iMac runs slowly in Photoshop

Hi all,

I have a fairly new iMac (mid-2008 20'' model) with a 2.4ghz Intel processor. I am a web designer and use this machine every day for my work. Several months after installing Adobe Creative Suite 3, I noticed that Photoshop was causing the cursor to jump and/or become jerky, as if the video card or processor were not keeping up with what's going on. This tends to happen after the computer's been in use for several hours or days after a restart, and it gets so bad I can't work. I have been following this in Leopard's Activity Monitor, and I noticed that Photoshop (being memory- and processor- hungry) taxes the processor more heavily than many other programs, which I expected. The strange thing, though, is that over time the Activity Monitor shows the ''System'' as taking up more and more processor capacity. I.E. when I first start up, the system is using 0-20% of the processor, the rest being available for the user; but after awhile, the system is requiring 50-90% of processor capacity, the result being that as soon as I switch into Photoshop from another program, the system is immediately overtaxed and starts moving very slowly (especially the cursor, as I said).



Now, here's the really strange part. As I said, this began happening a few months after I first installed Adobe CS3. I re-installed the software at Adobe's recommendation, and it was fine for another few months, but it began happening a few days ago, which is exactly the same time I shared a jump drive with a friend's worm-infected Windows XP machine. I know Macs don't get Windows worms, but is it possible that this thing has lodged itself on my system somehow and is causing it to run generally more slowly?



I appreciate any help you can give,

Nathan
iMac runs slowly in Photoshop
iMacs suck for Photoshop that's why many of the folk here advise against getting them for pro use.
iMac runs slowly in Photoshop
What is it about them that suck, and which one would you recommend for pro use: the Mac Pro?

Yup.

Apart from that sucking sound, have you tried doing the normal maintenance tasks that all computers need?



How long is it since you Repaired Permissions, or ran Cocktail and DiskWarrior?



And how much free space do you have on your HD?



Also CS3 and Leopard are not exactly the best of friends.

Hi Ann,

Thanks for responding! I've done disk utility, but have so far come up with no errors (although I have expected to find some). I have never repaired permissions or done Cocktail or DiskWarrior. I am not familiar with these; what can you tell me about them?



I have about 75% free space, so that isn't the problem.



As to CS3 and Leopard, I concur. CS3 is the only bit of software that gives me any significant trouble. Have you heard anything about CS4 being better on that score?



Thanks again!

If I can run Photoshop CS3 smoothly under Leopard on my MacBook Pro 2.3 GHz Core 2 Duo with 3 GB RAM, I don't see why you can't run it just fine on a 2.4 GHz iMac. Sure, it's no Mac Pro, but the behavior you describe is not normal. And no, there is no way the Windows worm has anything to do with this. Check out basic maintenance via Ann's suggestions above. Also, you should have a Scratch Disk separate from the iMac's internal HD, such as a firewire external, with 100 GB of free space, and not used to store your documents that are being worked on. In addition, have you recently installed any other suspect software or apps that may be causing trouble?

Also, Photoshop is resource-intensive: Unlike email or internet, it really demands a lot out of the computer. Sooner or later, you will need Disk Warrior. Might as well buy it.

Repair permissions is done through Disk Utility so you probably have done that.



Cocktail (which you can download but which is not free) is used to clean out caches and do other essential maintenance tasks. Or there is Onyx which can do something similar and which is a free download.



DiskWarriot is an essential tool. it is not free and you do need to buy it on a CD (Apple stores stock it).



It is used to repair damaged directories.



You should run it whenever you do a major software installation and every couplel of months after that or whenever the computer begins to feel sluggish.



I am running CS4 on Tiger but there don't seem to be as many problems being reported with CS4 as there were for CS3 by people who are running it on Leopard.

Gary-- thanks for the advice. On my current set-up, I have a FireWire external (320GB) which I use for Time Machine only. If I set this as my scratch disk, you're saying this should improve performance? And if so, should I partition this drive before making it the scratch disk.



As far as ''suspect'' apps, I did install Audacity (for music recording) as well as attempting to install some drivers for a USB microphone system, which would not install correctly. I don't know if those are known to cause problems. And generally speaking, I have installed quite a lot of software ( I installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled CS3 due to problems) without ever running DiskWarrior or any other utility. Maybe this is my problem.



Ann -- I'll be looking into these products. If I'm using them, do you think it'll help keep the computer running for longer periods of time (given that I'm on it, with the entire CS3 suite open, for 8 hours a day)? The thing is, I used to rarely restart, but now I'm having to do it more often.

Oh, and the other thing is, I use many history states in Photoshop. I often need to go back, so given my 4GB of RAM, I moved up to 60 history states. I assume this taxes the system more heavily, but it seems I have a bigger problem.

If you run Cocktail last thing at night it will do the regular, and essential, maintenance that the Mac OSX Cron Scripts would do if you left the computer running 24/7; and can be set to shut down the computer automatically when it has completed its tasks.

I still advocate Repairing Permissions (with Apple's Disk Utility) before AND after any system update or upgrade, as well as before AND after installing any software that requires an installer that asks for your password.



I have seen software installations go sour because the installer did not find everything as and where it should be.



I have also seen software installations go bad because the installer did not clean up after itself properly and did not leave everything as and where it should be.



This is just my own personal opinion and practice based on my own observations. Others may disagree and that's OK. I can only base my routines and my advice to others on my own experience and conclusion. I don't pretend to know why others believe otherwise.






Repairing Permissions after the fact (i. e. not immediately before and after an install) may NOT help. Try it anyway, though.



====



Additionally, if your machine does not run 24/7 so that it runs the daily, weekly and monthly Cron Scripts in the middle of the night as intended by Apple, run Cocktail (shareware) as well.



Cron Scripts are maintenance routines designed by Apple to run on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in the middle of the night.



If you don't run them, you WILL run into trouble, sooner rather than later.



Here's an excerpt from the Apple tech doc http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388



Mac OS X performs background maintenance tasks at certain times if the computer is not in sleep mode. If your computer is shut down or in sleep at the designated times, the maintenance does not occur. In that case, you may want or need to run these manually.

Mac OS X periodically runs background tasks that, in part, remove system files that are no longer needed. This includes purging older information from log files or deleting certain temporary items. These tasks do not run if the computer is shut down or in sleep mode. If the tasks do not run, it is possible that certain log files (such as system.log) may become very large.

Also, from: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106978



The disk activity generated by find is a normal part of file system maintenance, used for tasks such as removing invisible temporary files that are used by the system. It is scheduled to occur early in the morning at 03:15 everyday, 04:30 on Saturdays, and 05:30 on the first day of each month.



NOTE:
There have been comments to the effect that Apple ''fixed'' this in 10.4.2 and later versions of the OS, but I have not been able to verify this to my satisfaction. The reference in the 10.4.2 release notes are far from explicit on this subject.



= = =



If you have DiskWarrior, run it regularly too.

Thanks Ramon.

I never shut my computer down at night, but I usually put it into sleep mode. I guess it's saying this will prevent the maintenance from taking place. If I leave the computer running as normal when I leave it at night, I suppose this does the trick-- even though it eventually enters sleep mode automatically?



Nathan

%26gt;If I leave the computer running as normal when I leave it at night, I suppose this does the trick-- even though it eventually enters sleep mode automatically?



Nope. If the computer is sleeping, the Cron Scripts do not run. It doesn't matter when it began to sleep or how.

There is

b NO

need to manually run the cron jobs in Leopard.



With Leopard, if the computer is sleeping or off when the crons are supposed run, they will run the next time the machine is started up.



-phil

Ann,

%26gt;DiskWarriot is an essential tool. it is not free and you do need to buy it on a CD (Apple stores stock it).



When I last upgraded DiskWarrior as a download, I followed Alsoft's instructions for creating a bootable disc. But, buying a disc instead is, of course, one less thing to do.



Neil

%26gt; if the computer is sleeping or off when the crons are supposed run, they will run the next time the machine is started up.



That's what they claimed with 10.4.2and it turned out to be an unsubstantiated assertion.



I cannot vouch for the stinky Leopard one way or another.

%26gt; That's what they claimed with 10.4.2and it turned out to be an unsubstantiated assertion.



It absolutely works in Leopard. This is easily verifiable by checking the logs in Console. (/var/log - daily.out, weekly.out, monthly.out)



%26gt; I cannot vouch for the stinky Leopard one way or another.



Of course not - you've never used it. Leopard is not the ogre it's made out to be by some of you.



-phil

%26gt; When I last upgraded DiskWarrior as a download, I followed Alsoft's instructions for creating a bootable disc. But, buying a disc instead is, of course, one less thing to do.



Neil:



As I recall it, I did have to have the original CD in order to create an upgraded CD from the downloadable Upgrade software.

Nathan - In your original post you stated that things slowed down after several hours or days of use. Therefore your hardware is able to run PS CS3 fine. You have a hardware or software problem. If none of the things mentioned above work reinstall your system (download a combo installer for the latest version of your system, the whole thing will take under an hour) and if that doesn't work your software.



Try Disk Warrior



If that doesn't work a completely clean drive and reinstall everything.



If that doesn't work take your machine into Apple for repair.

Ann,

%26gt;As I recall it, I did have to have the original CD...



Exactly.



Neil

Hi Larry,

That's what I suspected: my machine can run PS just fine-- until my system starts hogging so much CPU capacity that none's left for PS. I don't get the ''jerky cursor'' until I'm at that point with the system, where it's hogging the CPU. Restarting PS doesn't work at that point, because the problem is with the system itself.



Good news, though, in that I ran OnyX and did ''repair permissions'' thru Disk Utility, and the machine seems more zippy so far. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll get Disk Warrior or get ProCare for the Genius Bar.

Get iFreeMem and vacuum out your RAM occasionally. That will probably fix it if you are running Safari a lot.

Phil,

%26gt;Of course not - you've never used it



That is a flat out lie, Phil Shock.

Leopard is arguably and easily
the worst OS ever released by Apple.

What makes it the worst?

It's working fine here and I run a lot of stuff all the time.

Just a sample of Leopard's history if you haven't been following it:



http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c055588/



It has taken SIX upgrades and it still has problems so Apple is apparently abandoning it and bringing us a whitewashed version which is to be called Snow Leopard.



Those of us who are lucky enough to have machines that can run Tiger (OSX 10.4.11 have been spared the Leopard trauma.

FWIW I'm reminded by Ann that Tiger had ELEVEN upgrades.

Yes, but Tiger was pretty solid from 10.4.3 onwards as I recall and just got better and CS3 has been pretty trouble-free running on it too.



The problem with Leopard and the CS3 Suite is that Apple made major changes to the basic structure long after seeding it to the developers like Adobe.



When CS3 was almost ready to ship, Apple moved its goal posts, which is why the CS3 programs have had continuous problems running on Leopard and still do.

Leopard in and of itself is OK as an OS. It has some nice bells and whistles, but it has taken Apple 6 updates to provide a stable environment to run our favorite Adobe apps. Even now people are having trouble installing Adobe software in Leopard.



So I'm willing to agree that Leopard is the worst OS so far. That's not saying 10.5.6 isn't so bad. Its just not all that great and the lack of stability is with InDesign is stopping me plus the fact that Epson is not updating the 2200 drivers.

And yes I have Leopard.

Leopard is NOT that bad and the instabilities described are grossly exaggerated. Most users do not have problems. In here you only hear those who do have problems (like at MaxFixIt as well). Remember that. The ones without problems are usually silent.

%26gt; That is a flat out lie, Phil Shock.



Right ... I'm actually

i lying

about your Leopard experience because that would benefit me in so many ways ... 8/



Whatever, Castaneda. You've never mentioned using it that I recall and I'm fairly certain you haven't bought it - you're obviously not running it on your ancient G4. Maybe cursory glances with your wife's Macbook? (which you also hate as I recall) .... feel free to enlighten me about your vast Leopard experience. What

b specifically

don't you like about it?



%26gt; Leopard is arguably and easily the worst OS ever released by Apple.



No. It's not.



Buko-

%26gt; ...the lack of stability is with InDesign is stopping me plus the fact that Epson is not updating the 2200 drivers.



I can't speak for stability with InDesign because I don't use it much but everything else I use is (and has been) rock solid. And the NON-updated Epson 2200 driver works just fine with Leopard - as well as it did in 10.4 anyway.



I totally agree that there's no

i highly compelling

reason to upgrade to Leopard, but the little things do add up. I love the ability to view content in the Finder - movies, images, PDFs, etc., without the need to open an app. Spotlight works fantastically - huge improvement over the version in 10.4. Networking has been much improved, Mail is much better, and on and on .... as I said, there's no killer feature but the combined overall improvements make the upgrade worthwhile.



FWIW - I use both 10.4 and 10.5 on a daily basis - 10.4 on a G5 Quad at work, and 10.5 on my Mac Pro at home. I prefer 10.5.



Ann-

%26gt; Just a sample of Leopard's history if you haven't been following it:



C'mon, that proves nothing. You could find similar threads about every OS released in addition to every version of Photoshop released. There will always be problems that may or may not be related to the software - and people will post about them.



The only real issue I recall with PSCS3/10.5 was the text input glitch that was rectified with 10.5.2. I've been using 10.5 full-time since then and haven't suffered

b ANY

of the ''trauma'' you mentioned.



%26gt; ... so Apple is apparently abandoning it and bringing us a whitewashed version which is to be called Snow Leopard.



If only other developers would follow suit. Imagine if Adobe would concentrate on actual performance improvements, rather than worthless bells and whistles (adjustment layer panel, anyone?), that cater to the newbie because the bean counters know new features and dumbing down the app will move more product. There are improvements in CS4 that make it worthwhile of course, but it's obvious that some stuff is only there for a perceived sales increase.



Only Apple has the guts to pull this off and I say good for them.



-phil

Shock,



Why on Earth would I have to report to you every time I work on any machine, not just my own?



Never mind, don't answer that rhetorical question.



Your post is easily one of the most presumptuous posts I have read anywhere.



Not to worry, that was the last post of yours I ever saw.

Most compelling feature of Leopard: Time Machine. Freakin' amazing. It has saved my butt a couple of times already, when I stupidly saved something I regretted shortly later, but was too many history states away from. No problem, just fly back in time and recover a previous version. Gotta love Time Machine. It Just Works.



Yeah, there have been a few bugs and annoyances in Leopard, but it has pretty much settled down. No reason to go back from my perspective, but I don't use InDesign. Really looking forward to Snow Leopard.

Gary,



How does Time Machine differ from an excellent backup utility like, say, SuperDuper! ?



Neil

If I were forced to run Leopard, e.g, if I were given a free Mac-Intel box that did not run Tiger, I would disable Spotblight, Dashboard, Time Machine and Spaces, just like I've disabled the former two in Tiger.



%26gt;How does Time Machine differ from an excellent backup utility like, say, SuperDuper! ?



Time Machine is intrusive, because it runs on its own.

%26gt; How does Time Machine differ from an excellent backup utility like, say, SuperDuper! ?



I use Super Duper, but only in Free mode. It has more options if you purchase it. Before Time Machine, I always used Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make periodic bootable backups of my systems. I still do this, because Time Machine backups aren't bootable unless restored. For my daily backups of the user folder, I used Deja Vu, which worked fine. I backed up ongoing projects manually, which also works OK as long as you don't forget.



Time Machine is different. The first time you turn it on, it backs up your whole system, including attached drives, unless you tell it not to. After that, it kicks in on a schedule, backing up only what has changed, but keeping all earlier states at the same time. It does this to the limits of its storage capacity, at which point, the oldest files begin to fall off the wagon. Brilliant design. When you enter time machine, you fly back through time looking at successively earlier versions of a chosen directory. You can retrieve any file you find there. I'd have to say the interface is a triumph of usability.



%26gt; Time Machine is intrusive, because it runs on its own.



I appreciate Ramon's concern here. You might not want Time Machine kicking in while you have a bunch of stuff up in RAM, or something else going on, etc. Valid point. I can only say it has never caused any trouble, and has already saved me from myself a couple of times.

%26gt; Not to worry, that was the last post of yours I ever saw.



I'm all broken up, lol ...



The only real difference between Time Machine and other BU schemes, like SuperDuper! is that it's based on hourly backups, rather than a single backup per day. It's ''intrusive'' but that's the price you pay for a larger margin of safety. You can configure the other apps to ''run on their own'' as well, just not every hour.



Personally, I'm fine with a single, daily backup that's run overnight using SuperDuper! or DejaVu. I've never tried Time Machine, tho.



-phil

So far I continue with manual daily backups at the end of the day, except that new images and major work product (like a new ad completion) are immediately backed up. Time Machine sounds interesting but I find the idea of an app automatically backing up a bit scary when doing it manually is so easy.



Also I use daily backup as a good time to purge; e.g. when I build an ad I may have a dozen large evolutionary versions and after the work is submitted and the deadline is past most of the evolutionary versions can be deleted.

I use SuperDuper! for my daily auto backups. But as for previous versions of a job, I always save my files with sequential revision ''numbers''. For example, my files are all named [job no.]-[client/job title]-[revision no.]. So, the job with three rounds of billable changes:



2075-ABC Widgets and Gadgets Ad

2075-ABC Widgets and Gadgets Ad-REVA

2075-ABC Widgets and Gadgets Ad-REVB

2075-ABC Widgets and Gadgets Ad-REVC-FINAL



I can find any earlier iteration (obviously) and I have a quick history for billing purposes. That's my ''time machine''.



Neil

Gary,



With an older, limited machine like mine, I help it in any way I can. That includes managing fonts so only a few are active at any one time but with auto activation, nuking the utterly useless and incredibly intrusive Spotblight, same for Dashboard, and a host of similar measures. I'm glad you see why I don't want Time Machine kicking in at the wrong time. Really, if CS4 ran in Panther, I'd go back to 10.3.9 in a heart beat.



I run my full backups every night/morning as I go to bed for a rest. Same with Cocktail, which, among many other tasks, checks the SMART status of every single drive attached to the computer.

The computer industry, both on the hardware and on the software sides, is constantly backing each other up with often (not always, of course) questionable upgrades and enhancements designed to move us to buy more hardware and hardware all the time. That's understandable. But I know my needs.

Concur.

If I was using Leopard, hourly backups would be inconvenient.

However, I would investigate this utility;

http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/



Right now, SuperDuper does everything I want.

%26gt;Right now, SuperDuper does everything I want.



Ditto.

I'm fine with Super Duper, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get it to copy 10.4.11 only. Am I missing something? I would like one of my backup drives to be system only and then add two apps.

The way that idid that Lundy, was to actually install OSX 10.4.11 directly to my back-up Drive from the original CD plus the latest Combo Updater.



Then you need to set the Back-up to be bootable in System Prefs..