Computer question

[Shari]

I have been adding a LOT of plug-ins lately. I have noticed that my CS2 has slowed down a lot. It took 45 seconds to open this morning. I still have 77GB of free space. Is this where I should be looking at more ram? I have 99 ram. I do have to laugh. I remember when we first got internet and it was all magic and MUCH slower than I am experiencing now. How fast we get used to speed and want more!
Shari

[deedeeO]

Check your virtual memory...you may need to make the settings so that the v. memory is optimized for computer performance...I've seen this problem in other threads, hopefully someone will be popping by to tell you exactly how to set up virtual memory. I get it all the time...I just close unused applications. BTW, how many plug-ins are talking about?

[Robyn]

Shari.............

You don't have to put these plug-ins actually in Photoshop. You can put them in a separate folder outside of PS anywhere on your computer........... you just have to tell CS2 where to look for it. To do that go to Edit<Preferences<Plug-in and Scratch Disks. You will see where you can tick a box that says "Additional Plug-in Folder". Tick that and and then press the choose button and navigate to where ever you have this folder with all the additional plug-ins. When you get there just click on that and press okay. Obviously, you are going to have to move them outside of PS and put them into a folder elsewhere on your computer first.

I keep very little plug-in, brushes, shapes, layer styles etc. in CS2 itself. I keep most of it outside and load these things when I need them. But if you do what I say with the plug-ins you don't have to load them, they will be there in your filter menu just like always because by ticking this "Additional Plug-in folder" CS2 always knows where to look automatically.

Your GB of free space would be referring your hard disk space and not your RAM. Extra RAM would certainly not go astray. I had 1 GB of RAM and I have added another. When I get another computer (sometime in the future) I wouldn't get anything under 4 GB of RAM. PS certainly chews it up!

Hope this helps.

[genevh]

Here's how to adjust your virtual memory. I will admit I found your "99 of ram" to be an unusual number until I checked it on my laptop here and mine says the same thing. And I know for a fact this machine has 1 gig installed. Evidently some of it is being used for video memory. Anyway, I digress......


To set you virtual memory in WinXP, right click the My Computer icon on the desktop, and in the window that opens click the Advanced tab. On that tab, click the Settings button under Performance. On the Performance Options tab, click the Advanced tab again. For Processor scheduling and Memory usage, click the radials for Programs in both instances.

To set your Virtual Memory (finally :) ) click the Change button in that section of the tab. This will show your disks, and the disk your Virtual Memory file sits on is usually the C drive. This will be highlighted, and in the boxes below you will see boxes showing initial and maximum size under Custom, and then also picks for System managed and No paging file.

If you have never made these changes before, most likely System managed size is selected. Click the Custom size radial. This will then make the Initial and Maximum size boxes editable. A rule of thumb for virtual memory size is 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have in your system. In your case you probably have 1 Gig, so set both boxes to 1500 Mb. Click the Set button, then hit the OK buttons until you close the System Properties box completely. If you've changed the Virtual Memory sizing, you will also be prompted to restart your PC to make the changes take effect.

Another tweak to boost system performance while on the Performance Options tab is to click the "Adjust for Best Performance" radial on the Visual Effects tab. This turns off all the fancy menu fades, shadows, etc. that can slow your PC down. Unless you like those things. :D

The reason for setting the Initial and Maximum Virtual memory sizes the same is so that the reserved disk space for that file remains constant. This helps in keeping that file from becoming fragmented, which can also slow your PC down a bit. The 1.5X your memory setting is a Microsoft recommendation.

Another thing to do would be to defragment your hard drive before doing the above. Files have a tendency to get broken up and scattered all over the hard drive, in spite of how much free space you have, just in the normal operation of your PC. This also slows things down as it takes longer to find everything when its scattered all over the place like that. To defrag your drive, again right click the My Computer icon on the desktop, and pick Manage on the menu. Under Storage you'll see Disk Defragmenter. Pick that, and pick your drive. You can click the Analyze button to see how badly defragmented your drive may be. Or just go ahead and click Defragment and let it run to completion. Depending on the overall size of your drive, this can take a while, so it would be a good time for a cup of coffee and a danish!:)

Speaking of coffee, my cup is empty. brb........

[TonyW]

Like everyone says more RAM will always help - I'm up to 2 Gb and will probably go to 4 with my next computer and the additional plug-in folder will help too. One thing I don't think that anyone has mentioned yet is you can increase the amount of RAM that Photoshop (or Elements uses). In Preferences there's a setting for the % of RAM that Photoshop uses and the default I recall is something like 55% - don't increase it to 100% because that will cause problems but you can safely increase it to say 75% which in your case would give Photoshop another 200 MB of RAM to work with.

Tony

[Robyn]

Thanks Tony, that's another good tip.

[Shari]

Oohh THANK you everybody. I have just printed this and when it cools down and I feel better I will do some work and hope I do not stress myself. I would be lost if anything happend to my "take my mind off my problems programme"!!!
Shari

[nkeevers]

Interesting thread! I increased my ram last week by 2 so I now have 4 gig of ram and I didn't notice that much of a difference. I thought it would be flying! So, Gene and Tony, thanks for the tips because I'm going to try them out today.