Adobe CS2 (Photoshop, InDesign) performance problems

In growing numbers, users are reporting issues with performance from Adobe's Creative Suite 2 (CS2) applications, including Photoshop 8 and InDesign.

MacFixIt reader Tom's case is typical:

"I have installed CS2 twice now and followed Adobe's intricate installation process to the letter the second time, but no difference. I still have CS1 installed and CS2 is consistently 20-30% slower than CS1, independent of which application you open first, what other applications you have open, or whether you have Bridge open or not. The only CS2 app that works perfectly is Acrobat 7 which as Adobe tech support say "is not really part of the CS2 suite" and runs independent of the CS2 environment and shared archives etc.

"Having spoken to Adobe tech support, they say they cannot acknowledge that there is a problem as the policy is that they cannot admit any problems. Great! However, they suspect that the CS2 sub-system (Bridge etc.) would be at fault, if indeed there is a fault...

"They say that Level 3 tech support monitors the Adobe forums and will be aware of the problem, and their advice is to keep updating until Level 3 tech support finds a fix."

Posters to Adobe's Discussion boards corroborate performance problems.

David Johnson writes:

"I installed a clean install of Studio CS2 and have been pulling my hair out at the same problems. I am running with 4 gigs of RAM and had no problems with CS on a dual 2.0. I upgraded machines and installed CS2 and the only real problem I have is delays. The speed itself is very impressive when CS2 is running full speed.. however at random times while working...for example if I've been working within my image for some time and I move to change layers...upon clicking on the new layer I get the spinning rainbow wheel for sometimes up to a full minute."

Some users have reported that turning off the WYSIWYG font preview option results in a noticeable speed increase, while others have had success re-building disk directories with a tool like DiskWarrior.

If you are experiencing similar slow-down problems with Adobe CS2 applications, please let us know.

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