I recently upgraded my computer to Windows XP Home from Windows 98SE.
Everything seems to be working pretty well except that editing digital
photos in PSP 9 seems to be extremely slow. I notice it more with larger
files, but I didn't have this problem with the same size files in 98.
Any ideas?

Sharon

sharonf wrote:
> I recently upgraded my computer to Windows XP Home from
> Windows 98SE. Everything seems to be working pretty well
> except that editing digital photos in PSP 9 seems to be
> extremely slow. I notice it more with larger files, but I
> didn't have this problem with the same size files in 98.
> Any ideas?

Most of us found it to work faster. Something is not right in your
new XP. Without more evidence than "it is slow," no one can tell
why. You can check a few likely candidates, though:

1. Do you have enough RAM? Win XP uses gobs more than 98 did.
Assuming you do not run other apps at the same time, PSP does fine
with 512 MB for photos up to 4 MPixels. That is very rough, of
course; it depends on what you do, especially how many layers you
create. If you suspect RAM, please write back with more about it and
the size and number of layers you typically edit.

2. Is this a new computer bought with XP preinstalled from a big
outfit like HP or Dell? If so, it probably came with dozens of
junkware programs, many of them set to start when Windows starts on
the pretentious assumption that they provide an invaluable
contribution to your computing XPerience <twisted grin>. They
consume memory and CPU cycles, possibly a great deal of them.

Start > Run, type msconfig. Look through the list on the Startup
tab. Windows runs fine with that list completely empty, but it
probably contains some programs that you want to start, like a
firewall and a virus checker. Anything you do not recognize? Type
its name into Google to find out what it is. Un-check it in msconfig
to temporarily prevent it from starting. See how PSP runs. Msconfig
is not intended to permanently remove programs, though. if you want
it out of there permanently, find the option in the program's own
dialogs.

3. Make a similar check with the Task Manager of the processes
running. Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring it. Look at the CPU and VM Size
columns on the Processes tab to see what is using CPU and memory.
View > Select Columns if necessary to get those columns. Google for
anything that you do not recognize. Most of them are parts of
Windows, but you may come across good candidates for removal.

4. Install a good spyware scanner. Run it periodically and whenever
you suspect trouble.

Please let us know what you find. With more specifics, someone may
recognize a problem with a known solution.
--
Fred Hiltz,  fhiltz at yahoo dot com

Fred Hiltz wrote:
> sharonf wrote:
> 
>
>
> Most of us found it to work faster. Something is not right in your
> new XP. Without more evidence than "it is slow," no one can tell
> why. You can check a few likely candidates, though:
>
> 1. Do you have enough RAM? Win XP uses gobs more than 98 did.
> Assuming you do not run other apps at the same time, PSP does fine
> with 512 MB for photos up to 4 MPixels. That is very rough, of
> course; it depends on what you do, especially how many layers you
> create. If you suspect RAM, please write back with more about it and
> the size and number of layers you typically edit.
I have 512 MB of ram installed on my computer.
>
> 2. Is this a new computer bought with XP preinstalled from a big
> outfit like HP or Dell? If so, it probably came with dozens of
> junkware programs, many of them set to start when Windows starts on
> the pretentious assumption that they provide an invaluable
> contribution to your computing XPerience <twisted grin>. They
> consume memory and CPU cycles, possibly a great deal of them.
No, this isn't a new computer. This is an existing computer that I
finally decided to upgrade to XP. I ran the upgrade adviser first and
got rid of the couple of software programs that might cause a problem. I
also updated my drivers as needed.
>
> Start > Run, type msconfig. Look through the list on the Startup
> tab. Windows runs fine with that list completely empty, but it
> probably contains some programs that you want to start, like a
> firewall and a virus checker. Anything you do not recognize? Type
> its name into Google to find out what it is. Un-check it in msconfig
> to temporarily prevent it from starting. See how PSP runs. Msconfig
> is not intended to permanently remove programs, though. if you want
> it out of there permanently, find the option in the program's own
> dialogs.

There were a few items listed under the startup tabs that I wasn't sure
about. I checked into them and then disabled them. They were related to
my sound card and to RealPlayer. They weren't under running processes in
98 so they apparently got installed in the upgrade.
>
> 3. Make a similar check with the Task Manager of the processes
> running. Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring it. Look at the CPU and VM Size
> columns on the Processes tab to see what is using CPU and memory.
> View > Select Columns if necessary to get those columns. Google for
> anything that you do not recognize. Most of them are parts of
> Windows, but you may come across good candidates for removal.
Nothing there that I positively know that I can remove. I'll check into
it further.
>
> 4. Install a good spyware scanner. Run it periodically and whenever
> you suspect trouble.
I have Ad-Aware and run it regularly.
>
> Please let us know what you find. With more specifics, someone may
> recognize a problem with a known solution.

Sharon

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:31:12 -0700, sharonf <me7@privacy.net> wrote:

Just jumping in and piggybacking to Sharon.

sharonf wrote:

>No, this isn't a new computer. This is an existing computer that I
>finally decided to upgrade to XP. I ran the upgrade adviser first and
>got rid of the couple of software programs that might cause a problem. I
>also updated my drivers as needed.

Adding to Fred's thoughts:

1. The speed of the older processor might slow down results.

2. Maybe the HD is close to capacity.

3. Maybe the cache needs to be bigger or smaller. (Smaller, if it's
taking up a large proportion of the HD space. Bigger, if it's not up
to sizes computer experts recommend.)

4. Maybe your older graphics card is slow/has inadequate video memory
for XP graphic-intense operations.

5 Did you Disk Cleanup your junk/temporary files and Disk Defrag?
(under Start menu/Programs/Accessories/System Tools). That might help.

I'd like to reassure you that PSP runs well in XP with 512MB memory.
There's something about *your* system that's preventing PSP from doing
its job correctly. Just keep on trying to rule out different causes
until you hit the right one(s).

--
Enjoy!
Dan

sharonf on 16/01/2006 wrote:

>No, this isn't a new computer. This is an existing computer that I finally
>decided to upgrade to XP. I ran the upgrade adviser first and got rid of
>the couple of software programs that might cause a problem. I also updated
>my drivers as needed.

You say you upgraded to XP from 98, did you by any chance install XP over
98?  If so this could be the problem.  Normally it is best to do a clean
install of the new OS then re-install all your programs.  There shouldn't
be a problem with compatibility of old programs that ran OK on old OS.  I
had one game that wouldn't run on XP, but, XP has compatibility mode and
once I change the properties of that game to run in 98 compatibility mode
it worked better than on 98.

--
Rob

http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/