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Gary Politzer
Gary Politzer
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Photoshop CS5 suddenly slow.

Sep 10, 2012 5:20 PM

Never seen this before. My 8 core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro has 10 GB RAM and a blank 100 GB scratch disk. Photoshop is always quick. Has been for years. Suddenly today, Photoshop is slow like molasses to open & save files. Lots of progress bars and wait cursors. Everything else on the Mac is fine. It boots quickly & normally, and other apps are happy. My boot drive, a clean installed Mountain Lion system, says S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified. In Activity Monitor, a process with ID # 0, Kernel Task, was using 700 to 800 MB RAM, while another process, mds, with ID # 44, is using 350 MB RAM. Does anybody know what is going on?

 

I should add that I booted from a backup system and its copy of Photoshop was also doing the same thing. In addition, a high level troubleshooter on Apple Discussions informed me that my present level of 500 MB RAM for Kernel Task is normal. So all I know is Photoshop is suddenly slow.

3573 Views   17 Replies   Latest reply: Gary Politzer, Sep 11, 2012 9:44 AM
 
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  • Curt Y
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    1. Curt Y,
    Sep 10, 2012 5:20 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Have you added any fonts?  If so could be a conflict.

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    2. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 5:27 PM   in reply to Curt Y
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    No fonts added recently, thanks. I find it weird that my other drive with an older lion system clone was also exhibiting the issue. Makes me think hardware at some level... but I don't know what to do with that thought.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    3. Curt Y,
    Sep 10, 2012 5:42 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Are you connected to a network?

     

    HAve you tried resetting preferences by keystrokes?

     
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  • station_two
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    4. station_two,
    Sep 10, 2012 5:45 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Try trashing font caches, which are very prone to corruption at any time, with a utility like Fontfinagler, Onyx or Cocktail.

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    5. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:24 PM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Have not tried resetting preferences. Do not know about keystrokes.

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    6. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:48 PM   in reply to station_two
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    I use FontAgent Pro, which has this accessory called Smasher, which I think is for font caches. Is that appropriate?

     

    Update: Never mind, I used Cocktail to clear the caches. It had no effect.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    7. Curt Y,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:30 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    To reset preferences on a Mac start PS and immediately hold down the Cmd + Option + Shift keys.  You should get a reset window.  If you see the splash screen you are too late.

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    8. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:48 PM   in reply to Curt Y
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    I reset prefs, and the problem persists.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    9. Curt Y,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:53 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Can you take your fonts offline?  Add a tilde in front of folder so PS does not see it.

     

    I take it you are not on a home network?  Sometimes a computer connected, but turned off can slow things down, at least in Bridge.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,316 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    10. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:59 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    I ask this occasionally, but so far it hasn't helped anyone.  I guess I'll ask once again anyway...

     

    Have you rebooted since it started happening?  Edit:  Never mind, I see some description of booting from a backup system in your original post.

     

    There seem to be a number of other folks in your position.  I sincerely hope you get it worked out.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    11. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:10 PM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Sorry, yes, I am on a home network. Never had this problem before, though.

     

    Can I take my fonts offline? I guess, but how would this explain that the same thing happened when I booted from an older clone?

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    12. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:20 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I have rebooted numerous times. Interesting that you are aware of others with this issue.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    13. Curt Y,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:20 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Running out of thoughts, but fonts are one issue that in the past casues slow downs.  Some programs like Suitcase that handles fonts also cause problems. 

     

    Here is a statement from another Mac slow down problem.  Does this make sense to you?  "I changed my cache tile size to 128 like it was in my old version of photoshop and this seems to have done the trick. Everything appears to be now working smoothly."

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    14. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:22 PM   in reply to Curt Y
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    My cache tile size is already 128, unfortunately.

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    15. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:49 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    I will methodically take my fonts offline tomorrow. I am burnt out on troubleshooting for todsy.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,316 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    16. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 7:51 PM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    Gary Politzer wrote:

     

    I have rebooted numerous times. Interesting that you are aware of others with this issue.

     

    I was thinking specifically of this thread:   http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1026715

     

    There's a fair bit of noise in that thread, and at least some folks found the 13.0.1 update to fix things up or them.

     

    You do have the 13.0.1 update, right?

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Gary Politzer
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    17. Gary Politzer,
    Sep 11, 2012 9:44 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Um, my version says 12.1. I have added my story to that thread.

     
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