CS3 Performance

Lately I've noticed that FWCS3 is hanging/locking up for a few seconds
(sometimes longer) when I'm doing simple things like selecting objects,
moving/nudging with the arrow keys, selecting multiple layers...

I have a 3GHz dual-core processor, 3GB of RAM and a 256MB Radeon X1650 so I
can't imagine it's a hardware issue. This machine was just built earlier this
year and both the RAM and video card are only a few months old.

The hard drive has 11GB of free space (out of 75GB)... could that be an issue?

[q]Originally posted by: redivider
Lately I've noticed that FWCS3 is hanging/locking up for a few seconds
(sometimes longer) when I'm doing simple things like selecting objects,
moving/nudging with the arrow keys, selecting multiple layers...

I have a 3GHz dual-core processor, 3GB of RAM and a 256MB Radeon X1650 so I
can't imagine it's a hardware issue. This machine was just built earlier this
year and both the RAM and video card are only a few months old.

The hard drive has 11GB of free space (out of 75GB)... could that be an
issue?[/q]

You're under 15% free space, even though 11G is pretty respectable. On the
other hand 75Gb is not all that large as a drive; you might consider adding a
second one.

Also, how's your drive's file fragmentation? I know that high fragmentation
can slow down an application, especially when the files are large. I don't know
about the Mac OSes, but XP and Vista (and 2k) have a defragmenting application
in the accessories. If you don't have it set to run automatically on a regular
basis, you should probably give that a try.

If you're on XP, run the http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_cleanup_utility.htm
first, clear your browser cashe(s), then run the
http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_def...er_utility.htm. (Links at The Elder
Geek.)

OK, so I freed up a bunch more space and installed Diskeeper to defrag my hard
drive. It apparently wasn't very fragmented to begin with but I'm sure it
didn't hurt. I now have 33GB of unfragmented free space.

An important detail that I forgot to mention is that all of the files I work
with are on a server on our LAN that is mapped as a network drive (V. I
hadn't really thought about that, but we're not on a Gigabit ethernet, so could
the 100mbit LAN be the issue? I would have thought the only thing that would
slow down might be opening/saving files. Once it's open and in memory I don't
see why that should matter. I have 4GB of RAM (for some reason WinXP only sees
3 though) so having a 10-12MB png file open shouldn't be an issue.

It's really starting to be a problem. Everything else seems to run fine, but
FW still locks up for a few seconds pretty regularly.

Er...you didn't need to install Diskkeeper, as XP has the basic version built
in. But, anyway, it's good to stay on top of the fragmentation.

Have you tried - as an experiment - copying the file to your local hard drive
and working with it there? If that makes a difference, then that would point to
the network as a culprit. If no, that it isn't the network.

How big and complex are the files?

10-12 MB of fireworks png file. It seems like you have a lot of objects within it. Can you share some part of the png file where the operations are locking up the application?

Thanks