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Need help diagnosing Dim4600 performance problem
I've had my 4600 for about 6 months and this problem for at least the last 3-4months. Every time I open the "my pictures" folder, or any sub-directory of this folder, in Windows Explorer it takes at least 20-30 seconds for all the thumbnails to show up, or when it's in detail list mode, it takes that same amount of time for the file icon to change to the jpeg icon from the generic windows file icon. You can see it go down the list - often 100+ jpeg files of ~750kb in one folder - one by one it changes the icon. Sometimes the filenames don't all show up immediately either so it updates the icon and filename. This even happens when I'm trying to open files from within Adobe Photoshop Elements...long delay before all the files show up for selection. I don't notice any similar problem with any other types of files or folders...only jpegs.
Seems to me this is either a RAM issue (bad memory module) or bad video card. Am I on the right track? I've disabled the WIA, DNS and a couple other settings but to no avail. Even selected the file viewing for "Pictures (best for many files)" and it doesn't help. How do I run a diagnostic to figure this out? I tried to reproduce this problem on my work laptop - a Dell Latitude running Win98SE and have no similar problems...all files show up immediately as expected.
System info as follows
Dimension 4600, P4-2.66GHz, 1GB RAM, XP Pro SP1, Bios A06...
Thanks. Tom
Good call, jakeleg! I think you solved my problem.
First I looked for the thumbnail caching...it wasn't checked, so no difference. Sometime in the last few months I think I unchecked this having found it somewhere a suggested solution.
The real trick is unchecking the "generate thumbnails" selection on the image properties/Photoshop Image tab. Once I did this the problem all but went away. The icon displayed immediately for every file in the folder (in detail list view) is the eye on a page background with the word "photo" in the upper left corner. I'm assuming this is the Photoshop Elements application designator. When I go to the thumbnail view with the 100+ jpegs in a file there is only a (very) slight hesitation to display all the images. I chalk this up more to my video card (64MB NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X) than anything else. Is this a good assumption?
Thanks again! Tom
jakeleg
360 Posts
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Posted February 4th, 2004 05:00
You may not have a hardware problem. If you have 100+ jpegs in one folder XP can take a while to process the thumbs. 98 doesn't have this problem because it does not have the capability to show thumbs that is native to XP. Try this to see if it speeds things up. Check to see if "do not chache thumbnails" is checked in Folder Options. If it is checked, uncheck the box and then open, close and then open one of your image folders. This instructs XP to cache the thumbs so that the next time you open the folder it loads up quick. Also, if you have your images associated with Elements it inserts a creating thumbnails function with image files that is associated with the program.. If you right click on an image file select Properties, you will see a tab called Photoshop Image. Uncheck the Generate Thumbnails box and see if this helps. Try these suggestions and post back the results.
Message Edited by jakeleg on 02-04-2004 04:17 AM
Message Edited by jakeleg on 02-04-2004 04:27 AM