CS4 Problems After Update

[Michael_Vi...@adobeforums.com]

OK. This is my first post here and I don't use forums regularly so if I breach etiquette it's unintentional. Secondly, I've been all over this forum looking for answers to these questions. I've tried every suggestion that was relevant and have also tried my own methods. I even tried tackling "CS4 is a disaster," but with 759 posts, I didn't read all of them.

My computer was Frankensteined but these are the parts:

Motherboard: Gigabyte S-series GA-MA69G-S3H
Graphics: Sapphire HD 2900XT
Sound: E-Mu 0404
Processor: AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual-Core
Ram: 2 GB
Speed: 2.61 GHZ

The problem is, even after updating CS4 to version 11.0.1, the brush is still slow. Simple bushes work normally but a lot of my custom brushes are slow. I was able to fix the choppy issue with the hand tool by switching on the "Open GL Drawing" option in "preferences." Now I can man handle a picture without any trouble at all. Although, once I start using a fancy brush, things slow down to a crawl again. Does anybody know how to fix this?

Another problem I have is with the layout. When I say layout I don't mean how windows are arranged; I mean the way Photoshop CS4 looks. I despise it. Plus I get this annoying gray line that cuts across my menu at the top of the screen. Is there a way to change the layout to the way it was in CS3? That was beautiful and I miss it.

All help is appreciated.

[Bart_...@adobeforums.com]

Michael: I can see RAM being one issue and the other would be hard drive space. How many drives do you have and what is their status?

[Michael_Vi...@adobeforums.com]

I should probably add that I use two computers. One is a crumby laptop that I use for the internet, which I am using now, and the other is the computer that I described in my first post, which is for work. My work computer is never connected to the internet unless it needs to be to install something. So, I don't have any AV or firewall to slow things down. The only programs I have installed that run in the background are the "ATI Catalyst Control Center," for my video card, and the "Emu Patch Mix DSP Services," for my sound card. They both use minimal memory.

I have two drives:

Western Digital 150 GB with 120 GB still free: This drive has all of my applications installed on it, including Windows XP SP2.

Seagate 300 GB with 120 GB still free: This drive is strictly for storage. There are no programs installed on it.

Thanks for responding!

[Bart_...@adobeforums.com]

Do you have your scratch disk pointing to the second drive?

[Nick_...@adobeforums.com]

Michael, FYI, ATI recently released new drivers for Catalyst, ver. 9.2. Don't know if the latest driver will help with your specific problems, but if you don't have it, it's worth a shot.

[Michael_Vi...@adobeforums.com]

Bart Cross: No I don't but I'll try that.

Nick Decker: I downloaded those drivers a few days ago. It didn't make any noticeable difference.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions. I'll keep trying things and if I discover something I'll be sure to share it.

[Anthon...@adobeforums.com]

Nick: Did you run the upgrade? Are your problems solved?

Anthony.

[Nick_...@adobeforums.com]

Anthony, I'm a member of the pre-release team that's been working with Adobe, so I had the latest build as of about a week ago. The update did fix a lot of the lagginess that I was seeing, but didn't help with the disappearing window content.

The latest ATI 9.2 drivers did fix the disappearing window content problem, although I still see a lot of distracting flickering while dragging the image around. The flickering lasts for two or three seconds, then finally settles down with the content visible. It's not right, but it's workable. Bottom line, the disappearing content does seem to be tied to driver problems and hopefully, ATI will eventually get it right.

[David...@adobeforums.com]

Screensaver causes 11.0.1 ("upgraded" yesterday) to crash. I'm pretty sure it was stable before I did the online upgrade, but now every time my windows screensaver kicks in, Photoshop goes into cardiac arrest.
The Photoshop screen won't refresh properly and Photoshop eventually closes.

Vista 32bit SP1
Nvidia Gforce 7350 LE driver 7.15.11.6230 07/08/27

[Free...@adobeforums.com]

That driver seems pretty old.