Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

>It's the HW that crashes, not the software.

yea, but the poster was speaking specifically about the bsod errors. a bsod reports an unrecoverable error that the operating system encountered. it has nothing to do with hardware, per se. it MAY be related to a hardware fault, but it doesn't have to be.

It's the HW that crashes, not the software. The SW brings on the crash, but as you both have experienced, the same SW crashes one computer but not another.

Lots of interactions yada yada yada, but in the end, the HW simply gives up.

Correlation is not equal to causation.

>> BSOD is generally an HW issue.

hmm... i dunno about using hte word "generally" there either. "often", "sometimes", "50/50"... but like bob says, software CAN cause bsods quite often.

A nice way to test RAM is a Windiag bootable media. You can download an image and burn it.

It boots the pc directly into the test. No need for a "real" OS.

Let it run overnight to see if errors accumulate. No errors? must be fine then.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Rob

The HW has to crash to generate a BSOD. Yes, you can force the crash through software manipulation. That's how HW is tested in certain circumstances. Push it till it crashes, then look at the data.

AFAIK, anyway!:D

BSOD is generally an HW issue. If you are not getting those, your HW is probably not the cause. The caveat here is the ram. It may be problematic yet not cause a BSOD. So run a ram test first.(Assuming a problem on a fresh install.)

Also, as I mentioned before and this is especially true for Vista, what oder you use to install software can affect it's startup time, for openers.

I would make sure it's not the software incompatibility issue, as it seems to be in most cases. If you can create an image of your hard drive first so you can later go back to where you were if need be, do that first.

Then reinstall only Windows, service packs and the latest drivers and NOTHING ELSE (not even antivirus). Then install Photoshop and if it runs, it's software. Then you can start loading one program at the time (biggest suspects first) and test Photoshop in between 'till it starts being slow again. That way you'll know the culprit.

And just to be sure it's not more than one thing, uninstall the offending software and continue installing everything 'till you have everything tested.

The reason I'm suggesting this is because that's how I solved my own issue. Mind you, I assumed this would apply to most people here, so I went an extra mile (or ten), but in the end I did find out that (in my case) it was Kaspersky that did Photoshop in. Got a new AV (AVG, to be precise),and things are snappy.

In your case it may be different software that is causing the issue. Adobe even states this in one of the threads here (forgot where). It would appear that on different platforms, different softwares cause this very same issue. But you have to try to find out what it is on your own system.

Ultimately, if you load OS, latest service packs (SP3 for XP or SP1 for Vista - necessary for installation) and the latest drivers, once the Photoshop is installed you'll know if it's hardware or software.

I wouldn't expect Adobe to go an extra mile to tell us what the issue is, as there are as many hardware/software configurations out there as there are people with computers; it would be impossible for them to test it all.

Try it, you might be surprised. I sure was.

Update:

n.b.
dual quad core
4gb ram
Nvidia Quadro 1700
xp
Latest DirectX and Drivers
Tried turning off McAfee (no effect)

Option 1 - OpenGL off: quick brush strokes, pixelated at levels of zoom other than 100%, 50%... Rotate disabled.

Option 2 - OpenGL on: slow slow slow strokes, crisp lines at all levels of magnification, Rotate enabled.

What am I going to do?! I'm sticking with option 2 because I need te crisp and sharpness, but I'm getting sooo frustrated with the lag. Adobe help!!!

A heads up about slow start.

I am doing a series of tests across multiple platforms and OS. I have a utility that takes over a minute on Vista Ultimate 64. On Vista 32 bit, it opens in about 2 seconds.

here is confirmation of these times with different folks.

It may be the OS

Another call for volunteers:

If you are experiencing a performance lag using CS4 (especially with OGL features disabled) and are interested in helping test a change that may mitigate the issue, please email me directly: travlin_adam at yahoo dot com

Sorry for the long absence on my part - I have been following this and other threads and we're still on the case.

-Adam