Adobe Photoshop - Slow?

[MangMang]

hi i have a weird problem, i just switched to windows2000 and photoshop seems to be really slow. the listed system requirements are:

System requirements
• Intel® Pentium® processor
• Microsoft® Windows® 98, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, or Windows NT® 4.0*
• 64 MB** of available RAM
• 125 MB of available hard-disk space
• Color monitor with 256-color (8-bit) or greater video card
• Monitor resolution of 800x600 or greater

* Service Pack 4, 5, or 6a required for Windows NT 4.0
** 128 MB of RAM required to run Photoshop and ImageReady concurrently


my specs are:

866 pentium
256 sdram
42 gigs/6 gb free on system drive
1124x1024 resolution

has anyone else experienced this problem?

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Mark Burnett is the Devil...thank goodness.

[Rick]

Win 2K is a memory hog.
256 should work . But it doesn't hurt to have more.
If the above 6 gb is all the free space you have on your hard drive
That may be the real reason for the slow down.

time to do a little house (HDD) cleaning or install another drive.

[kayofcircles]

Rick: "Win 2K is a memory hog." So how much is needed, approx?
And 6 GB is not enough free????

MangMang: Thank you for this post. I was thinking about upgrading to 2000 because of something just read in this forum on stability and photo editing...but would have to start by getting an entire new system apparently. And also been lusting for PhotoShop, so will be watching this post.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese Proverb

[Rick]

The amount of Free memory and the number of undo settings in Photoshop and Photo determine the performance of the system along with the amount of free space on the HDD.
Also the size and setting of the Virtual memory. ( Fixed size works best. )

And example would be for scanning a 35mm slide.
A Minimum of 40 meg free memory is needed to get reasonable performance.
Just to do the scan.
The specs for Photoshop listed above are the Minimums .
Using those and win98 ( Grabs 24 meg for O/S) only leaves 40 meg free to load Photoshop.
Scanner would be spending half its time swapping to the HDD.

I have 256 in my dedicated scanner system. ( Flat bed and 35mm units)
In the edit system I have 512 meg. The redraw is acceptable in both systems.
Before adding the extra 256 to the edit system.
The redraw time with only 3 undo's allowed took forever .
I could watch the screen refresh one line at a time..

Only having 6gb free in a 42 gb drive means it is reaching or exceeding the point where it is slowing down the system.
Also it will be filled very soon doing any large amount of editing.
New files and auto backups. ( why I added an extra 30gb drive)

[MangMang]

wow, thats a whole lot of information.

thanx for the help guys; unfortunately, because of this problem i have now switched back to win98. win2000 was a great o/s, it was very stable but i use photoshop way too much to have that much slowdown. ill probaby have to buy a new HD then and probably another stick of ram. till then im going to be sitting here waiting for that dreaded blue screen.

thanx

------------------
Mark Burnett is the Devil...thank goodness.

[kayofcircles]

Thanks, Rick, gonna print out your post and study it. Think I better stay in the baby pool with PaintShopPro with the system I have. Haven't noticed any sluggish performance, but haven't ever tried scanning slides either..only worked with photos so far.

MangMang: Are you getting a bsod?

------------------
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese Proverb

[MangMang]

(kayofcircles) hehe, not yet. but im sure i will. with win98 u know it's just a matter of time. no matter what u do, u can't seem to avoid that dreaded blue!



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Mark Burnett is the Devil...thank goodness.

[kayofcircles]

If you do get another bsod, MangMang, post back and maybe (just maybe) we can ferret out the problem.

Rick: Is there a formula for the hard drive part? Like "if you only have one fourth of hard drive free, it's slowing down performance"?

------------------
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese Proverb

[Rick]

For what it's worth.
There is no formula.
Many people find that at 50% plus the drive performance begins to drop.
I am one of those people. At to days prices getting the extra drive space is cheap .


I've found that if you Turn Off many of the Explorer Bells and Whistles
You will reduce the number of times you get the BSOD.
Starting with Active desktop. The sound effects ,and background/screen saver (also frees memory)

I don't recall the last time I got the BSOD while using a photo edit program.
I've also found that the newest, latest, and greatest video drivers are not always the best for 2d work.

I Make it a Habit to Backup my Registry BEFORE I install anything on the edit system.
Especially Video Drivers.

[This message has been edited by Rick (edited 05-27-2001).]

[kayofcircles]

Rick: Thanks..was just curious. I only have 4 GBs (not quite 3 free) at this point; that's why I was asking. MangMang's 6 GB "free" is more than my whole HDD. (And yes, we are researching "parts" for a new puter.)

You said "For what it's worth"...it's worth a LOT to me because I am just learning to do the kind of thing I assume you're doing. Thanks again.


------------------
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese proverb

[Rick]

4gig is a good starting point.
It will fill up fast however. depending on how much you save.
Graphics are disk space hogs. As you may have already noticed.

I hope your looking for a CD-RW in those parts http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
They do come in handy

[kayofcircles]

Yes, have an RW. That's how I found this forum in the first place; had replaced a cranky HP 8250i with a new Sony and it locked up my puter every time I tried to use it. Spent a couple of weeks in a sort of "panic" state because couldn't backup pics I was working on.

You used a 35mm slide in your explanation, and from what I understand now, you can go to much higher resolutions on those than I can possibly get out of an old, faded photograph...so much bigger files than I am working with. I am restoring and repairing old photos.

Will just gaze admiringly on you guys in the big Adobe pool for now. Thanks for the explanations...I learned some new things.



------------------
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese proverb

[Rick]

With my old 35mm scanner the Max res. Is 1828 DPI Interpolated 7312

The Old flatbed does Max Res. 600X1200 Interpolated 4800X4800

It's the hardware and software that determine the max resolution

Good luck with the restore job on the old photos.
They gave me fits doing a bunch from the 40's.