Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

Russell,

I think you may have misunderstood me; I got the problem fixed, my system is running as it should now. I was able to resolve the issue AND speed up my overall performance. At this point I'm not sure if I could improve things by trying to remove RAM sticks, but thank you for your input (it's always good to know what one might expect).

However, I still don't know what caused the problem in a first place

So what I'm doing now is loading things back, one by one, to recreate and identify the problem.

Earlier we ran the machine through a full systems test; RAM, MoBo, hard drives, all the cards, etc. Turns out that the power supply was crap and we changed it. The guy @ the shop swore that it can make a dif with regards to speed. While skeptical about that statement I decided to get a better power supply anyway. However, that didn't solve the issue as expected (had my hopes up for a moment).

What eventually did solve the issue was a full format and installation of OS with nothing but the latest video card driver. I didn't even load the sound card drivers the first time I did it.

Since then I have reformatted my hard drive several times as the first breakthrough occurred with Vista 32 as opposed 64, and the second was with HP factory-shipped image. Photoshop CS4 worked flawlessly every time. However, I don't want that stuff that HP ships their machines with, so I got a clean Vista 64 Home Premium (legal), and that's what I'm using now.

Since I eliminated HP bloatware as being part of the problem, I can now start building a nice clean image from scratch. CS4 worked fine with all that junk installed after a full format.

I appreciate everyone's input and I'll report as things develop. Once I got this figured out I'll write a full report (it won't be short, I can promise you that).

Russell, I have a d975XBX2 "Bad Axe 2" board and its running 8 GB ram perfectly. I use the ram mostly for 3D work and i push ram usage a lot and have no problem at all.

Its possible you had a ram that just didnt like the board or had a defect.

Google ram testing software for utilities that do this without painful cut and try ops.

I am not at all convinced that taking code out of sequence and introducing it at some other place arbitrarily determined will work to give answers. There are dll's and Registry entries that can generate dependencies. But see what happens. If mine runs without all the code, well then...!

> In all cases I had 8GB of RAM loaded

Just fyi I had an Intel D975XBX2 motherboard (during the beta testing) that could not use 8GB RAM no matter what I did to it. Intel even sent me a newer REV replacement board and it was just as bad. Vista64 would hang, apps would stagger along (not just CS4) and I ended up concluding that the 975 chipset was just not up to doing it. I got an Asus P5E-WS-Pro and it's workes flawlessly. I think CS4 still has some issues that we'll have to wait to be resolved with a 'dot' release. But all the Open GL stuff works with a cheapie Sapphire/Radeon HD2400.

You might try the system with 2-GB RAM installed with Vista64 to see if it improves things. If it does then your system is simply not working properly with the RAM and no brand of RAM will change things if it's a motherboard limitation.

Most 64bit apps don't push the RAM as much as CS4 will, so you'll expose issues that are not evident when performing less demanding tasks.

Russell

Hi everyone,

To answer your questions, there were a number of other steps I did in between, but in short I had a fairly new installation of Vista 64 Home Premium (OEM) with a 64 bit nvidia 8800 GT driver and Photoshop was slow. That being said, while OS WAS a new installation, I also had a ton of other stuff (both hardware and software) installed along with it. Tried flashing BIOS - no luck.

Then, through a turn of events, I ended up with a 32 bit Vista Home Premium with a 32 bit nvidia 8800 GT driver. Short of having that driver, Vista was clean as a whistle; I didn't even have the LAN and audio drivers on. Installed Photoshop - bang! Fast.

Then, since I had no clean Vista 64 Home Premium DVD, I found a download (must stress it's legal, or someone is going to get on my case - I know it). And while I was DLing it, I thought I'd go to play, and install Vista 64 Home Premium from the (dirty) OEM partition image. Sure it has bloatware, but I had time to kill and I was curious. It should be noted that this image had drivers for almost all hardware I have in the machine (no card reader). Installed Photoshop and it's running fast.

In all cases above I made sure OpenGL checkbox was on, and I used the same doc size every time with same settings to do the test.

In all cases I had 8GB of RAM loaded, so that's kosher too.

So, right now, it would seem that it's either a newer driver for a piece of hardware I have, or another piece of software.

My decision at this point is to take my downloaded Vista 64 Home Premium and load it using the key on a computer box. Crapware-free! Then create a hard drive image, install Photoshop and run the test. I expect it to run fine given the results so far.

Then I'll repeatedly cycle through creating a hard drive image, installing next driver or software and installing Photoshop to test it 'till it fails. I know it will, since I will eventually end up with the same configuration I had when it would fail every time.

When it fails, I'll note what piece of code made a difference, and load the very first image I created. Then I'll load the offending code and check if it craps out when that's the only thing installed before Photoshop.

And then I'm planning to continue up the ladder to test other software 'till I get everything on my machine. I want to make sure there aren't other things that might also make it slow.

Thanks for the word of support guys, you are the ones keeping me going.

As Russel points out, there are still obstacles in the path that may trip up others, even if Ivan gets it up and running. I got mine up and running by ignoring the messages that I have 11 errors in the Download that now appear to be non-issues, but how do I know for sure? The two systems (one with no errors) run essentially identical. In fact the Dell, which had no errors, is slower than the one with errors, but it always has been slower.

These problems should be rarer than lipstick on a bear's butt, however, as Barry has suggested, they aren't.

I also want to thank Ivan for his persistence and for keeping us informed. :-)

iVan, so you had a slow photoshop CS4 in Vista 64 bits oem (SP1?) from HP, I guess, then installed a 32 bits version of the nVidia drivers, and it works flawlessly.
Ditto with a "standard" Vista 64 bits SP1, and what videocard driver in that case?

iVan,

I asked about the motherboard because I had a LOT of problems getting 8gb RAM to run stable on my system. I resolved the problem by switching to a motherboard from a different manufacturer. Try pulling 1/2 the system memory to see if that helps (once you get Vista64 reinstalled). Note that there are motherboard bios settings (memory remapping) on some systems that need to be enabled to work properly with more than 3-4gb RAM, though some mobos do it automatically without a bios setting.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/

Does your motherboard have a newer bios available? Most install disks that ship with PCs are old by the time the system delivers.

I assume you installed the Vista64 service pack (SP1) and all other updates before installing CS4?

Just a thought..

Russell :-)

One last update before I hit the sack @ 4:12 am:

Since my last post I found a clean 64 bit Vista iso online, and its almost fully downloaded (for those that havent been following I have a legal key). In the meantime I decided to test out the image that shipped with my machine and try that out.

Yeah, I said I didnt want the junk that ships with those, but since I had to wait for the download, what the heck. I figured Id try as Ill be reformatting in the morning anyway.

Well, I needed to install some updates and a service pack 1 to install Photoshop. Holy crap that SP1 takes forever!

But once I did (drum roll, please) I got speed!

Were on the right track. Ill reformat in the morning regardless (I dont want the trial anti-viruses and rectal enemas), and once I do, Ill take my time loading and testing to find the culprit.

At this point - still no clue what causes this. But Ill post as I narrow it down. At least something worked

Off to bed now

-iVan

b FIXED!!!

Those trying to catch up, start from a post # 297, and youll be in the loop.

The last statement in my previous post got me thinking; well, why dont I try loading the 32 bit driver for my card and try Ps at full res; see what happens then. I mean, what better thing can I do on a Friday night while waiting for a 64 bit OS?

So I downloaded the driver and installed it. Fired the Ps, made sure I check the OpenGL option in prefs; restarted and WHAM! Its running slicker than deer guts on a door knob!

OK, dont get yer hopes up; I havent figured out what makes it go ka-ka-coo-coo yet. As soon as I get a clean 64 bit Vista on my system Ill try the same, but something tells me itll be OK.

Then all I have to do is install one driver, one piece of software at the time and test till I find the culprit. This may take a day or two; it depends on how fast I can get my hands on a clean OS, and then Ill install, test and image; install, test and image. And on, and on, and on

It could be many things, my Wacom, Spyder calibrator, any of the myriad of cards I got in my machine (wireless, TV & radio tuner, card readers, etc), a bad piece of code in some software; well see.

The reason for imaging the Hard Drive is so I can compare the results of uninstalling the offending driver/software vs clean install once I know what it is. Given that so many have tried uninstalling suspicious stuff, maybe there is a bad registry entry that stays on even after the uninstall, hence the need for a full format.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Oh, and Russell, doubt its relevant now, but my motherboard is an HP 5189-1080.