File list slows to crawl with image files

[srm]

I'm running XP/SP2 (fully patched) on a 2.6GHz box with 1.5Gb RAM. Whenever
I open a folder containing a large number of image files, the machine slows
to a crawl while it display the list of files. I'm not talking about
thumbnail view - the same happens in list view. And it happens in Windows
Explorer and a number of applications. This is getting annoying. Today,
needed to burn about 110 images to CD and Roxio took 3 minutes to display
the file list.

In Windows Explorer, I can see the list of filenames straight away, but
can't do anything with the files until it has finished drawing the little
Tiff or Jpeg icons. Argh!

Any thoughts on how I can speed things up?

 

[Guest]

Just to make sure, Have you done a virus and spyware scan on your PC? this
might slow the business down. Can you view other PICs that are in other
folders and is that fast or slow?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Slide the acceleration down on your video adapter, control panel, display folder,
settings tab, advanced button, troubleshoot tab.

It very well could be your video driver need upgrading if the above helps. Go to the
manufacturer's web site and look around.

You might empty your temp cache in Internet Explorer. In IE, tools, Internet Options,
delete files.

 

[srm]

Just to make sure, Have you done a virus and spyware scan on your PC? this
might slow the business down. Can you view other PICs that are in other
folders and is that fast or slow?

Yep. I use Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D and regularly (about once a week) run
both in safe mode. No reported problems. I also do very little web browsing
or email with this machine - it's used almost exclusively for digital
photography.

Just to re-iterate, this problem occurs when just viewing lists of files in
folders - not when viewing images themselves - regardless of which folder
(except that it's only slow when viewing folders containing image files
rather than, say, WP docs). It's the same, slow speed whether I view the
folder in list mode or thumbnail mode.

 

[srm]

Slide the acceleration down on your video adapter, control panel, display
folder, settings tab, advanced button, troubleshoot tab.

It very well could be your video driver need upgrading if the above helps.
Go to the manufacturer's web site and look around.

Hmm. I have no problem viewing images themselves - they seem to open fine.
It's when viewing the contents of a folder that contains image files (even
if I'm viewing it in list mode and it's only drawing generic icons) that
the problem occurs. There's no problem if it's a folder full of WP docs or
other file types, so I can't see that it's a graphics system problem. It's
as if Windows Explorer is doing some kind of check on each and every file
when it encounters image files. But I've tried turning off virus scanning
(I use AVG) and also turned off thumbnail caching. Still crawls along.

You might empty your temp cache in Internet Explorer. In IE, tools,
Internet Options, delete files.

I don't use IE.

 

[John Inzer]

Are you accessing these files directly from
your hard drive or are they on a network?

I have seen the following issue reported but
but have no way of knowing if it would apply
to your issue:

===

If you are using WinXP and have networked drives
setup as drives in explorer and the networked computer
is not available, you will get these long delays in bringing
up your picture folders, documents folders, etc. As soon
as you disconnect all non-local drives, the problem goes
away.

===

It's also possible that doing a little system
maintenance would improve the issue:

Running Disk Cleanup, Error Checking and
Defrag on a regular schedule is a good idea.

(310312) Description of the Disk Cleanup
Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310312

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315265

(314848) How to Defragment Your Disk
Drive Volumes in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314848

Also, increasing the size of your Paging File
may help:

(308417) HOW TO: Set Performance Options
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308417

(314482) How to Configure Paging Files for
Optimization and Recovery in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314482

 

[srm]

Are you accessing these files directly from
your hard drive or are they on a network?

This is a local drive. It is configured for sharing, though. Could that
affect things? I'll try turning off the sharing and see what happens.

It's also possible that doing a little system
maintenance would improve the issue:

Thanks. Did all that, without any improvement. The problem seems to occur
both when file browsing in Windows (ie, Windows Explorer) and when using
apps (such as Roxio) which seem (as far as I can work out) to use the
Windows file browser. F'rinstance, when I use Nikon View, it pulls up the
files immediately.

Just occured to me that with 1.5Gb RAM it's possible I didn't increase the
size of the paging file enough (I set it to letting the system decide, but
I've just noticed that it says that the minimum should be 2Gb, yet it's
only allocated 1.5Gb). So, I'll go give that a try...

 

[srm]

Just occured to me that with 1.5Gb RAM it's possible I didn't increase the
size of the paging file enough (I set it to letting the system decide, but
I've just noticed that it says that the minimum should be 2Gb, yet it's
only allocated 1.5Gb). So, I'll go give that a try...

BTW, that didn't seem to help much.

 

[Rehan]

hustedj wrote:
this problem occurs when just viewing lists of files in
folders - not when viewing images themselves - regardless of which folder

Once the list is displayed... how long does it take to display the menu
if you right click i=on an image?

Have you installed any image editing package recently?


Some times the xp's DLL used for image tasks get hijacked. Executing the
following line on the Start->Run dialog should restore it:

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

 

[Guest]

I am having the very same problem here!! It started about 3 weeks ago and is
about to drive me insane!!

I posted a question about this in another area, so maybe one of us will get
an answer!!

 

[srm]

I am having the very same problem here!! It started about 3 weeks ago and
is about to drive me insane!!

I posted a question about this in another area, so maybe one of us will
get an answer!!

We can but hope. The problem started on my machine somewhat more than 3
weeks ago, but I'm really starting to suspect that the problem may have
been introduced by an update (I have the machine set to automatic updates).
I haven't manually changed any configurations since long before this
problem appeared.

I'm so hacked off with this that I've come to the conclusion the only
solution may be to throw money at the problem. I use this WinXP box for
professional photography - all our other machines, aside from one elderly
Mac, run Linux which I much prefer as a desktop environment, but which -
alas - doesn't have the colour management capabilities I need for
photography. So I've decided to replace the WinXP box with a new Mac - a
far superior platform for digital imaging anyway, and with Mac prices
having just dropped considerably this is now a viable option. The WinXP
machine is already dual-boot with SuSE 9.1, so I can use that as a
workstation and just boot into Windows once a month when I do my accounts
(the two accounts packages I use are Win-only - though I may see if they'll
run under Crossover Office, which I haven't tried yet).

 

[Marshall Harrison]

Are the files on a network drive?

If so then check this out http://www.ss64.com/nt/slow_browsing.html

Marshall

 

[srm]

Are the files on a network drive?

No. Local hard drive (C: drive, in fact).

Note, the problem only occurs with image files - not other documents - and
only in the Windows file browser (other apps using their own file browsing
view these image files with no trouble).

 

[Guest]

I too am a professional photographer, but that has nothing to do with the
problem.

I agree it more than likely has to do with an update. I hadn't made any
changes on my system when this started.

 

[Guest]

GOT IT FIXED!

I had my computer guy come back out and try again, and after several things,
some how he found that the "generate thumbnails" was checked.

right click on any image, go to Properties, then to the "Photoshop Image"
tab. I bet it's checked.

Let me know if that does it for you too.

Hope this helps.

 

[srm]

GOT IT FIXED!

I had my computer guy come back out and try again, and after several
things, some how he found that the "generate thumbnails" was checked.

right click on any image, go to Properties, then to the "Photoshop Image"
tab. I bet it's checked.

Let me know if that does it for you too.

Hope this helps.

Nah! That was the first thing I tried...

Doesn't matter much now - my new Mac's arriving soon, which means I'll be
able to dump MS's toy OS for all serious work.

 

[srm]

Nah! That was the first thing I tried...

Doesn't matter much now - my new Mac's arriving soon, which means I'll be
able to dump MS's toy OS for all serious work.

One final note. I had cause to reboot into safe mode today (doing a regular
check with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D). I had wondered if the slow file
display might be connected with other running services, such as AVG. But
the problem persisted in safe mode, too, with the minimum number of
services running.