MamaMonkey Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Hi Brian! I was looking at task manager today and I have a ton of stuff running in the background, it seems. How do I know what to safely stop? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Unless a service is hung up or is using up all of your available RAM, they should be left alone. Why are you in there? If you are trying to get more RAM available, then we should be looking at RAM upgrade options for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 11, 2019 Author Share Posted January 11, 2019 My pc has been lagging lately. Everything from opening a word document, photoshop, the internet, etc, it stalls. I was curious to see what was running in the background and if cleaning that up would help things run smoother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Not as much as you think it would. Killing a Service or two will only be a drop in the bucket; meaning you could kill services and only get a 1% boost in speed. I need more info about your computer. Would you mind filling out this form?Details About Your Computer's Health What I did notice is you are running McAfee Antivirus / Web Monitoriing. McAfee is a resource hog. If you let your subscription lag, I've noticed computers get really slow. These days I recommend is Webroot Internet Security Plus. I am very curious about how much RAM you have and how full the HD is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 I have a PC laptop running windows 7 and Photoshop cc. It is over 2 years old, and has 8GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 642GB free out of 917GB. The last time I shut down was last night. I run a cleanup program about once a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 I have 380 days left on my McAfee subscription Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 Interesting. Actually, it's processes that we need to look at. So click on that Tab (in Task Manager) and give me a few screenshots. You might want to click on the top of memory column / portion to display which process is using the most memory. The next thing I want you to do is to head to crucial.com and download / run their scanning tool. I want to see if your laptop can go up to at least 16GB of RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 13, 2019 Author Share Posted January 13, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 13, 2019 Author Share Posted January 13, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Bridge and Photoshop are taking half of your RAM, all by themselves. Plus you have multiple tabs open in Chrome (looks like to be about 9 or 10) and then there is all the other stuff that's running, CrashPlan, Antivirus, Etc. Each time you open a browser tab, it takes a chunk of RAM. LOL!! Also, Chrome is not color managed. I hope you aren't judging any photos from within Chrome.Anyway, you need more RAM. Period. 8GB is no longer sufficient for your needs. Hopefully we can get you to at least 16GB, or even higher, like 24GB or 32GB. Head to Crucial.com and run their Scanning Tool. Post a screenshot of its findings. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 (edited) Will do! Explain RAM a bit to me though please. How much quicker will 16GB make my computer? Edited January 15, 2019 by MamaMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 Think of your computer as a Library. You are the CPU chip, the bookcases are the hard drives, the shelves are partitions and the programs are the books. Are you with me so far? Inside this library are tables and chairs in addition to the books. The Table is the RAM. So say you want to use a program, lets use Photoshop for this example, so you go over to the bookcase and pull out the very large book called Photoshop. You then place it on the table. Now the "rules" state that none of the edges of the book can go over the sides and there needs to be a 1/4" gap between other items (such as other books, one called Bridge) and Photoshop. It all needs to be neat and tidy. The problem is, that the Photoshop Book gets larger and larger. There are also other things on this table. A laptop, a bag of some sort, a lamp, a drink...all sorts of various things. These "things" are background processes/drivers and other programs, that are all competing for space on the table. Since PS is using at least half of the table, the CPU chip (You) needs to spend lots of time shuffling things around, because you need to keep that 1/4" gap between things at all times AND you can't go over the edges of the table. This is the "slowness" that you are experiencing, all that shuffling around since PS is so massive these days. Speaking of Photoshop and resources. Head into the PS Preferences. How much RAM have to told PS to utilize? 70%? 80%? The reason that I ask is if you have that to a high percentage, PS will take more of your available RAM to perform better. Now this isn’t a problem if you have a large amount of RAM, like 32GB, but is an issue with 4GB or 8GB. Therefore if you tell PS to take advantage of 75% of your available RAM, that leaves 25% for everything else, including Windows. That’s why things slow down. Keep in mind, that we are just taking about PS loaded. If you have Bridge, Chrome with multiple tabs open, plus all the other stuff, your 8GB of RAM becomes an issue. Most folks seem to lock into their Hard Drive Capacity; the how much stuff can it hold portion of their computer when it comes to memory. “It’s gotta a 1TB. I’ve got plenty of room...” They also need to pay attention to the other side, where the programs go when loaded. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted February 7, 2019 Author Share Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) My table over flows Here is the screenshot from crucial.com... Edited February 7, 2019 by MamaMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Start saving for a new computer. You are maxed out. 8GB is as far as your computer will go. This is very typical of laptops, and one of the many reasons I don’t like laptops for photo editing. If you do decide to purchase a new laptop, make sure you can upgrade the RAM to at least 16GB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaMonkey Posted February 9, 2019 Author Share Posted February 9, 2019 I am definitely not going laptop next time. I definitely want a desktop. Do you think I can get one for under $1k? I have a Dell u2412m monitor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Absolutely! Or at around $1000. I'd actually recommend purchasing the Dell XPS 8930. The model that the third one from the left is the one I'd get: Honestly, that model is on my short list since I keep spending $3000 when I custom-build a PC. I need something fairly inexpensive and straight-forward.The Dell U2412m Display is one of my favorite monitors of all time. Even though it's a few years old, it's still a quality monitor. The only item that you will need to purchase for your monitor to hook up to a new computer is a $6 DisplayPort Cable. Here is one from Monoprice.com. When you use the DisplayPort Cable, your picture quality should improve slightly...so that's a bonus. Laptops are great for culling and keeping in touch with clients. They are also invaluable when shooting tethered. For raw power? Unless you are spending over $3000, a desktop PC still is cheaper and will have more power in my humble opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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