CS2 Stutters a lot.

A pragmatic guess?

Do you need to keep cache levels at 6 or will 4 suffice?

It may be worthwhile reducing to 4 just to avoid the frustration inducing pauses?

Again, we need details. Just saying it stutters doesn’t help anyone figure out what’s going on. For all I know that could be you tripping over the power cord.

What specifically is slow or stuttering?
And (again) is it just the palettes redrawing slowly?

Please see previous post…

(Again) Photoshop is slow when:

– Photoshop needs to redraw/repaint the canvas (not the palettes) – saving for the Web (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+S)

Leave SaveForWeb as a different issue (it’s a plugin, and almost completely different code from Photoshop).

Does Photoshop still stutter redrawing the canvas if all the palettes are hidden?

For both issues – have you tried disabling the background programs (especially the anti-virus)? Have you updated the drivers for your keyboard, mouse and video card?

Thanks for helping me troubleshoot the issue Chris,

I’ve updated all drivers.

I’m going to use CS2 this week with the following configuration. If I do not notice an improvement, I’ll take further measures.

PHOTOSHOP:
– Cache levels = 4
– Memory usage = 67%

OS:
– Using Windows Media Player on a different machine
– Disabled all NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager features

I’m going to keep the following in my config for now:

PHOTOSHOP:
– Palletes showing

OS apps/processes:
– Ultramon
– eTrust Antivirus
– MSN MEssenger
– Outlook
– Remote Desktop
– IE

Just for a little while, try it without the palettes (tab key hides and shows them).

Also, who’s eTrust? And what’s Unltramon?

Hi Chris,

Okay, I’ve been running with this setup today and found that I experience lag after adjusting gradient layers and gradient map layers.

When I try to apply the new gradient I’ve edited in the Graident Editor by clicking OK, there is usually significant lag redrawing the canvas that is behind the dialog. So I wait (sometimes I click a Windows Explorer folder, which seems to speed Phosothop up) and then click OK on to dismiss the Gradient Fill or Gradient Map dialog once Photoshop appears to be ready.

eTrust is an anti-virus program that Microsoft uses internally. It’s stable and has worked fine with Photoshop CS and pervious versions.

Ultramon is a utility that works great for dual monitors, which also worked fine with CS and pervious versions. <http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/>

I’ll try it w/o palletes to see if that helps.

Thanks,
Jeremy

Actually, I can’t really do what I need to do if palettes are off. How do I edit a gradient layer with the palettes off or see what layer I have selected for that matter? If there is a way to do that, I’ll try it just to test if it is an issue related to the palettes.

I was thinking about painting or other tasks with the palettes hidden…

And since we haven’t actually tested with eTrust, I’d try working without it for a little while just in case.

But what you’re describing sounds like something is eating paint messages intended for Photoshop.

Okay, I will not have eTrust running this week.

Also, when I installed CS2 I accidentally associated every file extension with Photoshop. I remembered I had problems with JPEGs and GIFs when I associated these files with PS in the past, so I disassociated them from Photoshop again–not that I think this is causing the problem, but just want to cover my bases.

Hmmm…I wonder what could be eating paint messages?

Jeremy, you do not have any UI skinning program, do you? Windows blinds is the first thing to disable if you happen to run it.

No, I don’t run Windows blinds or any UI skinning program.

I’m finding that the lag frequently occurs after accept edits/changes I’ve made to a gradient in a Gradient Map layer or a Gradient Fill layer. After I click OK from the Gradient Editor, Photoshop thinks for a while and then let’s me click OK on the parent dialog (Gradient Map or Gradient Fill, respectively).

Hmm, the only thing that should be going on at that point is minor scratch disk access (on the order of 60K bytes IO, at most).

Unless there is a problem with the scratch disk itself, I don’t know what could cause the pause.

Hmmm. That is interesting, Chris. Perhaps we can narrow this down to scratch disk usage?

Curious, how much free scratch disk space is a good amount to have available for Photoshop? I currently have 14.4 GB free on my Primary scratch disk. Should I free up more space?

Also, should I *not* enable a Secondary scratch disk if that scratch disk (Drive C:) is the same disk on which Windows XP is installed and using for its page file? I was thinking that by setting Drive C: to "secondary", Photoshop would only use it in "extreme mem usage emergencies".

It could be – but that little IO shouldn’t cause a user visible pause unless something is wrong.

Scratch space depends on the size and number of images you edit. I’d say 10 Gig free is a minimum, and 200 Gig free feels comfortable (but edit too many at once).

Yes, you could enable the OS swap disk as a secondary scratch disk. It won’t get used until the primary gets full.

Mark,
I am having a related/similar problem.
I installed Creative Suite 2 on my Dell computer, Pentium with 2.2GHz and 1 GB of RAM at two big hard drives. My old version of Photoshop CS is still on the computer.
All of the Suite programs run well except Photoshop CS2. It runs slowly, opens images slowly and stutters often when moving images across screen, using Navigator, etc.
When I close Creative Suite 2 and open my old Photoshop CS, it works fine and is much faster with no stutters.
From reading through the responses to your posting, it sounds like this is a common problem which Adobe hasn’t fixed yet.

And since we haven’t actually tested with eTrust, I’d try working without it for a little while just in case.

I run etrust without a hitch. I guess other’s results might be different.

in addition to no windows blinds, i’d suggest no xp themes either. revert to the old style start menu and desktop. for the start menu, right click the menu bar and hit properties. for the rest of the system, right click my computer> properties> advanced> performace box> settings button. select adjust for best performance (turns off all visual effects).

just as a troubleshooting technique mind you…

John – try hiding the palettes (tab key) and see if the problem goes away.

There is a known problem affecting the palette redraw that affects some users.

I haven’t looked at this forum in months, rather I slid away from using CS2. It is such a wonderful program, but the lags broke my continuity and really, I went back to painting (with a brush)(and not necessarily a trouble free medium either). I hope Chris and his team eventually find what consternates so many users or why so many of us have purchased such troublesome machines.
A lag is a lag is a lag, sometimes more sometimes less. Somtimes the 8 bit brush goes off to think, somethimes the menus don’t scoll down, sometimes the cursor makes itself unfindable as it cruises from the working field to a menu. When it seems to be behaving, it is all a delight.

Andrew Kovner
P4 3.6GHz, hyper-threaded, 800MHz system bus, 1MB L2 Cache, 3gigs of Ram, 2×200 GB SATA hard drives, Raid 0