Preserved Topic: Any hardware freaks in here?

My Photoshop experiences have been a little strange since I got this new machine and I was wondering if anyone may have a clue as to why?

First the problem(s): Seems to take a while to load images when switching from another window if I have 5 or 6 files open in PS (maybe a MB or 2 at 1024x768 each image for example). The more I work in Photoshop without restarting the more sluggish it gets in general. Sometimes when switching back and forth between ImageReady it crashes completely (Illegal operation yada yada..)

Second, the system: PS 5.5, Dell Dimension L500 PIII 500mhz, 256mb RAM, 20gb hardrive, 100mb Zip drive, 19" Trinitron. Sometimes I have USB devices hooked up, sometimes not (camera, scanner, uh, that's about it). I'm currently running W98 but I got the system with NT4 and upgraded to W2000 when it came out, now I'm on W98. Same problems on all 3 OS-es.

I'm learning to work around this problem but the way I sees I shouldn't have to, I paid good money for a fairly beefy computer that should run Photoshop without a hitch right?!?! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/mad.gif">
I appreciate any and all suggestions as Dell is not a whole heckuva lot of help.



[This message has been edited by JKMabry (edited 12-09-2000).]

Just curious, you use ICQ? If so, what version are you running?

I have off and on, but that can't be it. It's been the same when I didn't have it installed. I'm at work right now so I can't check version, I'll try to email you later from home if you like.

Go in and tell photoshop how much memory its allowed to run on that system. I got mine set to 50% and I run a similiar system except I have 512 ram. I run ICQ2000a and I have not one prob.

The reason I ask is cause older versions of ICQ have caused conflict errors with PS. I had this problem a while back and updated to a newer versionad the problem was solved. Just might be something you should check out.

JK:

Well the first thing I always ask is....Did you do "clean" installs of your Operating Systems (format the drive, partition, and install completely) or did you "Layer" them one over top of the other?

In the case of Layering (bad habit for users btw) you might have had a problem with the driver installation, and structure of the first Operating System, and all you've done is compound that when upgrading, without ever really fixing the problem, as it's still sitting there.

If this is the problem, the only real solution, is to back up your files, format and do a clean install of your preferred OS, and then reinstall PhotoShop.

Aside from that, setting the allowable amount of memory for PS to filch, as well as setting a default scratch disk, and size is quite important, and can increase your productivity greatly.

Hope it helps.

Peter



ICQ:# 10237808

[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 13-09-2000).]

Yep, reformatted everytime. I need to try the meory thing I reckon. I'll go home and do that now. Keep the ideas coming folks, I'll entertain all possibilities. You people are most helpful.
Someone's gonna end up gettin a big kiss after this is all said and done, I can just feel it. Please do not let this dissuade you from helping, I will respect your personal space if you so request



[This message has been edited by JKMabry (edited 13-09-2000).]

i run icq99a on my machine with 128m ram and photoshop 5.5 and 6.0 beta (on win2k). the more apps i have running, the more sluggish my machine becomes. if it gets bad, i just restart. windows has lots of memory leaks.

of course, ill go weeks before i have to restart my machine. usually it gets restarted for me with power surges. otherwise, i wont restart unless a newly installed app requires it.

Sounds like a bad photoshop install. I have had similar probs and sometimes its PS and others its a conflict with other programs. Remember that even if your 1024x768 file is 2 megs on the desktop, it might be 150 megs or more in memory and scratch.

On the bottom left click the black triangle and select 'scratch' from the list. You will see how big the file you are using and the total scratch size here.



[This message has been edited by Ron Gallant (edited 13-09-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Ron Gallant (edited 13-09-2000).]

OK now, I'm setting my scratch disk. There are first second third and fourth. In the first, the first option is "startup". What the heck does that mean? I'm all up in those help files and can't find out what startup means, doesn't sound like a place for a scratch disk though; should I move it or does it have something to do with launching the prog? I'd like to set the first as my D drive, away from the virtual mem drive (C) and away from the psd file drive (E).

startup, anyone?

One of the things you must remember when it comes to win 95 and 98 is that the system will assign amounts of RAM based on a percentage, not how much an application
needs.

In the same way that PS takes a percentage for it's own use, so does everything else that you might be running.
Web browsers, ICQ or even a personal firewall for hack protection...they all take and take and take.

While win98 SE was an improvement over win95 in memory management, it still sucks in comparison to macintosh which is why macs are so big in the graphics industry.
Having 256 MB of RAM memory makes applications run faster than 64 MB, but only to a point as PS will take almost 50% of that (depending on prefs)

It still comes down to closing unnecessary apps when working on more than a couple of images, especially something as big as a 1-4 MB .psd

Doing an occasional reboot helps, but expect some slow downs when you have a bunch of extra-large PS images open.

BTW...who installed the OS?
Did they do a scratch/clean install or just install on top of the previous OS?

[This message has been edited by Cold_Canuck (edited 13-09-2000).]

Well I've set the scratch disk and memory but it all appeared to be way past what the system requirements are, 3 or 4x. We'll see what happens. I'll hopefully get some time to test it soon. Thanks for the help folks.