Freeze up?---NEWCOMER

George2000 · Jan 1, 2009

Not used to doing anything sophisticated. Files up to 2.5M, trying free software and have run HP A516. All OK.
Given DVD's of dozens Giant JPG Files up to 35M each in size. Getting up the thumbnails takes hours & opening any, a very long time.
S/ware Options--Image Mixer, Nero essentials, HP Applications, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0.
Some will not run another said " file too Large."
In general the PC starts to freeze and CPU usage near 100%
PC:
W2000 Prof SP5.1
0.9Ghz Processor
512M RAM (could increase to 1G)
40G HD (Not full)

Would welcome advice as to the limiting factors
Is it photo software or PC?

John_05 · Jan 1, 2009

I'm no computer expert, but I'd guess that it's the fault of the PC, not the software.

A 0.9Ghz processor is pretty old, and really under powered for running image editing software and trying to open even a 10MB picture.

I'd imagine getting more ram would help, but it's still going to be very slow getting anything done and even if you did upgrade to 2GB of ram, I don't think it will be enough to work with images of that size.

I'd recommend getting a new PC. Even getting something for as little as $400-$500 would offer you a LOT more performance than what you're getting with the PC you have now.

George2000 · Jan 3, 2009

Thanks John
PCs are a whole lot more expensive in UK but will have a look at faster motherboards.
What mimimum speed would work?
Best
George

Garbz · Jan 3, 2009

Sounds like what you really need to do is format the computer. I have had no problem working with a 85megapixel image on a Pentium 3 800MHz with 512mb of RAM. Yes it is slow, but the problems you are describing are really software issues.

Mind you given how slow photo editing is on an 800MHz system and upgrade would definitely be worthwhile.

George2000 · Jan 4, 2009

Thanks Garbz Can you give me a lead to "fomatting a computer" ? Regards

Garbz said:
Sounds like what you really need to do is format the computer. I have had no problem working with a 85megapixel image on a Pentium 3 800MHz with 512mb of RAM. Yes it is slow, but the problems you are describing are really software issues.

Mind you given how slow photo editing is on an 800MHz system and upgrade would definitely be worthwhile.

Flash Harry · Jan 4, 2009

look up Fdisk, and follow instructions to the letter, you will need an operating system to reinstall after format, also drivers etc, I do mine occasionally but have everything to hand. Download "c r a p cleaner" and run it weekly, it gets rid of the sh*t that slows down a comp and defragment your drive weekly if your dumping lots of files and new programs on the system as this also causes slowdowns, get as much ram in the box as it can hold. I built my own after getting ripped off, its a doddle, and a decent system can be had for 300 quid, in uk. Google "toms hardware" there's a build guide.

I'd also look at Black Viper's website and tweak your system's services, wins has an awful lot of garbage running in the background that eats ram, dont disable services randomly though you can mess up the machine, BV's tweaks can be made manually or download his clickable tweak for the system, and make sure its the right one. All these things done your 900 and 1 gig will run the apps ok. H

LarissaPhotography · Jan 4, 2009

If you're really going to start fresh, and you're sure you have all your files off your pc, instead of using FDisk, I'd recommend booting from your windows cd. Then you can delete the partition and recreate it.
Based on your system stats though, you're probably going to see the best results with a new pc.