I am wondering if anyone has a similar experience and/or a solution (other than buying a new Apple).
I have a dual Xeon 3.0 workstation with 3 gb ram, (3) 72 GB Ultra SCSI hard drives. When I save large files in Photoshop (300-600MB) I can't do much else while it's saving. All the other apps either don't work at all or the response is very slow.
Based upon your system's apparent capability, you should be able to multi-task very easily. I would suggest running a full diagnostic on your all your hard drives, the HD controller, and also perform a 'system file check'.
To run a system file check on WinXP, do the following:
From the Start menu, select Run.
In the Open field, type sfc /scannow (Note: There is a space between sfc and /scannow)
Select the OK button.
Follow the prompts throughout the System File Checker process.
Reboot the computer when System File Checker completes.
(Note: You will need to have your WinXP CD handy)
More WinXP Trouble shooting procedures can be found here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/index.htm . This site has saved my bacon more than once: Good stuff, here.
Doug, I have a very similar system and can continue to work while PS saves files. I have separate drives for the OS, Photoshop swap, and image files. My guess is this is the cause of your issue - the same controller is used for both reading and writing.
Also, if you haven't done so in a while - defragment all your drives. It you have significant fragmentation it can seriously impact performance.
Hope you're still watching this thread... been busy for the past while so I'm not up-to-date.
You can set your WIndows swap file to a fixed size instead of letting Windows manage it for you; I found this made a difference for me in Photoshop, as well as video processing.
For XP: Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Performance - Advanced tab - virtual memory.
Change the setting to at least what you have in RAM - 3GB. You're hard disk is more than big enough to use a bit of it as virtual memory. When Windows manages virtual memory, it can cause "thrashing" when your Photoshop file is huge; i.e. your PC's CPU is servicing operating system-tasks instead of managing application demands.
How much stuff do you have running in the background? Applications running in the background can really slow things down. To see these apps, do this...
Start>Run. In the box type "msconfig" (without the quotes).
In the resulting dialog, click on the "Startup" tab. It will show you all the apps that are running on your machine.
You should be able to stop some of these apps from running, but first you'll need to know which one's are essential. There are a couple of sites that will give you this info. Unfortunately, I am at work, so don't have the links handy.
EDIT: I found the link I referred to above: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
I was able to free up RAM by doing this, and also stopped some disk thrashing that was going on. The apps that I stopped could all be run manually, if needed.
You can also stop any services you don't need. In the same box, click on the "Services" tab. You can easily stop, start, or have services start automatically. Go here for more info: http://www.theeldergeek.com/ . This is one of the best WinXP sites I have found. There is also an excellent forum there, too.
Discussion
5 repliesI have a dual Xeon 3.0 workstation with 3 gb ram, (3) 72 GB Ultra SCSI hard drives. When I save large files in Photoshop (300-600MB) I can't do much else while it's saving. All the other apps either don't work at all or the response is very slow.
Based upon your system's apparent capability, you should be able to multi-task very easily. I would suggest running a full diagnostic on your all your hard drives, the HD controller, and also perform a 'system file check'.
To run a system file check on WinXP, do the following:
From the Start menu, select Run.
In the Open field, type sfc /scannow (Note: There is a space between sfc and /scannow)
Select the OK button.
Follow the prompts throughout the System File Checker process.
Reboot the computer when System File Checker completes.
(Note: You will need to have your WinXP CD handy)
More WinXP Trouble shooting procedures can be found here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/index.htm . This site has saved my bacon more than once: Good stuff, here.
-PB
Also, if you haven't done so in a while - defragment all your drives. It you have significant fragmentation it can seriously impact performance.
Guy
Hope you're still watching this thread... been busy for the past while so I'm not up-to-date.
You can set your WIndows swap file to a fixed size instead of letting Windows manage it for you; I found this made a difference for me in Photoshop, as well as video processing.
For XP: Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Performance - Advanced tab - virtual memory.
Change the setting to at least what you have in RAM - 3GB. You're hard disk is more than big enough to use a bit of it as virtual memory. When Windows manages virtual memory, it can cause "thrashing" when your Photoshop file is huge; i.e. your PC's CPU is servicing operating system-tasks instead of managing application demands.
Hope that helps!
How much stuff do you have running in the background? Applications running in the background can really slow things down. To see these apps, do this...
Start>Run. In the box type "msconfig" (without the quotes).
In the resulting dialog, click on the "Startup" tab. It will show you all the apps that are running on your machine.
You should be able to stop some of these apps from running, but first you'll need to know which one's are essential. There are a couple of sites that will give you this info. Unfortunately, I am at work, so don't have the links handy.
EDIT: I found the link I referred to above: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
I was able to free up RAM by doing this, and also stopped some disk thrashing that was going on. The apps that I stopped could all be run manually, if needed.
You can also stop any services you don't need. In the same box, click on the "Services" tab. You can easily stop, start, or have services start automatically. Go here for more info: http://www.theeldergeek.com/ . This is one of the best WinXP sites I have found. There is also an excellent forum there, too.
I hope this helps!
-PB