opening files VERY SLOW

PB
Posted By
Peter_Bodik
Nov 23, 2003
Views
432
Replies
11
Status
Closed
I just got Elements 2.0 and really like it, but opening files is really slow (it takes maybe 20 to open even a 100kB image). I’m running winXP on a 1.4MHz laptop, so the computer shouldn’t be a problem. After opening it works pretty fast.

Anybody has any similar problems?

Thanks a lot,
Peter
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BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 23, 2003
How much RAM do you have in your laptop? And when was the last time you defragged and did other system housekeeping chores? Emptied cache folders?

I just did a test, and a 10MB PSD file opened in less than 3 seconds on my aging little laptop under PSE 2. It’s only got a 400ghz processor and 192MB of RAM, so I don’t think the problem is with the software. It sounds more like something is slowing down your system.
PB
Peter_Bodik
Nov 23, 2003
Well I got 512MB of RAM, so this isn’t the problem. I’ll try to do some cleaning …

Anyway, it’s really bad, because it takes 20 seconds to open a 7kB file … 🙁

Peter
R
Redmondite
Nov 23, 2003
Check the following:

Free space on the drive Elements uses for temp files (it’s a configuration setting and defaults to the C:\ drive)

Free space on the drive that Elements is on. Probably also C:\ but just in case you’ve got it on another drive.

Free space on the drive where the file is loading from.

Virtual memory setting – should let Windows handle it.

wrote in message
I just got Elements 2.0 and really like it, but opening files is really
slow (it takes maybe 20 to open even a 100kB image). I’m running winXP on a
1.4MHz laptop, so the computer shouldn’t be a problem. After opening it
works pretty fast.
Anybody has any similar problems?

Thanks a lot,
Peter
LG
Lorace_Graham
Nov 23, 2003
I was wondering if you need to change any preferences, because this does sound extremely slow. I never have any wait at all.

I’ve often wondered, though, what to do in the Memory and Image section in Preferences . Should the Cache levels be increased beyond the default 4 levels?

Also, the following one about the available Ram. I increased the percentage to 95%, but didn’t really know if I should.

Also, USE CACHE FOR HISTOGRAMS. Should I check it?

Would this have any bearing on Peter’s problem?

thanks,
Lorace
JW
JP White
Nov 23, 2003
wrote:

I just got Elements 2.0 and really like it, but opening files is really slow (it takes maybe 20 to open even a 100kB image). I’m running winXP on a 1.4MHz laptop, so the computer shouldn’t be a problem. After opening it works pretty fast.

Anybody has any similar problems?

Thanks a lot,
Peter

Are you opening the images from Elements or WinXP explorer? I have found Photoshop to be too big and clumsy for casual photo viewing from windows explorer. It should however be just fine if you already have photoshop open. On my system I prefer to have Microsoft Photo Editor for opening images from windows explorer, the times I do actually want photoshop to open them you can right click and use open with… to have elements open the file.

You’ll need plenty of RAM photoshop likes plenty.

JP
PB
Peter_Bodik
Nov 24, 2003
Well, there is this progress bar at the bottom of the window. When I open a file, the progress bar "is done" in less than a second and the system freezes for 20 seconds after that. It doesn’t matter how big the file is. Even a 63 bytes GIF image takes 20 seconds.

I assume that normally the image is displayed immediately after the progress bar reaches the end.

Peter
BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 24, 2003
Peter, I forgot to ask a question. Do you run any antivirus software? Norton? The symptoms are usually different, which is why I didn’t think of it earlier, but Norton products and Adobe products often are incompatible. If you have any anti-virus software installed, try a complete removal of Elements, including another Find to get the Preferences out, then either remove or deactivate the antivirus software, and then reinstall Elements. See if that helps.

Not all computers have trouble running Elements and Norton. I’ve got both on a Win XP Pro machine, but I did deactivate the Norton before installing Elements and turned it back on afterwards.

Just another idea, but it’s worth a try.
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Nov 24, 2003
Peter,

Does this happen every time you open an image or only when you first launch PSE? I made the mistake once of leaving the Browser "browsing" a folder that contained a couple thousand images. PSE would take an extra 20-30 seconds to open because it was creating thumbnails for all the images in my folder. If you experience this problem when starting up PSE but not after you have it launched, this might be your problem. If it happens even when PSE is already open, disregard this post.

Joe
BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 24, 2003
Poor Joe. You’ve really become the "poster boy" for that one, haven’t you?! 🙂 I don’t think Peter is having trouble launching Elements, though. Nice try!
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Nov 24, 2003
Yeah, I’ll never live that one down. Oh well, whatta ya do?

😉

Joe
CF
Callum_Ferguson
Nov 25, 2003
Peter.

Try! right clicking a pic, select properties/photoshop imagetab/ untick the box which says generate thumbnails. i think that’s how it goes , I tried to confirm it on my machine but the tab "photoshop image" has gone ( sonetimes i think i’m going mad or think i’m seeing things).
I had a similar problem in which my pic folder containing about 100mb of pics took maybe a few mins to open and that setting fixed it.
Regards
Malcolm

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