Beginner Question

[AimeeJay]

Hi, Just got the DVD set this week, and seem to have a bizarre thing happening. I have open your dvd and photoshop (7) and am doing each lesson then going to photoshop to practice the techniques than back to the dvd for the next lesson. Problem is Pshop gets stuck on the hand tool and I have to restart the computer. I have not noticed this before: am I hitting something ? Is this normal? Should I reinstall Ps? I also have PS 5 on the same computer: is this the cause? help!
I am really enyoying the lessons but frustrated I have to restart between each lesson to use ps.

[Nick Saglimbeni]

Hi Aimee,

That's definitely a Photoshop problem, I would have no idea how to fix that. You'll have to contact Adobe for support. Good luck!

[Werner]

Aimee,

Adobe is legendarily bad at handling low memory situations, often creating the "illusion" your computer locks up (though most of the time it will recover after a couple or more minutes). If you don't have a 64-bit Windows with a 64-bit Photoshop with at the very least 4GB of memory, running Quicktime next to Photoshop (and other memory hogs like Outlook and/or IE with 20 screens open) can be problematic. I've used configurations ranging from 2GB Windows XP and Photoshop up to 16 GB 64-bit Windows 7 with 64-bit CS5 in the past year, with pretty much the same processor... the memory really makes most of the difference in my experience.