memory?

Might be time to reinstall the app fresh.

Also consider the possibility that something is hogging your CPU...open task manager and see how much process time photshop is using and see what else is using resources at the same time. Don't know how DSL would cause this alone...

the_syco · 31-07-2005 2:07pm

ButtermilkJack wrote:

first time since installing BB and wireless router

Do you have anti-virus software? If not, goto http://www.grisoft.com and get the free vesion.

It may also me spyware. Get Adaware at http://www.lavasoft.de and get the personal version (which is free).

For some people who just recently got DSL, they may not be used to the hugh amount of sh|te that will appear on your machine, hogging your resources, etc. Spyware is one of those, and Adaware will find, and be able to get rid of, most of these things.

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 2:56pm

I've got 512mb (laptop) RAM. Photoshop is using about 300mb!! I've got Norton AV installed and up-to-date. I've also got SpyBot installed and recently ran a full system check and wiped out a load of stuff. Not sure if it was bad stuff or not, but its gone now

Wertz · 31-07-2005 3:25pm

What speed CPU in the laptop?
I PS with my 521mb laptop a fair bit and have no lag issues at all...but I have a 2.1ghz P-M.
300mb is a lot for PS to be utilising IIRC...unless you're working with a huge file(s)...if that's the case then you definitely need to increase your paging file/virtual memory settings.

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 4:03pm

It's P-M 1.73Ghz. It's not a processor/specs problem I reckon. I have been using this software for ages with no problems. I'm not rendering huge files. In fact I'm not rendering any files because even selecting "File > Open" takes about 30 secs or more!! I reckon it has something to do with BB and wireless. It has to be. I know it sounds strange but it only started since I installed the bb/wireless. Just one of those head wreckin' ones.... :mad:

Wertz · 31-07-2005 4:17pm

So what DSL products are you using...wireless router/modem or USB wirless or what?

Open ctrl-alt-del and see where your resources are being bottlenecked.
It might also be some sort of s/w conflict.

I've just opened PS 7.0 and opened 3 large files...the memory usage is only ~60mb....as opposed to your 300mb. Something definitely up.

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 4:47pm

Ok, so slight revision to my earlier posts. I just restarted my machine. I have 2 applications open. Firefox and Photoshop (Not responding). The Task Manager shows 47 processes using 330mb of RAM (Photoshop is only using 50mb, not 300mb as stated before). Should there be 47 processes??

EDIT: Sorry, running BT ZyXel modem with Belkin wireless router.

Webmonkey · 31-07-2005 4:50pm

I've quite a few bits running here and i'm left with 35 processes. Even that is high in my opinion. Can you get a list of running proccesses for us?

Wertz · 31-07-2005 5:09pm

Well I've 49 running...it's a Dell thing I spose; I can't be arsed finding out which services I can switch off. Still, no trouble with any lag...

Zyxel modem is USB not NIC right? I used to use one and had some minor lag issues which I assumed were caused by the CPU converting the DSL signal through USB, but nothing like what you;re describing...

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 5:22pm

Sorry guys, this is the best I can do (screenshot below). Running photoshop slows the whole machine, not just Photoshop itself. It's really annoying now. There seems to be a lot of duplicate processes, no??
sample1

Wertz · 31-07-2005 5:37pm

Thta's almost identical to my list, save for the ATi stuff and some other apps...don't see anything amiss there (no expert in that regard, mind).

I would try uninstalling and then reinstalling and see if that makes a difference. Your machine seems more than capable of running this...

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 5:49pm

Cheers Wertz, yeh the machine is definately capable of running it as it had no probs before. I've just downloaded an update from Adobe.com and am going to install that and re-create the prefs file to see if anything happens.

Fingers crossed!!

BTW, is it normal to have over 200mb of your RAM used when you're not doing anything? In other words, if I didn't have Firefox and Photoshop running there would still be almost 200mb of RAM used from system stuff. Seems strange??

Wertz · 31-07-2005 5:51pm

XP has an overhead use of around 200mb AFAIK

ButtermilkJack · 31-07-2005 6:23pm

We have lift-off!!

I forced photoshop to recreate the prefs file and it seems to have worked. However I got this error when I started up?

I vaguely remember getting this the first time I used it and might have changed the settings to select another drive as it says. So, I'm thinking, after a while this location will fill-up again and cause the app to slow-down again??

Anyway, it's all good for now so I'm off out for a few pints!!

Thanks guys. Appreciate the help.

Wertz · 31-07-2005 6:26pm

Good stuff....that error is only asking you to create the scratch file on a separate drive; it's only for speed of application...if the PC is using the smae virtual memory for windows and PS, it will be slower. Ignore it unless it really bothers you (it only asks once IIRC)

Photoshop 6 EXTREMELY Slow!!!

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