Variable performance in LR - suggestions?

divamum

Yes, I know LR is a resource hog, but that's not really my question. What I DON'T understand is why, on the same machine, it will sometimes run just fine, and other times is slow to the point of having to crash out of it and reboot... which only sometimes restores speed and accuracy.

The biggest culprit for triggering this is the brush function (again, a known problem, but what ISN'T clear is why it's so inconsistent)

I'm running Vista w/a 250g harddrive (I try to keep at least 20g free, now possible again since I got a new external drive to store all these raw files!) and 2g ram.

Suggestions for tweaking performance settings so it runs smoother and more consistently? TIA.

pathfinder

Madelaine,

I work in an alternate universe, so I can't offer much help about your OS. How many images, do you have in your catalog? Catalog size does matter, and affect LRs performance. I have over 10,000 frames so far in my catalog for 2009 for some comparison, and it does take a few seconds at times to load and move on my MacPro. It does not lock up and stop, however.

Photoshop CS4 does crash for me fairly often, especially when creating panos, but not Lightroom2.

How much RAM in your system?

Have you optimized your catalog?

Go to Lightroom>Catalog settings> in the General portion of the Catalog setting dialogue box, click Relaunch and Optimize. This is supposed to speed things up, and it is my experience that it does just that, especially as your catalog gets larger.

divamum

Thanks PF. It's still being a pita (and, of course, why does it ALWAYS do something like that when one is against the clock and trying to get something done by a deadline?!), but I'm defragging, running a system cleanup AND I optimized LR (didn't know that command was there, and it was just the kind of thing I was hoping for!)

Ram, as stated in initial post = 2g. One would have hoped that was enough but... well, one never seems to have quite enough!

I still want to figure out why it's so inconsistent (the catalog is growing, so that's a very useful clue), but for the moment I'll just be happy when it stops hanging and goes back to the pretty zippy speeds it was giving me just a few weeks ago!

Oh - thought: I've recently been transferring a lot of stuff to an external drive, but they're still in the LR catalog at their original locations. Should I delete those now they've been moved, and could that anomaly be causing the slowdown? Hmmm....

run_kmc

Pare down the catalog as much as you can. I back stuff up on a usb hard drive and a dvd, and once I do that, the first thing I do is remove everything from the catalog.

Also, shut down everything else. Can't hurt.

Pupator

Diva,

All the other suggestions are good, but frankly, you need more RAM. You'll be able to upgrade to 4GB for next to nothin'. It'll be worth every penny. Let me know if you need help finding the best price.

--Paul

divamum

Pupator wrote:

Diva,

All the other suggestions are good, but frankly, you need more RAM. You'll be able to upgrade to 4GB for next to nothin'. It'll be worth every penny. Let me know if you need help finding the best price.

--Paul

Sadly, you may be right, although HUGE improvement by clearing out the catalog and optimizing it - tonight, it's almost running back to full speed.

This Dell Studio 15 is less than a year old - is it hard to install RAM on these machines? (sorry... haven't started looking it up yet! I've tweaked desktops, but never a laptop, and I seem to recall they're fussier AND harder to get at the nuts-n-bolts...)

ETA: Ok, found a step-by-step how-to on installing RAM in this machine,s o I'll amend the question and say - yes please... where're the best prices? ::scuttles off to Newegg etc to go and check::

pathfinder

I agree that 2 Gb to run Vista and LR is really marginal. You want/need 8 Gb or more.

I buy my RAm from Crucial.com ( Windows ) or from OWC - http://www.macsales.com/

divamum

pathfinder wrote:

I agree that 2 Gb to run Vista and LR is really marginal. YOu want/need 8 Gb or more.

I buy my RAm from Crucial.com ( Windows ) or from OWC - http://www.macsales.com/

Thanks, PF. From what I've just been reading I think 4g will be the maximum on this machine without amending to 64bit system, but since it's actually run it pretty well to date on 2, doubling it will likely be a nice improvement. I've added it to my list of things to do when I have some money again...

I will say that until the last couple of weeks it has actually run LR quite nicely - it slows down when using the brush, but other than that, it's been plenty zippy....

Pupator

Right. 4GB is the maximum for your machine/OS combination. You don't really need 8GB anyway.

Do you know what kind of RAM (speed) you need? If not, just give me your model number and I'll do some looking around. Finding deals is a hobby (sport?) of mine!

divamum

Pupator wrote:

Right. 4GB is the maximum for your machine/OS combination. You don't really need 8GB anyway.

Do you know what kind of RAM (speed) you need? If not, just give me your model number and I'll do some looking around. Finding deals is a hobby (sport?) of mine!

Yeah, I'm a bargain hunter too, but tend only to research things like this when I actually *need* them... so all links welcomed!

It's a Dell Studio 15, which as far as I've been able to find out takes DDR2 667mhz. I think it'll cost me about $60 from the googling I did yesterday, but if you come up with any cheaper, I can probably do it sooner rather than waiting....

angevin1

divamum wrote:

Yeah, I'm a bargain hunter too, but tend only to research things like this when I actually *need* them... so all links welcomed!

It's a Dell Studio 15, which as far as I've been able to find out takes DDR2 667mhz. I think it'll cost me about $60 from the googling I did yesterday, but if you come up with any cheaper, I can probably do it sooner rather than waiting....

As far as RAM, I like Tiger Direct; http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1554&name=DDR2-Memory& If you phone these folks, they'll find your memory and have it off to you same day typically!

But, when I changed processors; from 2 core to Quad core, issues solved. The RAM never seems to be needed, but the processors obviously give it the speed to act fluidly.

Don't forget to check how many processes you may have running when you are in LR2. Check your task bar and get rid of things unnecessary, etc~

cheers,

Pupator

divamum wrote:

I think it'll cost me about $60 from the googling I did yesterday, but if you come up with any cheaper, I can probably do it sooner rather than waiting....

Best I could find from a reliable source was $50.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT25664AC667-200-Pin-SODIMM-Laptop/dp/B000F7QRTG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1251130065&sr=1-1

FYI: I normally check Crucial, OEMPCWorld, Amazon, TigerDirect, NewEgg, and PriceGrabber.

divamum

Thanks boys! Cleaning up the catalog has made a huge improvement so I'm better for now, and will be adding memory when I can. Funds demand I wait for a wee bit before doing this (funny how things like gas bills and mortgages have to be paid before camera goodies - I mean REALLY, the presumption! ), but I'll definitely be making this simple adjustment as soon as I can. It seems to be a no-brainer to swap out the chips in this machine (unlike many laptops), so no excuse!

Thanks again for all the help.

Pupator

You're welcome!

divamum wrote:

(funny how things like gas bills and mortgages have to be paid before camera goodies - I mean REALLY, the presumption! )

We have a saying in the pastorate: When the paycheck comes in, buy books. If there's any money left, buy food.

It's all about priorities, you see.

divamum

Pupator wrote:

You're welcome!



We have a saying in the pastorate: When the paycheck comes in, buy books. If there's any money left, buy food.

It's all about priorities, you see.

Oh, BOOKS do come before food. Camera and computer gear, sadly, do not...

Scott_Quier

A couple of thoughts occur to me:

First, have you opened the case of your computer - it really is brain-dead simple to do - and visually checked to see how many open slots you have. If you have two, you're sitting sweet to add the additional 2GB. If you have none, then you will need to take that into consideration when you buy your memory upgrade as you'll be replacing at least two of the sticks in you computer.

The other thought I had is in reference to budget priorities. One of my favorite authors wrote in one of his books, that one must budget the luxuries FIRST, then worry about the mundain stuff.

divamum

Scott_Quier wrote:

A couple of thoughts occur to me:

First, have you opened the case of your computer - it really is brain-dead simple to do - and visually checked to see how many open slots you have. If you have two, you're sitting sweet to add the additional 2GB. If you have none, then you will need to take that into consideration when you buy your memory upgrade as you'll be replacing at least two of the sticks in you computer.

This is a really good point. I was just assuming it was 2x1g, but if it's 1x2g, then it seriously is a no-brainer and it will only cost me about $30 to add second stick. Research reveals that this lapto has very easy access to the important stuff, so I'll have a look inside it when I get a moment. Tx!!

Pupator

divamum wrote:

This is a really good point. I was just assuming it was 2x1g, but if it's 1x2g, then it seriously is a no-brainer and it will only cost me about $30 to add second stick. Research reveals that this lapto has very easy access to the important stuff, so I'll have a look inside it when I get a moment. Tx!!

It'll be 2x1GB.

Scott_Quier

Pupator wrote:

It'll be 2x1GB.

Probably - as that's the cheapest way to install just 2GB of memory and Dell is all about doing it the least expensive way possible.

pathfinder

divamum wrote:

Yes, I know LR is a resource hog, but that's not really my question. What I DON'T understand is why, on the same machine, it will sometimes run just fine, and other times is slow to the point of having to crash out of it and reboot... which only sometimes restores speed and accuracy.

The biggest culprit for triggering this is the brush function (again, a known problem, but what ISN'T clear is why it's so inconsistent)

I'm running Vista w/a 250g harddrive (I try to keep at least 20g free, now possible again since I got a new external drive to store all these raw files!) and 2g ram.

Suggestions for tweaking performance settings so it runs smoother and more consistently? TIA.

Madelaine,

Using the brush function requires the machine to calculate a mask on the fly behind the scene, and this takes a lot more horsepower. That is why it runs slower when using the adjustment brush. The inconsistency may be contributed by the simplicity of the image or the complexity of the mask required - ie: somewhat image dependent.

More RAM will only help this modestly, if your computer is having to swap out memory to your hard drive. To really speed the adjustment brush up simply requires more horsepower, not just RAM. ( Maybe a more stable OS might help also, but I know that will some 'computerist'! )