Expert: Candice Anderson - 7/19/2006

Question
I have a big problem with CS2 on a work computer.  All of the applications - especially Photoshop - will cause the system to stop responding for up to ten minutes at a time.  It does not matter whether I am manipulating a file, selecting a tool, or even just sitting here with the app open and no file loaded - it will freeze.  I have never run into the problem before.  Both of my home machines that run CS (not CS2) load Photoshop in about 5-9 seconds and never so much a blink during operation.  The work computer takes up to 15 minutes (!) to load Photoshop.
I've reinstalled CS2 2 times, and other folks here have done the same.  The system is a Dell Dimension 4550, 2.66GHz P4, 1024MB DDR2 533MHz SDRAM, dual 7200rpm 60GB P-ATA hdds, ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 64MB 8x AGP graphics.  It should be more than enough to run CS2, but a 6 year old Duron 950MHz machine with 512MB ram consistently outperforms it in every way.
I should mention that this Dell is pretty slow anyway, (maybe because it's a Dell) but it only has these big hangups in CS2.
I want to wipe the drives and reinstall everything, but I've been informed that this is not currently an option.  I've edited the registry to delete some bad keys from previous installations and general windows screwups, and it has helped a little, but not nearly enough.
Does this sound like a CS2 problem you've encountered or heard of, or is this system just garbage?  (I'd love to be able to honestly tell my employer that it should be chucked so we can get a decent system - maybe even one that I've built.) It's got a little more than 9000 fonts installed (all are good - no damaged fonts) but I've got almost 12000 on my older home system.
A semi-custom system with very similar hardware and identical software loadout has some slowdowns but no freezes.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and I apologize if I should have directed this question to some Dell messageboard - but they haven't helped one iota in the past.

Answer
hmm...

I'm actully having the same problem myself.  I had CS2 on my boyfriend's machine which had a gig of RAM and 2ghz'sish of memory, and windows, and CS2 still ran horribly. My only guess is that CS2 still have bugs.  I almost suggest what you thought of and find some way to redo your harddrive.  That way you can start off with a fresh drive.  After all, it does take up HALF OF YOUR DRIVE!

sorry, that's all I have.  


Candice