Hey everyone, I thought I would ask if anyone else has this problem and how do you go about dealing with it. I have over a 1000 digital papers and I am also a clipart designer so my desktop is on overload. Well, at least I think it is.
Here is the problem.
I am a very visual person, so once I make a new set of digital papers I like to create a "mashup" of all the images in the theme and then put the individual papers in a zip file. This way I don't have to unzip to see what is in it because I have a mashup that shows me. but when i load them into photoshop, or even inkscape my computer starts lagging and eventually freezes and I get a lot of RAM errors saying I don't have enough. But I am only doing 12 papers at a time?
It is so frustrating and it really limits my creativity. So I was wondering if any of you have any ideas.
How much RAM and GB space does your computer have?
Thanks
Photoshop uses a lot of memory .... take a look in properties ... right click and you will find it .... and see how large that image is .... are you leaving it at 300 ppi ? .... also if things start to slow down you can try closing everything down and restarting your computer which will clear your memory. Go and clear your cookies as well. If you are storing everything on your C drive click on the computer icon on your desk top and it will show you how much room you have left on your drive .... if it is under 30G your computer will slow down ... ask me how I know lol .... also check your recycle bin ... it is still saved to C drive until you empty it. Hope this helps.
Thank you Susan, I have done most of those things. I do leave my images at 300dpi as I am afraid I will forget to switch them back. I will dump my cookies and see if that helps. I wish there was a way to turn off some features in photoshop that I don't use so I can free up some memory. Thanks for writing me back.
I am running Windows 8.1 32-bit and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on 2 different machines, but both have 8.00 GB RAM and sometimes, I wish I had more than that! PS is a memory hog!!!!
Here's something else .... all the extras ... brushes, shapes, styles, effects etc ... are you storing them in your PS presets? If you are they are taking up a lot as well and your PS will work faster if you place them in a file on your C drive ...
I do have issues as well sometimes, saving mostly and sometimes with the filters since I went to Windows 7 ... try Ctrl/Alt/Delete to bring up the task bar .... it will very often trigger the beast to start saving the document .... not sure why but it works .... maybe I scare it lol
It could be as simple as clearing your cache?
How much RAM do you have? This sounds more like a RAM issue. As Tina said PS is a BIG FAT Memory hog!!! -- well, I added the big fat part
LoL --
I have 12 GB RAM on my laptop and bought this on purpose because of PSCS. My PC has 8GB but it still does ok.
I would recommend what one of the other ladies (Susan, I think) suggested and that is resize them smaller. IF you're worried about deleting them. Run a Bulk File Renamer (edit) program and resize them all at one time as copies to 96 dpi in a temporary folder. Use this to create your "mashup" then delete these copies. This will help you tons if you can't afford more RAM and/or don't have space for more RAM right now. I had started to hate digital scrapping for a while until I got more RAM. I love my 2 newer (upgraded) systems with all this RAM. Although, I too like Tina wish I had more at times. It's very RARE I have that thought the last 1 1/2 years.
Your RAM could be an issue. You might also need to look at your virtual memory and bump that up. All those extras that you have running, like filters, brushes, custom shapes, all have to be loaded into memory when the program starts and sit there until (if) they are used taking up working memory. My desktop is pretty old in today's standards and I only have 6GB ram, but I run PSCS6 without any issues because I don't load any extras until I need them, and then I unload them when I'm done.
Have you tried resetting your preferences in PS, so that it starts with a little less of the extras? Just something else to try...
soooo... true... I turned all this off and even moveded all my installed fonts except the required system fonts and a "few" extras I use regularly. These things can definitely hog your virtual memory. I have my threshold set pretty high, too... so that helps, I'm sure
I only have 3 GB of RAM on my laptop (pining for a new computer with more memory, but I have to wait) and sometimes when I'm opening files in PS I'm tempted to take a nap until they're done. I find shutting down and restarting often helps, but it can still be pretty frustrating!
Mary Kay ... I know the nap thing .... up until mid 2014 and we moved from the country I had dial up ... I used to go clean house or make dinner while waiting lol .... I'm wondering how you do anything on 3GB ... you must have a lot of patience
@Mary: You're problem is most definitely your RAM
RAM isn't too expensive if you can find some for your particular PC or laptop. For me back a few years ago when I couldn't afford the new laptop with more RAM. I was able to add TWO sticks of 3GB RAM because I had two slots. If you have only one slot it can be a little more pricey to get a 6 or 8 GB RAM... but it is a way you can save yourself a lot of heartache and time if your PC or laptop is upgradable. I say this because SOME aren't able to get into the laptop or their isn't a stick available for upgrading RAM on some laptops.
It's an option though that could work until you can save up for a new one. It's what I did and it helped me for about 2 years.
Here's an example of what worked on my laptop. You have to have two sticks the same size for it to work. That is why the pair of 4GB but it makes 8GB total. Only $85
and here's a video on youtube kind of showing what my hubby did. This is my hubby but it's a video similar to what he did.
I too have upgraded my RAM .... when I went looking for a new desk top computer last year the basic ones in the stores did not have any slots to upgrade ... none .... so I went to a trusted shop that sold refurbished and purchased one with windows 7 rather than 8 and has lots of upgrade capabilities without that steep price tag for a new computer without any options
Another thing you (we all) should do periodically to keep things running smoothly is defragment your hard drive, this is ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT if you do a lot of downloading and deleting or moving of files. Learn more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_Defragmenter
OR Google-search "disk defragmenter".
'
Another thing that might be useful for you is to get an external hard drive or a memory stick to store some of your files on. They're getting cheaper and cheaper these days and the average size is around 16 or 32 GB. You can get a LOT of stuff on there and most of them are the size of a thumb drive. I have one that goes on my keys!