Elements 3 Slow to start Browser

[PeterN]

When I start Photoshop Elements 3 I get to the welcome screen instantly. From there, if I select the browser (view & organize photos) I wait almost 25 seconds with nothing visible happening. Then up comes the second splash screen for 10 seconds showing the different module names as they load and finally the browser window opens up.

I wonder what Elements 3 is doing for 25 seconds after I tell it to start the browser. Is there any way to speed it up?

This seems to be a browser problem because if I decide to go to the editor from the welcome screen (Edit & enhance photos) it only takes 2 to 3 seconds before the splash screen shows modules loading.


I'm using a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM and Windows XP home.
As far as I know all the services that Elements might use via the web are turned off in the preferences.


Thanks for your help.....

[epaul6]

Here are a couple of things to try.

You don't need to start in the welcome screen. At the bottom of the welcome screen there is a drop down box you can select start in editor or organizer from the list. That will save some time. Next go to the editor then EDIT/ Preferences/memory and image cache. Bump that up to 75 or 80%. Also how much of your hard drive is available as free space? In windows go to My Computer select c drive right click then properties. If it is getting full (80% or so) expect it to be slower. You could do a disk clean up and fragment which is located in windows under all programs / accessories/system tools. A good system cleanup utility like System mechanic will help also as it will keep your system and harddrive optimized and delete the junk.

I had a similar setup to yours a dell 8400 with 3.4 processor and a gig of ram. I was unhappy with the speed and went with a Dell XPS 410 GB ram and a raid 0 setup. This opens the organizer in about 10 seconds with all 6000 images available immediately. Good luck

[PeterN]

Thanks epaul6,

My c: drive has 50GB free - but it is a 250G (232GB formatted) so it is about 80% full.

I have made the changes in elements and there is a noticable change in the speed once the splash screen comes up. However, I'm still witing 20 to 25 seconds for that screen to appear.