I've been trying to use LR sdince it was launched and so far it has been nothing but a big pain in the rear.

I run Windows XP with 2an Intel Duo-Core 2.80GHz and 2GB RAM.

LR runs so slow and locks up on me on a regular basis, and that's if I dont get the upside down "out of memory" error.

There must be something running that is hanging LR up. Does anyone have suggestions on what to look for?

I have AVG, and no on-access scanner so there shouldnt be anything else trying to access the database files.

What else do I look for?

I love the program, but the slowdown to the workflow just isnt worth it if I cant get it to run smoother without needing to restart it every 10-15 minutes, if not sooner.

how much free hard drive/scratch disk space do you have?

Perhaps you need to clear some space so it has room to work?

We run things off of an external HD, which does slow things down a bit, but means I don't have to move files later... and I keep 30 gigs free on our desktop.

I've noticed that I've slowed down lately with LR (probably the external?)--but it still is my favorite post processing software... (and we just have 1 gig of RAM in our current desktop--going to 3 gigs in a week!) I just love it!

i had the same problem for a a while. one site suggested making sure that your anti-virus software wasn't scanning the images as they were being loaded.

before i got around to figuring out how to do that though, i upgraded to 4GB ram, and since then i have only had the upside-down, backwards "out of memory" once...and i fixed that by closing and reopening LR.

also make sure you've got enough scratch disk room...

Also Mark, that 2.8mhz HT processor is a bit long in the tooth for LR. I've got the same thing in my desktop and, while fine for PS CS2, is just not fast enough for LR.

LR doesnt have a scratch disk setting like we are all used to in PS. But I do have 8GB assigned to a scratch disk.

I have 30GB available HD space. It's run slow ever since I installed it when I had more HD space. I've moved all my past wedding files to an external. When I am working on a job I downloda them to my internal primary HD to work on, and when finished I migrate the files to an external for storage. (as well as DVD backup)

Andy - thanks - but not the answer I was hoping for. Already invested enough this year in equipment... May need to replace the computer tho. ARGH. It never stops.

But i've seen posts in other forum threads about people using this speed computer and it seems to work fine for some of them.

Thanks for the help - anyone else have thoughts?

And Jillian, I'm runing AVG free which doesnt have an on-access scanner so that isnt interfering.



Do you mean 2GHz?



Do you mean 2GHz?

You have a 2.8 Ghz Dual Core and it is not fast enough for lightroom?

Mark,
you certainly have issues with scratch disk or other processes running.

Exactly - thats what I'm hopiong to get some help/insight into.

BTW - LR doesn't use scratch disks, so that isnt an issue unless someone knows something I dont. None of the adobe literature or info online talks about a scratch disk.

I do see talk of the cache files. Has anyone moved those files to a different location and if so, what was the result?

It has to be a process interfering but i'm not able to find out which one it could be, and I'm hoping someone else has had a similar issue.

Ok have you chacked where lightroom keeps it's database file? Is that drive ok.
Have you defragmented the drives recently? This can really slow you down.
Have you made sure the windows pagefile has enough space and is defragmented.
Check any other running processes that could be eating up your ressources.
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

Good luck and keep us posted.

Ps I believe a 2.8 Ghz Dual Core is a good machine and should have no issues. I was teasing.

Sorry I missed the humor...as you know us PC guys are known for our deep sense of humor as portrayed exceedingly well on those TV commercials...

I did all those before I posted. I think that my video card - nVidia - might have been the culprit. I disabled that as well as all other non-essential processes and will see how that holds up over the next few days.

On a different note - are there any plans in the future versions of LR to allow you to have folders for your presets like you can have for actions in PS? If you get many presets it gets too stinkin overwhelming unless you rename them to sort better but that is a pain.

Hopefully that will be added in the future or someone will develop a third party solution for it.

Just deactivate the "save changes to .xmp" option in the preferences and LR 1.1 will fly! I have a new and fast PC with 4 GB RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, but LR was nevertheless very slow. Now it flies

Hey Mark! yeah Lightroom can be quite the memory hog. It might be a good idea to just run light room on its own and no other program. It really doesn't matter how much hard drive space you have for it to actually run. Your ram could be eaten up by other programs running in the background. I have a 3g MacBook Pro and it runs like lighting on its own. If I am running 6-7 programs at once then its a litlle slow, but still managable. On our other Mac, 1GB, isn't enough. Oh, restart your computer, if you have had it on for a while. That is always a good remedy for any problems. Good Luck.

Really... Well then. i think i activated the "save changes to .xmp" and that is when i started having speed issues.

i guess my concern is that if i don't have the .xmp file that i will not see my lightroom changes if i open a RAW file in CS3. i'm i thinking about this correctly? i guess i could just open the jpgs in CS3 instead... hmmmm

Just out of curiousity... when you are slowing down, if you take a peek at your processes are there some that say "bezel"? I had trouble with that with my last system, but haven't run into it with the new one. I'm not sure what it meant or how to fix it, never made it that far before my old system gave up the ghost.

Good luck to you Mark!

Yes, you will see your LR adjustments!

If you open a RAW file in CS3 it will be opened as a COPY with LR adjustments (you can choose if you want it to open as PSD or TIFF file).

Just always start with LR. I browse my images in Lightroom. If I want to open an image in CS3 I right-click for the context menue (PC) and choose "Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS3" for a first time edit of a RAW file or "Show in Explorer" if want to reopen and further edit a picture I already edited in CS3, a PSD-File in my case. That opens the folder containing the file and marks it. I double click it there in the folder and it will open in CS3. Saving and closing the file in CS3 will automatically update the thumbnails in LR.

PS: Some people say that you also should exclude the LR database and/or folder from scanning by your antivirus software, to speed up LR. But for me the "xmp hack" really solved the speed issue. Strange that Adobe doesn't recommend this in their forum which contains a lot about the speed issues with LR, but not really a solution. Only that Adobe is aware of the problem and hopes to solve it for further versions...

ya, this i knew. i don't like doing this because it adds another file and messes up my steps later in the workflow.

i guess what i will really have to find out is if changes made in LR (without xmp) will be visable from machine to machine...

having the xmp activated made LR constantly run my processors. Turning it off helped the speed a lot. Which is good, but i also like my xmp... oi!!
haha

Mark- did you get it working?

Hmm, I think that's how LR is built and how it works together with PS. I don't think it will work the way you want it, at least not without the xmp file. But I care more about the speed. I couldn't use LR anymore, it was so slow. Even if I have a very new and fast computer. Now speed is great again.

Machine to machine? I think for that you had to export your library, otherwise you won't see the edits in your pictures. Or just import your PS edited pictures to the LR library again.

Just add a step at the end of your workflow. Highlight all of your keepers and write the xmp to those files in batch. Should work fine and not slow you down much.

.

You can just write the xmp files and then reload them on the second machine. When you build the previews on the second machine, all of your edits will show up.

How you write xmp files just for highlighted pictures? I didn't find this option.

I don't remember off hand - I'll check it out when I get home.

The xmp route is only one way to do it. Writing the library out is the other way (and possibly easier).

I am only viewing my final picks from the shoot and also have them selected. Then hit 'export metadata to files'.

This is fun - I asked a quesiton a while ago and the discussion took off! I haven't had many problems - the .xmp was a great solution!

I used to have that "bezel" problem but could never figure out what it meant or how to correct it. Since I upgraded to 1.1 those went away.

The only thing I don't like right now is that the images that look good in LR sometimes tend to be dark when I pull them into PS even though we're all in the same color space. I'll have to keep working with LR to see if I can get comfortable with it.

Great discussion!

Nate, seems that you work either on LR 1.0 or it is different on a PC. I don't have this option.

Yes that was 1.0. On 1.1, while in Library mode, you do the same process but hit Metadata->Save Metadata to File.