[busymama]

I have been using photoshop cs3 for about 2 years on my current computer. About a month ago, it started running more slowly. When I crop, save a jpg or png file, or run certain actions, it used to take just a few seconds for the process to happen. Now a green progress bar appears and it quickly gets to the halfway point but takes a few minutes to complete the process. I can't figure out why.

Last night I downloaded anti-spyware and anti-malware programs and ran them. I had used up most of my hard drive storing photos, but a month ago I got an external drive and removed most of them so I now have 56.8 GB free on my C drive. I scanned my disk and defragmented last night as well. My computer does seem faster overall since doing all of that, but it didn't change the problem in CS3.

I found an old thread on here that said to change preferences in photoshop to increase the RAM that photoshop can use. I set mine at the maximum number of the desired range.

Any ideas? Thank you in advance for whatever you may be able to offer.

[Noyb]

Originally Posted by busymama

Wow! I think I just figured out how to solve my problem with my slow-running cs3.

How ???
I couldn't think of anything to tell you ..


And welcome to the TSG Forum

[busymama]

Thanks. Maybe if I uninstall it and reinstall it? I don't really want to do it if I don't have to, but maybe?

I found one of your posts that I really think would fix it...at a price. I just need CS5!

[Noyb]

Let's try something ...

Turn your computer OFF.
Unplug the power cord from the wall ..
Press n Hold the power switch for about 15 seconds.
Plug it back in and Boot it.

When It's running again ..
Hold down all three Ctrl+Alt+Shift buttons
While keeping those button held ... open Photoshop or a file that opens with Photoshop
As Photoshop loads, you should get a prompt asking if you would like to "delete the Photoshop settings file",
Click Yes ..

Let me know so I can uncross my fingers

[busymama]

Thank you so much for your reply. I tried this and instead of a prompt to delete the Photoshop settings file, I got a box that pops up "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Properties". It has tabs (Security, Details, Previous Versions, General, Shortcut, and Compatibility) and opened on the Shortcut tab. I looked under all of the tabs, but there was no reference to "photoshop settings file" that I could find. Under previous versions, there are no previous versions. Thank you again for trying to help me with this.

[Noyb]

CTRL+ALT+SHIFT ... And open a picture in Photoshop ..
You should see this ... or this ...

[busymama]

Mine must be really screwed up. I hold down Ctrl, Alt, and Shift while trying to open a jpg, and it won't open. Nothing happens. Actually, it flashes a message of some sort in the box that has all of the jpg thumbnails that I am picking from, but it's so fast I can't read it all. It does not look like what you posted. So then I try to click on open and quickly press Ctrl, Alt, and Shift simultaneously, and it just opens the jpg anyway. I thought maybe that had something to do with my preference being set for my jpg files to open in camera raw, so I went into Adobe Bridge and changed my preference there so that now my jpg files just open in photoshop without opening camera raw, but it made no difference. Am I doing it right? I need to hold down ctrl, alt, and shift all at the same time and try to open a jpg or other photoshop file? This is so frustrating. Thank you for helping me. I truly do appreciate it.

[Noyb]

Can you open Photoshop directly without opening a picture ???
And don't do it in the Bridge.

Am I doing it right? I need to hold down ctrl, alt, and shift all at the same time and try to open a jpg or other photoshop file
Correct .. try something other than a jpeg also

[busymama]

I click on the PS icon to open photoshop, and bridge is not set to automatically open. Then I click file>open in photoshop. I will try to open other photoshop files. Be right back.

[busymama]

I tried it again, many times, with bridge closed. If I click on open and get a box of thumbnails, then pick one and click the open button, it flashes a message (something with x and y and numbers) and then nothing happens. If I click file>open recent> and pick a file off the list (doesn't seem to matter if it's a jpg, psd, or png file), the file just opens as if ctrl alt shift weren't being held down.

I think I'm going to resort to uninstalling and reinstalling it. I looked for my actions folder on my c drive under program files>adobe>adobe photoshop cs3>presets>actions. I found a folder, but I don't recognize any of the things in there as names of actions I have. I wrote a few actions myself, nothing very complicated that I couldn't do again, but if I could find these and save them someplace that'd be easier. Any ideas where those could be found? Thank you again for all of your assistance.

I listed myself as a beginner, and that's really where I am with computers. It is amazing what someone with so little computer knowledge can do when there are people like you who will answer questions and post things online. I can be a complete idiot who just knows how to google and follow some directions, and I can get pretty far with that. Thanks again.

[busymama]

I think I found the answer about my actions. I figured out how to save the sets of actions from photoshop into another folder on my computer. Now I just need to uninstall and reinstall it. Thank you again for all of your help.

[busymama]

Arrrgh!!! I uninstalled photoshop completely. Now I'm trying to reinstall it. I have the original disk and all of the packaging that came with it when I bought it. It is not asking me for any serial number or anything like that. It installs only one part, and says it has a failure for installing CS3. Why? I've attempted to install it 3 times after uninstalling everything there before each attempt.

[Noyb]

Do you have your Dell Vista recovery DVDs ????

While waiting on someone with a better idea to stop by ..
I might suggest .. Get a copy of HDTune Free ..
and run an Error Test on the HDD ... This may take several hours.

[busymama]

Yes. I have all of the CD/DVDs that came with my computer.

I'll try the HDTune error test. But first I'm going to get any important files off in case I really mess it up.

Thanks. I really appreciate all of your help.

[chuckinsocal]

Hi Busymama,

I had the same problem with PS CS3 slowing to a crawl. What I found is that I had installed another hard drive earlier to archive photos and such and I changed the Scratch Drive under Photoshop Preferences to the new drive thinking Photshop would have all the room in the world for scratch purposes.

I later found that the new drive was defective and was running incredibly slow. This slowed down PS when it went to read or write on the scratch drive. I changed the scratch drive back to the C: drive and PS started running like a champ again.

I hope this helps some. Good luck with your reinstallation. I wish I had some wisdom on that but I just don't. Sorry.

Chuck Cannova
www.socalimages.com