ot - computer related question

[back alley]

i have a heavy duty version of norton anti virus that has regular updates.
i use spywareblaster, and 2 different anti spyware programs now.

i did not know i could check my memory so i will do that tonight when i get home.

thanks guys.
joe

 

[back alley]

Try increasing the maximum amount of ram ps is allowed to use (preferences -> memory & image cache).

ok, i upped the memory from 50% to 90%.

thanks,
joe

 

[back alley]

If it is a matter of "It was working and now it is not", I would first do a diagnostic on the memory I have before buying new memory.

Memtest86 is a free utilitly that you can use to test your existing RAM. They have ISO images available so you can burn a bootable cdrom.

Once you have determined that your existing memory is still good then go out and buy more memory. 256 meg is just not enough.

this memory test is beyond my meager skill level.

if i have it right i need to put what i download onto a cd and then run it from the cd, not from my hard drive, is that correct?

i don't suppose there are any memory tests that i could just click on from a website?

i will have to upgrade to 512 soon too.

joe

 

[back alley]

Check yout scratch drives in PS's preferences. You need a lot of ram for big images but a big empty scratch drive is just as important, the best you can do is to have a seperate partition on a hard drive you arent using whilst using photoshop (on a second hard disk, not a second partition of your primary drive), idealy with nothing but empty space in it. Fast drives are always better too of course. When I use heavy files with photshop I use a blank partition of my external hard drive as a scratch drive, since I only have a laptop and the HD in that in pretty slow 😉

Also if the problem is with your cache file filling up you might be able to just wait it out, event the application isnt responding if you wait half an hour or so it might sort itself out, but your best bet it to set up a large scratch drive and throw some ram at it, and photoshop will love you forever like a little puppy. Also, it likes to be walked outside at least once a day 😀

totally lost on this scratch disc thing.
it shows scratch disk one, two, three and four.
one has start up in it and the rest say none.

??
joe

 

[Doug]

i will have to upgrade to 512 soon too.

Joe, go for more than that if you can; 512 is none too much these days especially wth PS in mind, and it's gotten much more affordable. 🙂

In July I got two 1Gb RAM modules for $247...

 

[back alley]

if i recall correctly, i read that i can only upgrade to 512 on this machine.

joe

 

[Kin Lau]

If the machine is 5 years old, then the manual is correct "at the time of writing". Your machine will likely take more now that higher capacity chips are available.

I loaded up a 8mp jpeg under Photoshop Elements, and could see under task manager that usage is already 80megs just for PS. Loaded up another jpeg, created a layer and now it's up to 180megs. That's considering that Elements is simpler than the full version of PS.

Another 256meg of ram will only be about CDN$50-. Whatever you do, don't order it from Dell. They'll charge you twice as much.

 

[back alley]

i think costco has 'kingston' chips that fit my dell.

so kin, you're saying that in the same size slot i can now put a larger capacity chip?
and this won't blow up my machine?

joe

 

[Kin Lau]

i think costco has 'kingston' chips that fit my dell.

so kin, you're saying that in the same size slot i can now put a larger capacity chip?
and this won't blow up my machine?

joe

You got it.

 

[back alley]

very cool!

 

[back alley]

oh, maybe not.

i just found this on the kinston site...

-Although it is physically possible to install more memory, the system will only recognize 512MB. -

whatdya think?

joe

 

[Kin Lau]

was there a link?

 

[back alley]

kingston for dell 4300

joe

 

[Doug]

-Although it is physically possible to install more memory, the system will only recognize 512MB. -

Could be! I previously had a laptop with a 512Mb RAM limitation, even though larger modules could be put in. I got around this with a processor upgrade... the memory slots are on the processor's card, and the 3rd-party accelerator card allowed the comp to recognize 768Mb. That was a worthwhile benefit, never mind the faster CPU!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

It will only blow up if you use Volatile RAM.

 

[Socke]

Again, check your harddisk!

Open a command prompt, aka "DOS window", and enter "chkdsk /f /r" answer yes to the question and reboot your computer. It will check the harddisk for defects and try to recover damaged files when the computer reboots.

The probability for growing defects on a five year old harddisk is very high!

 

[Kin Lau]

kingston for dell 4300

joe

Too bad... guess you are stuck with 512 max. Looks like Kingston already did the testing. 512 will make a huge difference from 256 with PS. I only have 512 on my PS workstation, and it's working quite well.

 

[back alley]

Again, check your harddisk!

Open a command prompt, aka "DOS window", and enter "chkdsk /f /r" answer yes to the question and reboot your computer. It will check the harddisk for defects and try to recover damaged files when the computer reboots.

The probability for growing defects on a five year old harddisk is very high!

ok, tried this and when the scan is finished a blue screen comes up but disappears in a micro second.
i can read the first line that says ' a problem has been detected' but the screen is gone before i can read anything else.

very frustraing morning so far.

joe

 

[jaapv]

Another program that can check for hard-disk problems and also Windows mess is Norton Utilities. I couldn't be without it. I hope the following is not bad news for you: I scan at 5400 DPI and that generates up to 150 Mb Tiff files. Photoshop only started working decently when I had 2 Gb of Ram installed......

 

[Kin Lau]

ok, tried this and when the scan is finished a blue screen comes up but disappears in a micro second.
i can read the first line that says ' a problem has been detected' but the screen is gone before i can read anything else.

very frustraing morning so far.

joe

Reboot, hit "F8" when you see the F8 prompt. Select "Safe Mode Command Prompt", and then run "chkdsk /f /r".

This assumes you're on Windows 2000.

You might want to print this off or write it down first.