Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

iVan,

What brand and model of motherboard is in your system?

Russell

Streak of bad luck I guess. I didnt want to install the windows from the factory partition as its full of HP junk, so the guy gave me an install CD with a clean copy of Vista. I installed it using the key that shipped with my machine, only to find out its a 32 bit, not 64 @$#&!@^%#$

Another two hours wasted.

The shop is now closed, so I called Microsoft to see if theyd tell me where I can download a clean of copy Windows, since I already paid for it. Basically they said good luck.

So I found a torrent, but the damn thing is going to take me till morning to download, and I was hoping to get all this figured out by then.

Anyone know where I can get a legal copy of Windows Vista Home Premium edition 64 bit? I have a key, so I need a legal CD image or an install file. I couldnt find it on Microsoft site, and I'm looking to get it from a server, so I don't have to wait forever to DL it.

Again, I cant stress this enough; its LEGAL copy Im looking for. Dont send me links of sites with cracked stuff, I have a key that has been paid for. The version must be Vista Home Premium 64 bit cause thats what I had; I dont want to introduce too many variables or Ill never be able to tell where the problem was.

BTW, I got Photoshop to work fine on 32 bit Vista, but then I had no video card drivers installed, therefore no high-res and no 64 bit Photoshop. God only knows if the problem would be there at higher resolution, but I can't load the driver to test since it's for a 64 bit OS.

iVan, I wish you luck. Please keep us posted!

Here is a SitRep:

-Successfully eliminated the video card as an issue; we tried cards from different vendors (all from the Adobes safe cards list), and made sure we loaded the latest drivers. So its definitely NOT the video card (at least in my case). We even flashed the motherboard and tried both video cards again, just in case its a combination of a motherboard driver/video card in the system. Still slow.

-As suggested by the guy at the shop (he said he fixed someone elses issue this way), I installed a new power supply as the previous one was somewhat on the wimpy side. By somewhat I mean a LOT, and by wimpy I mean it was crap; it was a surprise the machine was even running (and to think the shop actually sold this computer with all the hardware and not put a power supply that can run it???). It did solve the problem of my pocked hard drives not having enough juice to power up from USB. Now theyre running faster then a chicken through Ethiopia. However, CS4 is still slow.

-Ran a heavy cocktail of virus checks. I was surprised to discover that 13 viruses were identified, especially given the fact this was a 10 day old Windows installation and I have Kaspersky running on it. However, it turned out that some of those viruses werent viruses, but bona-fide system files operating some of the add-on hardware (like my monitor calibrator). I had an erronious detection and a premature deletion. And now that hardware doesnt work. SC4 still slow.

-Reimaged my hard drive to an early installation state. Updated the drivers, installed CS4 - nada! Slow as usual. The only thing that speeds it up is lowering the resolution; then it runs fine. But I want my pixels back, dammit.

-Now, the only thing I never tried was to completely reformat the hard drive, install Vista, load the drivers, update and then install CS4 ONLY. The thing is that my computer didnt ship with a restore CD; instead it has that factory partition thing HP puts on with a ton of crapware. So I got myself a copy of Vista 64 Home Premium (what I got with the machine in a first place) and Im installing it now. Once its done, Ill load the latest video card driver, update Vista and install Photoshop.

If that doesnt fix the issue, Ill start pulling out my RAM modules, one by one, and look into that.

If that doesnt work, Ill start pulling my hair, one by one, and see if that works. If not, then teeth, then eyeballs, etc, etc

Now, Im determined to at least locate the source of the problem. I may not be able to fix it, but Ill find what the culprit is cause I want to tell Adobe so they can fix it. It smells like motherboard teen spirit right now, but Ill know for sure once I tried everything else. If you guys have any suggestions on what else I might try that I havent thunk of, I wanna hear about it. So keep posting; I get the replies to my phone and I read them all.

Cheers

>Even my Dell laptop which was sold as "Vista Capable" (and followed by a "free" Vista upgrade) won't run it properly.

there's a lawsuit in progress over the whole vista capable debacle and emails from intel and microsoft are taking current stage. google if you're interested...

Hugh, thanks for the post and I agree with your assesment for the most part. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who've been able to make CS4 work very smoothly withpout having to disable features. As a bonus, CS4 GL features work flawlessly on my dual monitor setup (Dell 2005W) even though the read me file says this is unsupported in WIN XP:). BTW, I'm using a vintage NVidia 6800 card w/512 MB RAM.

Ivan, I can relate! I've spent the better part of three weeks (as time allowed) troubleshooting not only PS but other issues related to Windows. Ultimately, HP printer drivers (and a dying processor!) were found to be at fault. The failure of HP to update drivers and related software since the initial release (and dealing with marginal outsourced tech support) is frustrating to say the least.

As an aside, I did eliminate a bad RAM module from consideration as per very good (non outsourced) tech support from Crucial. You'd never know a stick was bad unless you go through a systematic testing process. Symptoms are similar to a dying processor (in my case ultimately caused by malfunctioning cooling fan) so a RAM intensive program like PS can be very much affected in strange ways.

I've certainly had my share of specific issues with CS2 when it first landed on my desktop several years ago. Fortunately, Adobe engineers, especially Scott Byer, were responsive and ultimately released an update that addressed my issues, as well as others. Thank you! I suspect we'll see an update to CS4 that addresses the performance problems some folks seem to be experiencing.

But I further suspect Adobe will *in part* be creating work arounds to buggy harware drivers and a bogus Vista operating system which was highly touted as a cure all for everyone, including folks such as myself who are still running vintage machines. What a fraudulent dud!Even my Dell laptop which was sold as "Vista Capable" (and followed by a "free" Vista upgrade) won't run it properly. Obviously, Adobe has their work cut out for them but based upon past experience they're up to the task.

Crashes always are symptoms of something. The crash is frequently the goal in testing parameters.

There was an issue in the past (around '99) with Asus P2B -D* series motherboards, in their first revision, as Photoshop was taxing the memory path so much that it crashed on the older revisions of the mobos.

The crash in Photoshop was a
b symptom
, not the
b cause
of the problem.

That's just the thing, Lawrence. When the guy at the shop told me about the power supply being an issue with slow PSCS, I too was skeptical. But then he called me to tell me my machine was working. I was getting ready to buy him doughnuts; power supply - who knew!!! Pure genius!!!But then I found out the problem wasn't fixed after all.

So I dunno. Maybe he did fix the other dude's machine with a new power supply, maybe he didn't; I'll never know. But I promised I'd relay the score (Photoshop-1, me-0), so I just passed along what he said. I will keep the pwr supply though.

He seemed beat when he realized he didn't solve the issue. But he seems determined to make this thing go away, so I'm hopeful.

And Nick, as I stated in the other thread, I wasn't talking about you in particular. I did feel pissy about that other dude's replies to your posts, though.

EDIT:

I am now wondering if it may be the motherboard. Oh man, this issue just keeps getting more and more convoluted. I guess I have to put flashing the MB on a to-do list if we come up short.

Power supplies are cut and dried. They either work or they don't. I doubt, except for spiky ones, that they would make any difference in these sorts of things.

Now, if you were having these problems intermittently, or a funny startup that is cured by a quick reboot, (or you smell smoke!), I would look to the PS. Other than that, they should be fine.