I bought adobe photoshop CS yesterday. I installed it and within an hour I uninstalled it. It caused the response times on my 2.4 GB computer to bog down so much it was not productive. It also would get the top of the window (the blue part) under the main window and make it difficult to move the window and I would have to close it. It may have some nice features but that was enough to deal with the sluggishness. It made me go back to 7.0. My recommendation would be to not install it unless you plan to upgrade your memory or have more than 512mb already installed. I also liked the old browser window better. But that is probably just because I’m used to it.
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Well bob…I would like to hear your comments on the software?
I have been telling friends and associates not to upgrade for this same reason…the application is suddenly a monster….after installing I had to upgraded to a gig of ram and it’s still sluggish!….and I’ve never had memory problems…..(yes I have my scratch disk set correctly)
it’s very disruptive to my workflow to have to wait for the processor to catch up……not a good choice to upgrade unless you’re at least running 1 gig of ram.
I guess what I’m getting at is, maybe you could have done a little troubleshooting with your system before giving up and writing the whole thing off after one hour.
I dig what you’re saying….I seriously do…..and myself, I’ve found ways around the problems (installing more ram)
you understand you’re in a windows forum and you’re talking about performance on a MAC?…..photoshop is made to run on macs…I guess it’s possible that the mac users aren’t encountering the same sluggishness than the windows users are?
Well bob…I would like to hear your comments on the software?
First you should know that I’m running XP Pro with all service packs and patches. A P4 2.66 with one gig of RAM and Matrox G400 Max dual head video card. FWIW, if the OP had gone this far with details, I never would have answered his post.
Coming in here and ranting about something not working without any details is worthless. I can only guess that he’s got less than 512 megs of RAM. Everything else is impossible to guess. And yes, I picked up on his 2.4 GB (sic) computer. But that could still be a celeron laptop.
Now, my initial feeling is that the program is about the same speed as version 7.0. I think that the enhancements to the healing brush and patch tool make it worth the money. Layer comps and text on a path make this one a must have for me. There are other improvements but I don’t really think the new file browser is a deal maker. For digital photographers the Camera RAW plugin may be a seller.
I guess it’s possible that the mac users aren’t encountering the same sluggishness than the windows users are?
I realize I’m in the Windows forums.
Sorry, I was just trying to make a point. Mac users are experiencing slowness as well but what it boils down to is troubleshooting and system maintenence. Which the poster couldn’t have done much of in the small space of an hour.
photoshop is made to run on macs
It’s made to run on Windows too. And should do just as well.
I empathize with you. Photoshop CS takes 7 minutes to boot up for me, whereas Photoshop 7 took one minute; no changes were made. I hope Adobe does hear about these performance issues.
Sweet-P
wrote in message
Well bob…I would like to hear your comments on the software? I have been telling friends and associates not to upgrade for this same
reason…the application is suddenly a monster….after installing I had to upgraded to a gig of ram and it’s still sluggish!….and I’ve never had memory problems…..(yes I have my scratch disk set correctly)
it’s very disruptive to my workflow to have to wait for the processor to
catch up……not a good choice to upgrade unless you’re at least running 1 gig of ram.
For most users P.S. 6 or 7 should be fine. No use upgrading to CS or future realases until the WINTEL folks put 64 bit chips in thier machines. Otherwise I have had no problems with my MAC version. Who needs activation anyway.
William Hazen wrote in message
I bought adobe photoshop CS yesterday. I installed it and within an hour I
uninstalled it. It caused the response times on my 2.4 GB computer to bog down so much it was not productive. It also would get the top of the window (the blue part) under the main window and make it difficult to move the window and I would have to close it. It may have some nice features but that was enough to deal with the sluggishness. It made me go back to 7.0. My recommendation would be to not install it unless you plan to upgrade your memory or have more than 512mb already installed. I also liked the old browser window better. But that is probably just because I’m used to it.
I’m not experiencing the sluggishness on my computer that others have noted.
P4 2.4 ghz Ram: 1 gig (RDRAM) Hard drives: 2- 200 gb 7200 rpm Video: ATI 128 mb card, Nvidia based I believe. OS: Win XP Pro (with service packs) CD rom DVD writer
Peripherals include:
USB Zip drive USB Epson 1660 Photo Scanner USB Epson 1280 printer USB HP Deskject 882 C printer Boston Accoustics speakers/sub APC Backups Pro 650 USB Handspring Visor PDA/cradle and a partridge in a pear tree.
And gobs and gobs of software on the system. And this is with Norton Antivirus running in background, and a wireless cable adapter card,and other stuff running in the background that probably shouldn’t be…..
I’m sure there are some performance issues with Win2K that they’re still trying to figure out (I hope). At least, I was told to post in the existing threads about that.
Other than that, PS CS runs just fine and just as fast as PS7 on my XP Pro machine. Win2K is another story, for me. Significant slowdowns in the areas that I use the most (ACR and Photokit Sharpening).
And yes, I have posted my system specs in the "existing" threads.
Rob…ok buddy, you had to make me go and look to see what video card I [really] have didn’t you. π
It’s a 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. Hey, what can I say? All I really want to do is plug it in and get to work. I know just enough to make me dangerous. Hahaha.
Chris, I’m not sure if your list (above) was addressed to me, but FYI, File Browser is turned off, HQ previews is turned off in FB, as is Background Processing, and their is no Norton of any kind installed on the machine. If you need my system specs again, I’ll be happy to post them.
It also would get the top of the window (the blue part) under the main window and make it difficult to move the window and I would have to close it.
This happens in PS7 too, Alan. I often found it would occur if I switched between programs a lot while images were loading. You don’t have to close the window to see the title bar again, just press Ctrl-0 (zero) to get it back.
Dave, Your posts disappoint me <G> ! I thought we’d ride off into the sunset together on our Pent III-800’s . I see you’ve upgraded ! CS works just fine on our "work" pc, another Pent III-800 , Win2k, 768 MB RAM . No slowdowns , no complaints, but I doubt I’ll get CS for home. Photoshop 7 still amazes me !
yea, i did notice that last week while looking over their site. any recomendations? I’ve heard good talk about mandrake too. I’m not really committed to one or the other. And I don’t really need support. Just manuals. (or man pages!<G>)
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Do you like it or should I consider something like freeBSD or Mandrake?<<
I think it’s great! (and very Windows like from a GUI perspective), and as we are only using it as a Samba file server (and Apache/PHP/MySQL http server for web development on local files) BEHIND the NAT Firewall, I’m not toooooo concerned about the security updates – recently most have been for system components that we haven’t even installed.
I really couldn’t comment re the other Linux offerings…
ItΒ΄s always surprising that people who thought to have the best available software "in the world" feel obliged to UPDATE or UPGRADE if the same software appears in a new fashion.
The improvement is either marginal or the previous version was WRONG.
If you say ΒΒ best available software at the timeΒ Β rather than just Βbest availableΒ then upgrading makes sense, there is always room for improvement.
Gernot, As you well know, it’s just human nature. There’s probably 40% of us on this forum who upgrade just to "have the latest and greatest", not out of need. <G>
I have a hard time resisting hardware advances <G>, even though I don’t need the faster hardware . So far, I’m quite pleased with my PIII-800 system ( ancient, now ) and Photoshop 7. I’ll never master version 7, so an upgrade is unlikely . Hardware, now, that is a different issue .
Hi "Green Jumpy One", They played a good game . They weren’t that impressive early in the season ! OSU brings out the beast in them <G> . Happily MSU also looked decent and may go on to better things ( I can hope ! ).
I also resently purchase and installed creative suite for the mac. I have been trying to use photoshop CS mostly. Every since I have had severe problems with the spinning beach ball. Eventually it get so bad that I can’t even force quite. So I have to do a hard boot and restart the mac. I’ m using panther, have an imack 17′ lcd with 768 mg memory. Although I really like the features I will have to resort to Elements if I can’t fix the problem. I’t is just not usable. The program seems to work for a while after rebooting but after working with it for a short while the problems return. I realy don’t think I should have to pay Adobe of technical support for problems with their product.
I’m running a 2.8 P4 with 2GBs Rambus. 1.7 is dedicated to CS, the same way that I ran PS7. Let’s start my complaining with the hang "after" CS loads and displays palettes. It will hang for approximately 4 seconds. I accidentally happened to have a window opened for my 2nd hard drive (where my scratch disk is located) and noticed that on launching CS (not opening an image) it immediately makes a random sized "temp" file. The file ranges in size from 400mb to 1gb depending on CS’s mood.
My first bad experience editing an image . . . I opened a 30mb file on my system, drew a square marquee, and attempted to move the marquee, not the contents, just the marquee. CS returned an error "there is not enough memory to perform that operation". I have managed to successfully have that problem on a regular basis.
The list of problems goes on and on, and I’m so happy to see that Adobe has started posting "updates & fixes" for user problems . . . NOT!!
IΒm having the same problems that you are. I have been telling many people not to purchase this upgrade and stick with version 7 for now. ItΒs obvious from all the posts IΒve read here and on Google that this software is buggy and shouldnΒt have been released to the public. Adobe is a different company today. The whole tone of the company is different, and it shows in the quality of their latest products and their lackluster customer service. IΒm just left scratching my head on this one. I just know that IΒm not buying anymore Adobe software upgrades until I do my research about their performance in real-world situations. ItΒs a shame because IΒve used Photoshop since version 3. Now IΒm left wondering whatΒs going on with this company?
That’s two posts from you with no request for help or details on your problems.
What exactly did you expect to find in support forums? For the most part people go them because they are having problems. Most users aren’t, and there will always be some that do. If you’re waiting for perfect software, you’ll be waiting a long time.
It’s not a matter of waiting for perfect software, Microshaft has proven to the world that software perfection will never happen. It’s that when a company releases an upgraded/new version of it’s premiere software, it should be more advanced, work better and work reliably. The fact of the matter is that CS works less efficiently and more slowly than PS7.
I think people come to these forums looking for answers as much as hoping and praying that Adobe will read these posts and work towards answering some of the concerns.
Reading through this thread concerns me because I am only just starting out with PSCS.
I have setup a dual boot Win98se and W2K
So far I the W2K have Norton Systemworks, ZoneAlarm AND PSCS only.
As mentioned I have only just started the climb up the hill of appreciating what PSCS can do ~ principal reason for getting it was the upcoming release of the next version (free update) of ACR that will cover the Fuji F700 RAF files.
My system is a P4 2.26Ghz on an Intel 845E platform, 1GB RAM and seconadry HDDs for storage/scratch as needed (also do DV using Ulead MSP7 [Premier 6 made me feel like a beta tester for far too long!] under Win98se).
I have found that PSCS opens within 6 seconds and that opening a test TIF file of 18.7MB takes less than a second. I have allocated 65% RAM and incidently I have configured W2K to use a separate partition for the swap/pagefile on a different HDD to the one holding the image files.
The times seem quite acceptable to me. However, bearing in mind that this is "virgin" installation and I am likely to migrate other programs over to the W2K boot, is there any particular process I can run on PSCS to test the processing speed/performance as a baseline for future reference?
The fact of the matter is that CS works less efficiently and more
slowly than PS7.
Perhaps on your computer, but I haven’t noticed any appreciable difference in speed on my P4 2.66 with one gig of RAM.
I think people come to these forums looking for answers as much as hoping and praying that Adobe will read these posts and work towards answering some of the concerns.
There are several Adobe employees that post here, including software engineers. They are listening but simply posting that it doesn’t work does no good. They need details, not rants.
My original message did include details of random scratch file sizes created with no image opened at launch, making a selection with the marquee tool and not being able to move the empty selection because I "didn’t have enough RAM" even with 1.6GBs dedicated to CS, the "hang" that happens when CS is launched while the random scratch file is created.
The company I work for owns 2 purchased, fully licensed copies of CS and they have been fully registered with Adobe. We are experiencing the same problems on all the systems (since you can put each licensed copy on 2 systems). None of the towers are identical manufacturers. One is running XP Pro, 3 are running XP "Home". One tower is RAMBUS, 3 towers are SD. All 4 systems are above 2 GHz.
I can open a 30MB file and try to do a levels or curves adjust and it will take 5 to 8 seconds for the dialogue box to come up. It will take 3 to 4 seconds (of watching the hourglass) to draw the change I’m attempting to make. One system has a 128MB video card, the other 3 have 64MB video cards.
Rubber stamping and healing tools – noticeably slower performance. And after stamping 4 or 5 spots, the tool will quit drawing the stamped spots until I quit moving the mouse.
Intermittently, but frequently CS will just quit responding for 3 or 4 seconds. I never had any of these problems with earlier versions of Photoshop, and I’ve been along for the ride since version 3.
tj, could be that it’s background processing thumbnails in the browser. in the prefrences turn off background processing and high quality thumbnails, set memory to no more that 65% (better to start around 45% and bump up to where you’re comfortable) and set cache size to 6.
of course you need to restart ps after making these changes for them to take affect.
another option is to set the browser going (with bg processing and high quality thumbs on) before you go home at night. let it process and finish. this is what i did and things run great now. the browser can really slow things down until it’s done building it’s cache.
(since you can put each licensed copy on 2 systems). <<
That’s not QUITE what the EULA says……
"2.4 Portable or Home. The primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer."
Fortunately since I have only myself and another artist working I still fall within those guidelines. That was the reason we had originally purchased 2 copies due to this new activation method. One is installed on the laptop for field use, and one is installed in the studio, the opposites are installed in the digital lab. Should I need a third artist . . . who knows.
A couple of helpful hints. It did speed things up by maybe 30%-40%. Now on launch I only have to wait 3 or 4 seconds to be able to use the program, and the levels and other dialogue boxes are opening faster. Still not as fast as PS7, but better than before. As for the memory issue, I’m used to running with about 75% minimum dedicated to Photoshop, but that is with only PS7 and Windows running.
Lots have changed between 7 and cs. It’s like comparing apples and oranges in the way it handles lots of things (i/o especially, from what I understand). This has all been described in detail in various performance threads here. Glad the performance is a bit better for you.
Here are some of my specific problems with Photoshop CS. As everyone else is aware, it takes forever to load. In my case it takes about 60-80 seconds. ThatΒs way too long. The next problem is that it simply freezes up for 5-10 seconds at a time when IΒm performing various tasks such as adding layer styles and resizing images. The save for web function also hangs on me from time to time. Again, it pauses for 5-10 seconds without responding. Opening documents also takes forever, even 72dpi web graphics. These small files open like they are 150mb print files, sometimes take 20-30 seconds. The worst problem is with the text on a path tool. The screen will not redraw fast enough to make this feature worth using. It takes at least 30 seconds for the screen to redraw when I rotate, resize, or edit any kind of type on a path. This happens whether the file is 72dpi or 300dpi. IΒm frustrated because Photoshop 7.0 works perfectly. In my opinion CS, should work at least as efficiently if not more so.
I hope you can understand why IΒm so frustrated. IΒm sorry I didnΒt post specific details in my other posts, but IΒve read this all before and there isnΒt anything I can do about it. IΒve tried all the suggestions people have posted and nothing works for me. I was just sympathizing with AlanΒs predicament and hoping that Adobe would take notice and do something about the problems with this buggy software. ItΒs great that CS runs great on your machine, but that isnΒt helping the rest of us.
milos, re the speed. see my posts (especially #56 in this thread) above. is it background processing high quality thumbs? did you set the cache and memory options i mentioned? also if load time is long, remove everything but the 8* files from the plugins folders (8bf, et. al.)
I’ve read about a dozen or so in these threads who have had CS problems, and CS is creating a lot of bad rumors.
What it all boils down to is that CS causes more problems than 7 and adobe doesn’t seem to want to help. they need to post a software patch or instructions for all of us who’d rather work in Photoshop, not ON photoshop.
I don’t think that is accurate, When 7.0 was released there were also many, many postings from folks with problems. There always is with a new release, and, of course, with each added layer of complexity as the application develops, there are more areas where folks will discover they have problems, most times due to user error, occasionally due to machine configuration or hardware components and a tiny number due to program bugs. That is entirely normal and to be expected.
What IS different is the number of complaints about activation and CDS……
It’s nice to see that you folks over here in the windows thread sound almost the same as we do in the PS Mac threads. Right down to it must be a "mac" or ‘Windows’ conspiracy. Enjoy!
For the first time in a long series of upgrades, from 3 to 8(CS), Adobe seems finally to have pulled out a winner first time out of the gate, with no complaints about performance from this shop.
I do not run PS CS on the latest and greatest machine – my "testbed" for this release is a P3 1GHz with 1GB of RAM. PS CS – so far – runs like a top. I was not expecting this, given the howling on the various threads here.
Of course, I do not use the File Browser, so that may explain it.
PS CS does take a few more seconds to load, even after the application interface has opened on the desktop. It would probably allay a lot of complaints here if a routine could be implemented that would withhold showing the interface until the app had completely finished loading and writing its swapfile. What you do not see will not "bug" you.
As for the tremendous lags being reported by others in this thread, I am not seeing them, at least not yet – despite having a decidedly inferior setup. The app has only been running here for a bit over two weeks though, so there is still time…
I appreciate the more robust "16-bit" support, and the Shadow/Highlight tool is saving me a tremendous amount of time and effort.
Overall, with the caveats that I oppose Activation and the addition of the CDS routine, this version seems to be a winner.
I hope this post will help demonstrate that even a more humble machine can run it without noticeable issues.
Have you tried to open any very large (over 200 megs) tiff files?
I’ve had to rely on 7 to open them since CS takes forever to display the thumbnail in the file>open dialog box. It doesn’t lock up but the delay is horrible.
I normally don’t save images with thumbnails, as I feel it merely adds overhead to the file without giving me much in return – I *know* what the images are that I use, as I typically give them descriptive filenames. I realize this isn’t a workflow that everyone can use – and especially in the case of images from a digicam, it’s useful to be able to see thumbs. That said, I use a side application to preview my files, rather than Photoshop.
However, just to see how bad the situation is, I created a couple of large files using PS7, and turned on thumbnails before saving them.
The first, a 259MB PSD file, took 14 seconds to display its thumbnail in PSCS, then another 14 seconds to actually open the image.
The second file, a 532MB TIF file, took 16 seconds for the thumb to display, and 14 seconds to open the image.
I then went to the folder C:/Documents and Settings/*user name*/Application Data/Adobe/File Browser and deleted all files therein. (Despite my having File Browser turned off, PS7 and PSCS both seem to store image data here – presumably the thumbnails of previously opened files.)
I then opened each of the test images in PS7. In both cases, a thumbnail appeared in the File/Open dialog INSTANTLY, while actually opening the files was the same as in PSCS.
Clearly, PSCS is doing something quite different in reading thumbnails from what PS7 does.
I’m sorry for those of you who save file with thumbnails and rely on Photoshop CS to display them for you. This is something that I wasn’t aware of, and it’s clear that Adobe has screwed it up big time.
So – back to my previous workflow. I will go back to the practice of never saving images with thumbnails, and there is even better reason not to now!
I just noticed something that had escaped my attention previously. PS seems to generate thumbnails whether I want it to or not. I just tried opening some images that were saved out of PS7 months ago – obviously before I installed PSCS. Whether I open the images in PS7 or PSCS, the File/Open dialog displays a thumbnail image of the file.
In my preferences for both apps, under File Handling, in the Image Previews box I have selected "Never Save". Am I mistaken in thinking this is where I would turn off thumbnail generation? And if I am mistaken, how can I turn off the generation of thumbnails?
Very strange…I thought I had this covered…I guess not.
Dennis, this is my understanding of the situation, which may or may not be totally correct, but works for me:
1. The File Browser cache is only for the File Browser. On my machine I have a Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS folder under C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Adobe\FileBrowser. I don’t need the Photoshop 7 folder anymore so I can delete it; it’s still there because I kept my shared folders during the uninstall of Photoshop 7. The CS File Browser takes a while to generate but once it’s done the the preview is very fast and very good.
2. Thumbnail generation in Explorer dialogs is handled by OS shell extensions, in the case of PSD, a file called psicon.dll. This was intentionally left out of Photoshop CS because it was causing a lot of problems with very slow or locked Explorer displays, and the "can’t save this file because it is already open" problem. If JPG’s or TIF’s were associated with Photoshop during a custom install of Photoshop 7 this psicon.dll would manifest itself on these files in the form of a tab in properties dialog called "Photoshop Image", and "Generate Thumbnails" was turned on by default. It’s my personal belief that this wasn’t meant to be for JPG’s and TIF’s, just PSD’s, because the Windows OS already has shell extensions for JPG’s and TIF’s. Unchecking "Generate Thumbnails" usually cleared up the problems. I never had a problem using PSD’s with "Generate Thumbnails" checked but others did, although I did have the "can’t save this file because it is already open" with Illustrator files until I turned off "Generate Thumbnails" in the Illustrator file properties dialog. What’s confusing about the terminology is "Generate Thumbnails" controlled not the large thumbnail image in "Thumbnails" view but the small thumbnail image in "Icons" or "Tiles" view (Win XP terminology, it’s called "Large Icons" in Win2000), so even though I had "Generate Thumbnails" turned off I could still see the large thumbnail images in "Thumbnails" view.
3. In Preferences > File Handling, "Image Previews" adds a small (4-6k) embedded preview in the file for displaying in "Thumbnails" view that is unnecessary for TIF or JPG thumbnails to be read by the OS but required for PSD thumbnails. This does not affect the File Browser previews.
4. The readme for Photoshop CS states: "Photoshop CS no longer provides thumbnail icons of .psd files through operating system folder windows. Please use the File Browser to view your .psd thumbnail files." I still had the Explorer image previews I wanted on PSD files created in CS, so I knew that CS used the PS7 shell extension, this was verified by checking the registry. In order to keep this functionality after uninstalling PS7, I clicked "No to all" when asked to delete the shared files during the PS7 uninstall. I have the same previews that I had in PS7 and they behave the same way as they did in PS7.
I appreciate the information, but in fact I am interested in NOT having Photoshop generate any thumbnails, as I do not need or want them.
In the Preferences dialog box regarding File Handling, there is an option referencing "Image Previews". I am assuming this refers to the generation of thumbnails that appear in the File|Open dialog, but I may be incorrect. In any case, although I have selected the "Never Save" option, all files saved in Photoshop and later opened appear to have a thumbnail saved with them – despite that I have the File Browser turned off. Of course it may be that the File|Open dialog itself generates the thumbnails, as data is saved at this point in the File Browser folder.
In the case of the very large files I was testing earlier, it takes 15 or 16 seconds to display an initial thumbnail on opening one of these files, but the second time I open one of these files, the thumbnail is pulled from the cache in the File Browser folder and it displays immediately.
So…
The bottom line here is that I do not want to use the File Browser, and I do not want Photoshop to generate thumbnails – at any time. Not when I save the file, and not when I open the file.
It does not appear that it is possible to prevent this activity. I would very much like to know if this is indeed the case, or – if it is not – how I can prevent Photoshop from generating or displaying thumbnails.
Hi dennis, peekaboo, I see you! Looks like you need to do a bit of simple registry modifation if you want to turn off thumnails in the File Open dialog. Deep down in your Goodies\Optional Plug-Ins\Photoshop Only\Optional Extensions folder, you will find a set of registry key files. Check out the ReadMe and get clicking.
By default, Adobe Photoshop CS allows thumbnails to be displayed in
its Open dialog box. If you prefer not to show image thumbnails in this window, you can turn off this registry key. To reactivate the Show Windows Thumbnails registry key, use these instructions to run the ShowWindowsThumbnails_ON_D.reg file. >
Well I tried the reg entry and the thumbnails are still being displayed. And the delay in showing them is ridiculous. There’s just no way to open these files in a reasonable amount of time using CS.
I love the improvements but for large files it just doesn’t work.
Okay, hooked up the laptop and copied the files over. They open almost instantlyb without waiting for the thumbnail to display. I’m thinking that there has to be something about having PS 7.0.1 and CS installed on the same machine that’s causing this.
Bob, you’re not boring me. I grabbed a spare laptop from the office so I can experiment. About the reg edit from the goodies folder – it appears to be for the preview underneath the window in the File|Open dialog but on my machine it has no effect, either for the thumbnails in the main window or the preview under the window. Just to be sure we’re talking about the same thing here, when you try to open large TIFFs on your desktop machine does it lock up completely or does it just take a long time to respond? How many files are in the folder? If you open the folder in Explorer what happens?
We’re definitely talking about the same preview–the one in the file open box.
That reg hack in the goodies folder does nothing. The thumbnails display even after running it.
It doesn’t lock up, but it stops until the thumbnail is displayed. Those same thumbnails take forever to open on the laptop also, but they don’t stop the program from opening the file.
Another note: Once the thumbnail has been generated I can select another file and go back and the thumbnail will display just fine.
And Win Explorer is no problem at all. For that mattter PS 7.0 doesn’t have a problem either.
Bob, I think I was unclear on your problem. I’ve got PS6 on the laptop and I copied some 100 – 200 meg TIFFs to a folder. The File|Open dialog (in details view) allows me to click back and forth from file to file while the image preview below the file list window generates. You want the same thing to happen in CS
Yes, I do. I have no problem with version 7. And to be honest, I don’t really care about the thumbnails. My concern is the fact that the program stops responding while it figures out what to do with the files.
On the laptop, even without the thumbnail display the file will open right away.
Doesn’t affect the TIFFs in CS on my machine, Dave. The File|Open dialog waits for the image preview under the file list window to generate before I can click another file or hit open. Once the previews generate it’s fine, until the file is changed and they have to re-generate. I’ve never worked with files this large before so it’s never been an issue with me, but the PS6 (and I assume PS7) dialog does let you move around or open while the generation goes on in the background. I’ll muddle around some more and see if this can be changed in CS.
have you removed/renamed psicon.dll to see if that makes the problem go
Just out of curiosity, try resaving one of those large Tiffs as a PSD and see if you get a preview. The PSDs tend to display a preview even more slowly on my system.
Another note: Once the thumbnail has been generated I can select another file and go back and the thumbnail will display just fine.
have you removed/renamed psicon.dll to see if that makes the problem go away?
No effect at all. Like Rick I have found that once a thumbnail has been generated you can shutdown the computer and go back and PS CS will remember it.
I don’t think you can call it a bug, but there’s something wrong somewhere.
Once PS (7 or CS) generates the thumbs, they are stored in each version’s File Browser folder, respectively. That’s why you can go back to the file after you’ve restarted the machine and those files you’ve previously opened will have the thumb pop right up.
So, the questions before the house are:
A – Why does it take so long for CS to generate the thumbs, when 7 can do it mui rapido?
B – Why can one not turn off thumbnail generation in CS, despite the Adobe-documented Registry hack?
I realize this repeats what you guys have discovered, but just wanted to sum up.
Bob, I uninstalled Photoshop 6 from the laptop and removed all references to psicon.dll from the registry. I then installed CS and the File|Open preview delay doesn’t happen, confirming what you saw on your laptop.
Once PS (7 or CS) generates the thumbs, they are stored in each version’s
File Browser folder, respectively.
I thought this was not true because when I looked at my FB cache it had not changed after generating thumbnails. When I created a new folder, however, and let the preview generate I did get new data in the FB cache, and I had not opened the FB, so now I’m really confused.
A – Why does it take so long for CS to generate the thumbs, when 7 can do
it mui rapido?
Maybe because the CS FB generates much better thumbs than 7, and "high-quality previews" is the default in the FB preferences? I tried turning this off but the File|Open delay still happens. And the File|Open delay does not happen on my test machine that did not have a previous Photoshop installed when I installed CS.
B – Why can one not turn off thumbnail generation in CS, despite the
Adobe-documented Registry hack?
I tried the registry setting in PS6 also and it did nothing. It’s unclear to me as to what this was supposed to affect.
So as not to leave this on a negative note, Bob, I can keep my CS the way it is because I do want PSD thumbnails in Explorer and the large file delay in the File|Open dialog doesn’t affect me because I never use images that large. You should be able to uninstall PS7 and CS completely, and then re-install only CS and hopefully your desktop machine will not have the File|Open delay, you just won’t have PSD thumbnails in Explorer. I’m assuming you don’t need to keep PS7 around for your counterfeiting operation π
As for help from Adobe, well, this is a user forum – but we may get lucky if one of them takes an interest in the issue
Except if they’re marked read-only, such as No Wonder Photoshop CS Seems Slow – It’s Analiyzing Images For Content! <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.2ccf5164>. No new posts, means it’ll slip quickly from the list.
Edit: Unless it’s set to stick at the top, that is.
We’re talking about the one way down the list here <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.2ccf5164>, right? They re-created it, and moved the original posts to the Lounge. Here’s the empty topic that remains:
As of now, that topic is twelve from the bottom of the first page (as far as anybody looks). Just twelve more, and the Lounge can get back to talking about The Simpsons and lizards.
Getting back to "Very unhappy with PS CS"…As some of you may recall, I’m experiencing major slowdowns with PS 8 on Win2K. While I realize that a patch likely won’t come out until they’ve addressed all of the "known" issues and retested in beta, it would be nice if someone (Adobe) would be so kind as to post something like "We have reproduced Problem X and corrected it, and it will be addressed with the upcoming patch."
At this point, I’ve reverted to PS 7 for most of my heavy work. I’m faced with reformatting my Win2K machine (with either Win2K or XP Pro), which won’t do a bit of good if mine is a hardware issue. I would definitely like to avoid a reformat if at all possible.
I know you don’t like the thought of reformatting, but sometimes the only cure is to swallow bad tasting medicine. I doubt VERY much that any patch will fix what you see, but a reinstall very likely will.
I have to add my two cents worth, to reinforce the post that started this topic. I too am experiencing a relatively tremendous workflow slowdown after moving to CS from v7 (from v6, from v4…) and have Win2KPro, installed on a machine with 4GB of RAM, 2GB used by the OS, and 2GB used as a ramdrive. This machine has dual P3-1GHz processors and there are 4 SCSI hard drives with the OS on C:, the OS swap drive on C: and D:, along with a spool directory on D:. E: and F: are where I store and work on Photoshop files. My Photoshop scratch disk is set to go to my ramdrive first, then E: and finally F:. The ramdrive normally has 1.7GB of space, and E: and F: are normally 4-6GB of free space. The drives have total space from C: to F: as follows, 9GB, 18GB, 18GB, and 18GB. My video card is from nVIDIA and is a GeForce2 MX/MX400 running version 6.14.10.5303 drivers and has 64MB of installed memory – it is a PCI bus adapter card. (Why PCI? This is a ServerWorks MB and does not have AGP). Enough details yet?
After installing CS, I noticed that screen redraws are my major complaint, with certain filters, such as the lens blur and gaussian blur filters taking a very long time to redraw. Also, since I work in a custom lab where photo retouching is a major part of our job, the healing tool is now relatively prohibitive to our bottom line. I have to return to v7 to deal with healing tool fixes, then return to CS to take advantage of lens blur and 16-bit layers.
The files I work on are typically larger than 256MB and I sometimes work on files as large as 1.7GB – and will probably go larger since I now have that option…if I can find someway of getting CS to be as fast as v7.
To be of any help, I do not need to know that someone else has a dual P3 or even a 386 that "works just fine", I need to know what your system is built on so that we can find a common theme and hopefully whittle down the problem to a certain area that can be fixed…
So, if your system IS/FEELS slower on CS than it did on v7, please tell everyone in the forum EVERYTHING you possibly can about your setup and where you feel the slowdowns are.
Let’s get to the bottom of this and get back to a profitable state (or get there…finally)!
FYI, as the other post in this forum is set to read only, but just found out that I was not receiving any email notification on the new replies of the No wonder etc thread. It appears that you have to subscribe separately to the Photoshop Lounge to receive its email notification. My subscription already included Photoshop Mac and Windows, but no posts were coming through. Somehow its a forum on its own.
I have not yet used a timer to verify, but I seem to see a faster redraw in XP than I do in 2k (same machine, multi-boot). I will run a test or two this evening on a couple of 150-200Mb files. If I find any meaningful difference I will post it here.
Just out of curiosity, do you see any sort of cursor lag (such as the icon failing to change after you select a new tool)?
All the time especially when i’m going from the file browser, or within it but PS seems to delay just about anywhere ad verbatim. It really is slow.
In v7 I could work on 10-15 20MB files at a time from the Canon D60/10D and they were like lightning. Now! in CS, it’s gimme the razor, i’m getting a beard here LOL!
IT IS SLOW. I really wonder HAS it anything to do with the bank note thing? HHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!. Scratches That CS Beard!!!!!!!!
Ian, I don’t know what to say in response, other than what I said earlier. My point was that it would be nice for Adobe to let us know what they’ve identified as problems. I know about bitter medicine and would rather not swallow it if I can avoid it. PS 7 runs great on that machine. PS 8 runs much slower. Does that mean I should reformat that machine (probably a 2-day ordeal), or wait until Adobe releases a patch, and/or tells us what they might have fixed?
Ho, I am not "seeing" a lag after choosing a tool – only after using the healing brush, which happens to be one of my most frequently used tools due to my work of cleaning drumscans.
As far as file handling goes, I timed file opens of a 625MB file and found CS to be about a second or two behind v7. It took about 32 seconds (one-thousand one, one-thousand two,…) in v7, and about 34-35 seconds in v8…OK, I know that isn’t too scientific!
I am more concerned with normal workflow. I only open a file once or twice to work on it…but I have to use the healing brush a couple hundred times…at two seconds each, this adds up. Add to that the amount of time the filters take, one gets a bit drowsy…
Nick, do you really expect Adobe to publicly identify any problems with Photoshop?
Not on your tintype, pal.
I’m very sorry if I threw a monkey wrench into the proceedings by stating that I wasn’t seeing any issues on my machine. It was my apparently mistaken thought that explaining this would help identify what was causing others problems by comparing their experience/systems with mine.
Nick, do you really expect Adobe to publicly identify any problems with Photoshop?
He does (rightly so) and where possible they have. Here’s three examples since Xmas:
1. Healing Brush – C Cox and Scott Byer have acknowledged a problem in 16 bit mode.
2. Reactivation after system restore in XP – Stephanie Schaefer has acknowledged and explained the issue.
3. Cannot complete XYZ because of low memory or simply running out of memory (Photomerge, some filters, Camera Raw) – Chris Cox and Scott Byer have explained why and also confirmed Adobe messed up.
Three pretty significant admissions on their part!
We have situation here were "some" users have slowdowns with Win2K, but no problem with XP. We have a large number of folk with Win 2K indicating that they have no problems. This begs the question – which is screwed PS, OS or Hardware?. There is no simple answer to the question, but users simply hoping for a fix isn’t one of them. Until the engineers have a reproducible method of causing the slow down on their machines (and they’ve lots of machines to choose from) they won’t have a clue what to fix. This doesn’t mean they’re not looking, listening, nor does it mean they’re ignoring you or the problem. I’m sure they’re just as frustrated at not seeing the problem as you are at having it.
I suggested that you try a clean reinstall and you know me long enough to know that I am not dimissing this problem as a rant or the ramblings of an idiot. Far from it I’ve spent some time trying to figure it out with you. Unless you’re holding out on me π which I very much doubt you have exhausted all but two possiblities.
I appreciate that nobody likes to reinstall the OS, but sometimes it’s the only way of proving were a problem does or doesn’t lie. Do you have spare drive or an external firewire that you can setup as temporary boot drive? This would allow you to install only the OS and CS. Your existing Win 2K install wouldn’t be touched.
4th example of something adobe’s said will be fixed… verticle tile. possibly 5th, the accelerator key for file> save as vs. file> open as needs to be restored to alt-f, a (for save as). Steph said this one would be changed back, but I’m not sure if she was referring to a dot release or next full. I sure hope it’s the dot release. That one’s a pain!
Just so it’s documneted, with no other performance problems, I also see a 1 to 2 second lag when changing tools or brush shapes/tips/sizes. It can be very annoying.
Do you have spare drive or an external firewire that you can setup as temporary boot drive?
Yes I do (and hadn’t thought of that as an option). I have an external firewire drive, with about 70GB free, hooked up to that machine. The drive is used strictly for data storage, no apps or anything else on it. I assume I would need to create an empty partition on the drive before trying this?
You’ll have to forgive my ignorance, but I’ve never had reason to set up a multi-boot system. Any suggestions or links to how I should proceed would be appreciated.
Nick, a fresh install of the OS can truly work wonders. I did a reformat and clean install of WinXP on my laptop (2.4 Pentium with 1 G of RAM), not to speed up PSCS but to see if I could solve some problems with my network setup from the opriginal factory install.
It did and it also had an amazing effect on PSCS which was quite acceptable anyway before the reformat. I saw performance differences close to 100% for some operations. I had created a series of actions to test relative speeds of CS and PS6 just out of interest before I did the reformat. CS went from being marginally slower than or the same as 6 to being way faster for almost everything. Definitely worth a try.
It’s not difficult to create a dual boot XP OS without wiping out the old one if you have more than one partition on your internal hard drive. I haven’t got Win2K but I imagine it’s similarly simple. I don’t know anything about installing on an external drive but I assume that it should be straightforward at least as a test system. Also there was no problem reactivating CS even though I had done a reformat (quick) of my hard drive.
Update: OK, I did a clean reinstall of Win2K on a new 40GB partition of my machine. Reinstalled and reactivated PS CS. The only other thing installed is the latest Matrox driver for my G450 video card (had to do that in order to achieve the required resolution for PS CS).
Sorry, folks, but it’s still slow. My main concern was (and is) with ACR 2 vs. ACR 1. ACR 2 (PS CS) takes about 14 seconds to open a NEF file at camera resolution. ACR 1 (PS7) takes about 3 seconds. Another notable area of slowness is with the Text tool. I’m not a speedy typist, but it can’t keep up. I never had that problem with PS 7 on the same machine.
* kicked the mem usage % down to about 50% (to start) and restarted ps? * set cache levels to 6? * turn off background thumb generation and high quality thumbs? * make sure the scratch file is on an ntfs partition if you have a mixed (fat32/ntfs) system?
Thanks, Dave. Yup, memory is set at 50%. I raised cache levels to 6 (no change in performance). Background generation and HQ thumbs is turned off. All partitions are NTFS.
Another thing that I just noticed: I installed PS CS as Administrator. I’d always been told that it wasn’t a good idea to work in Win2K as Administrator, so I created a new user (Nick Decker) with power user privileges. When I logged on as Nick Decker and opened PS, I got a message that the current user was not allowed under the current activation, and PS promptly closed. I guess I have to log on as Administrator to use it.
When I logged on as Nick Decker and opened PS, I got a message that the current user was not allowed under the current activation, and PS promptly closed.
It get’s stranger, Dave. To double check, I logged in again as "Nick Decker" and went to Start>Programs. Image Ready CS was still in the list, but PS CS was gone. So, I hunted down the Adobe folder in Program Files and launced PS CS from there. It opened fine and didn’t give me the activation message this time, so I guess Nick Decker is now approved by the Activation Genie that lives in my computer. <g> I have no idea, however, why PS is no longer in the list under Start>Programs (while Image Ready CS is still there).
Performance issues aside, I’d say that they still have some work to do on activation. While I’m not one who has a problem with activation in principle, in practice it’s looking more and more sloppy.
Uninstalled 7.01 – Installed CS. I discovered the thumbnails in Explorer were gone! Thanks for the tip on psicon.dll – thumbnails in Explorer have been restored. Other than Activation (ironic coming from me), PS-CS rocks.
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