layer effects dialog slow to load

Working in Photoshop CS2 on my 1 GHz PowerPC G4 12-inch laptop with 1.25 G of RAM, running Tiger 10.4.7.

When adding a layer effect to a layer, or double clicking an effect to open the layer effect dialog box, I invariably get a spinning beach ball before the dialog opens - somtimes 20 to 30 seconds. Is this normal Photshop operation? Is it CPU or RAM or just how the program operates? Any tricks to speed this up?

Is this normal Photshop operation?

No.

You need to troubleshoot your setup to see what's messed up.

How much memory have you allotted to Photoshop?

Try cutting it back to 50% and your Cache Levels to 4 — and run Cocktail too.

And did you Repair Permissions both before and after installing new software on your computer?