Vista, PS, & the angry woman wielding a sledge hammer

[AnnieBananie]

I don't get it... from day 1 on Vista (*grumbling obscenities @ the very name*) Photoshop doesn't like the speed at which I work and closes itself down unexpectedly (well, it's becoming "expectedly" now... ). I had 2 logo jobs get half wiped out... I say half because now and again, I manage to remember to save. I can't even count all of the LO's that had to be redone.

I'm a paranoid "housekeeper" when it comes to the computer so it's regularily scanned for viruses, cleaned of all of my "junk", the registry stays tidy, etc. etc. etc. We got this computer in July so it's not HORRIBLY outdated.

I reinstalled Photoshop for another issue but it still does it. I run Photoshop as an Administrator... still does it. I run Photoshop as a lowly bar wench... still does it. I curse at Vista and threaten to make it rue the day it was spawned from Bill Gates' unkempt loins... still does it.

My last option, and I really see no other option, is to gather up my CPU, fly out to Redmond, Washington, find the Microsoft headquarters building and lob the flippin' thing through the front doors. TAKE THAT BIIIIILLLYYYY!!


Seriously though, what can I do?... Well, besides work slower, too impatient and ADHD for that.

[meems]

what version of Photoshop?
what kind of Vista?

[meems]

Originally Posted by AnnieBananie

Seriously though, what can I do?... Well, besides work slower, too impatient and ADHD for that.

Save every time you do something?

[Libby Pritchett]

LOL! You're so vague, Annie... I'm having trouble determining how you REALLY feel about it?

Dude, I don't know what to tell you. I'm one of the few who actually loves Vista. I haven't had any trouble at all running PS (I've run PSE as well as CS3 and CS4 -- not all at the same time). Sometimes it does stop and "think" for a minute, but I rarely lose what I'm working on (seriously, I can count on one hand the number of times I've lost something this year -- knock on wood).

How much RAM do you have? Vista is a huge memory hog. On my old computer, PS used to shut down all the time because I was low on RAM. How much space have you allotted for PS to use? I can't remember the exact command, but I think it's under EDIT then Preferences. And you can change the % of space that your computer allows PS to use. I have mine raised way up there.

[AnnieBananie]

Originally Posted by meems

what version of Photoshop?
what kind of Vista?

Photoshop CS3 and Vista Home (Service Pack 1)

[AnnieBananie]

Originally Posted by meems

Save every time you do something?

LOL What a PITA! I was hoping it wouldn't be that.

[KirstieGai]

I was going to say RAM too. I was having the same problem until I installed more RAM.

[jessica31876]

with PSP you have an option to automatically save. So basically I can go in and click the option to save every minute or five minutes or ten or whatever and if I shut down unexpectedly everything is saved just how it was. Is that an option on PS?

[ColleenSwerb]

That sucks man! I'm like Libby, I actually like Vista.

[sprauncey1]

All I can say is...I'm sorry!! Sounds like a office space scene!!

[AnnieBananie]

I have 6GB of RAM... the old computer only had 1 but ran on XP... I never had issues. I didn't realize Vista was a memory hog like Libby said though... meh, oh well. I'll tinker with the memory allocation and such in Photoshop and see if it helps...

[Becca Bonneville]

Sorry you are having troubles! That would be very annoying! I too have PS and Vista and no problems. And believe me I do A LOT of work in PS.

[ColleenSwerb]

But, I have 3gb of RAM and Vista on my 9month old laptop and don't have this problem Annie.

ETA: I usually have firefox (with at least 4 tabs open), ACDSee, and PS open while I'm scrapping. Plus Y!M and a window with tabs there. And very rarely do I have a problem, and that's usually only if it's been left on overnight.

[AnnieBananie]

Originally Posted by BrodoNY0123

But, I have 3gb of RAM and Vista on my 9month old laptop and don't have this problem Annie.

*strokes imaginary beard* WTH, then...

[Libby Pritchett]

Yep, I only have 3GB on my laptop and run Vista/PS. So 6GB should be more than enough.

I think you just broke it.

[Amber1279]

I am with Libby .... I love my Vista (Ultimate) & CS2. I have 2 Gigs of RAM and everything gets saved on my EHD not on my laptop. The most it does is freeze to "think" but if I just don't touch anything it will come right back. It happens when I have been doing a lot ... like on my 5th layout yesterday it did it.

Check your RAM and make sure nothing else is running in the background

[Tracie Stroud]

I hate to tell you this, but I could not get Vista to work with Photoshop at all. I have CS2 and we got a brand-spanking new quad-core computer with more RAM than you could fit in a car, and PS and Vista still hated each other. It would lock up at least 2 or 3 times a day, and I lost LOTS of layouts and designs because of it. My dh finally just took Vista off and installed XP instead, and we've had no more trouble out of it. I hope you can get it worked out!

[Amber1279]

wow 6G of Ram ... next question .... do you have a dual core processor??

[ColleenSwerb]

Tracie that's so weird, cuz I'm running CS2 still.

It's so funny how individual machines can act up.

[ColleenSwerb]

Oh hey, didn't someone say that too much RAM sometimes comfusing things? Bree I think? Maybe? Anyone....?

[Tracie Stroud]

I wish it would work! I LOVED Vista. It was just so cool with all the neato features! I was only able to use it about a week, but I miss it.

[AnnieBananie]

Originally Posted by Amber1279

wow 6G of Ram ... next question .... do you have a dual core processor??

Yep

[kscwgirl]

yah I have 2gb of ram and vista and I run cs2 fine, along w/ firefox and yahoo messenger. My ps sometimes runs really slow when it has been open forever but rebooting solves the problem.

[Brooke W]

About all I can add to this is that there are versions of PS that are incompatible with Vista and that could be the culprit.

[meems]

Originally Posted by AnnieBananie

Photoshop CS3 and Vista Home (Service Pack 1)

Vista Home Basic or Home Premium?

I run CS3 on Vista Home Premium. Occasionally it stalls but for the most part works fine. I always have ACDSee open too. And usually Firefox.

I likey Vista too.

eta: I only have 2gb ram.

[Tracie Stroud]

Originally Posted by Brooke W

About all I can add to this is that there are versions of PS that are incompatible with Vista and that could be the culprit.

Yeah, I keep trying to convince dh that getting CS4 would solve all our problems. For some reason he's not buying it.

[ditzyscrap]

Originally Posted by BrodoNY0123

Oh hey, didn't someone say that too much RAM sometimes comfusing things? Bree I think? Maybe? Anyone....?

I don't know about it confusing things, but a computer can only actually USE 3-4GB of RAM. Anything above that it doesn't know what to do with.

[Susan Bartolini]

It is no secret here that I think Vista is a piece of SHIT. Yeah, I said it. I too designed for 3 years on my old trusty Dell with XP. I had CS, CS2, and CS3 on that thing with no problems. I then decided to "upgrade" to a blazing fast Vista machine (4 GB ram, Nvidia graphics card, 1 TB HD) and the damn thing never worked right. I had problems from day one. It was slow, would randomly shut down, lock up and sometimes, if I was really lucky, it would need a restart and the shut down process alone would take an hour. Yes, an hour.

I angrily started doing research on this phenomenon only to discover that this is oh-so common with Vista. The damn operating system was not ready for primetime and they released it anyway.

End of the story - I went out and bought a Mac. And guess what? It works. From day one. No problems. I love this thing and will never look back. It is so funny, when I went to the Apple Store and bought my Mac, I told the sales person my story, and he laughed and said Vista has been the number one sales-driver of new Macs. UGH.

It is true that Vista is a major memory hog and PS is also memory intensive. I am not sure what your options are....maybe you could get a copy of XP and install that instead. Just know that I feel your pain and I curse the day Bill Gates allowed Vista to go to market.

Susan

[Susan Bartolini]

Originally Posted by ditzyscrap

I don't know about it confusing things, but a computer can only actually USE 3-4GB of RAM. Anything above that it doesn't know what to do with.

Bree, not sure where you got that....I have 6 GB of RAM in my Mac (which holds 32 GB max) and there was a significant jump in performance from 4GB to 6GB. Now, granted, I run PS, ILL, Bridge, and Lightroom at the same time....so my computer definitely uses all 6 GB to run.

Susan

[aggiefamily]

Vista can only read about 3.5G of RAM. Mine has 4 (because they only offered 2 or 4) and PSCS3 runs fine.

Have you gotten all updates from adobe? What drive is PS on and is it a drive that has a billion other things on it?

And what graphics card do you have?

[newfiemountiewife]

Originally Posted by Libby Weifenbach

Dude, I don't know what to tell you. I'm one of the few who actually loves Vista. I haven't had any trouble at all running PS (I've run PSE as well as CS3 and CS4 -- not all at the same time). Sometimes it does stop and "think" for a minute, but I rarely lose what I'm working on (seriously, I can count on one hand the number of times I've lost something this year -- knock on wood).

Me too, and I have not lost anything yet since I got this laptop in March. I'm running CS3 (soon to be 4, once I upgrade).

I am using Windows Vista Ultimate and 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB HD. I love Vista, and wish I could put it on my PC also.

I am not sure what the problem is Annie, but my old lappie was like that with CS2 and I just wanted to give it a toss in Billy's window too LOL

[Paula]

Just another reason I switched over to Mac. lol

[scarletsierra]

I've heard lots of complaints about Vista and PS not running terribly well together. Others seem to have no problems. I'm a chickenpoop, so I didn't want to chance problems and when I had my new computer built insisted on keeping my XP.

GL! Hope it gets sorted soon!

[emilyscout]

I have 2GB of RAM on my laptop and vista and I do have a similar problem. Sometimes when its trying to process something(like a free transformation) it has to think a little bit to do it. If I try clicking on other stuff in photoshop it does that "not responding" thing and then a blow up and die thing. I have found that if I just let it finish processing whatever it is doing then it usually finishes on its own and it doesn't bomb out.

eta: I heard that cs4 upgrade has done some coding to fix some of the vista and cs3 hiccups.

[AnnieBananie]

Turning the memory allocation down a touch seems to have helped. Thanks girls