OS Lion + Beach Ball in PM

[patrickhamilton]

Kirk,

PM is unusable ..... I have just finished filing what really should have taken 30 min at most , has taken two hour's  - to caption & file 20 pictures .

Here is why .....

- when copying pictures from my raw folder to an edit folder , just to copy was taking 30-45 seconds  !
- then I edit in Lightroom ..... very quick using an action ...export into the edit folder ....another 45 sec of beach ball .
-then PM takes a sleep while I'm trying to caption ....another 45 sec to 1 min .
- file using transmit ....all good + simple
-back to original raw folder ..... beach ball again for 45 sec - 1 min.....
-repeat the frustrating process on a deadline ...... ludicrous is an understatement.


I am shooting PGA golf tomorrow for AFP , but I can't use this machine ..... what can I do ?

Should I uninstall PM  & try to reinstall an older version  in the short term ?

In the long term , what should I do ? It only seems to be PM that is running like a busted bum .....
Do you have any tech clues to help me

Help ...... this is serious !


Let me know if anything emerges ..... 

[Sven]

What you can try:
Shut down your Mac
power it on with "Command-R" pressed (this will bring you to the recovery partition)
Fron there go the Disk-Utility, select you internal Disk
Try repairing permissions and repair volume.
When finished boot back into your "normal" Lion

[Kirk Baker]

Patrick,

Am I running low on memory and is virtual memory paging going on ?
What should I have virtual memory set at ?
Disk Cache is set to 1024MB
Reserve 100 MB on disk cache volume
Memory Cache Size : 800

I can only speak of the moment that you took your screenshot but:

Your overall virtual memory size is over 200 GB and you have 8 GB of real RAM on your system.  Now that isn't really as bad as it sounds since all of those apps aren't currently trying to access all of that RAM at once or your swap size would be much larger.
But your free RAM is only 10.9 MB so when any application needs more than that amount of memory, your system will have to page the least recently used memory out to your swap file which will grow in size.  In fact, some paging was occurring at the time of the screenshot.

Here is what I want you to do:

Quit all apps.  Everything!
Start PM.  Set 'Filename' sort as the default sort.
Use PM the way you normally do.

Does it perform well?  Does it still have issues?  If it still has pauses, send me several (4-5) time samples from the Activity Monitor.

HTH,

-Kirk

[FVlcek]

Hello, I would certainly try shutting the other apps down. From your screenshot you don't seem to be running too much apps, apart from Firefox (which could be a problemous version), but from your top menu bar icons and list of the processes there are at least four utilities running (see the top left four icons), one probably some adobe updater, than some ninja icon, and two more. From the process list you have some Logitech Control Center software running. Definitely try without Firefox, and definitely shut down these "helper" utilities. For example, Logitech software in the past versions of OS X was at fault of breaking apple systems at update to OS X Leopard. So perhaps one of these is faulty. Otherwise, on my 8gig OS X rig, I can run PS and PM without any swapping and memory page outs even when converting a lot of RAW files and browsing in PM at the same time, even with few more apps running in the background.

[Kirk Baker]

Frantisek,

Hello, I would certainly try shutting the other apps down. From your screenshot you don't seem to be running too much apps, apart from Firefox (which could be a problemous version), but from your top menu bar icons and list of the processes there are at least four utilities running (see the top left four icons), one probably some adobe updater, than some ninja icon, and two more. From the process list you have some Logitech Control Center software running. Definitely try without Firefox, and definitely shut down these "helper" utilities. For example, Logitech software in the past versions of OS X was at fault of breaking apple systems at update to OS X Leopard. So perhaps one of these is faulty. Otherwise, on my 8gig OS X rig, I can run PS and PM without any swapping and memory page outs even when converting a lot of RAW files and browsing in PM at the same time, even with few more apps running in the background.

Because Mac OS X Lion hides scroll bars on windows, it is hard to tell how many applications Patrick is running.  But based on the VM size it seems like there are several more apps in the list that are not visible.

-Kirk

[patrickhamilton]

Kirk,

Any updated ideas following the info I sent you 10 days ago … I have not had any reply …. Still getting the beach ball ….

Be nice if I could find a solution  …. 

[Kirk Baker]

Kirk,

Any updated ideas following the info I sent you 10 days ago … I have not had any reply …. Still getting the beach ball ….

Be nice if I could find a solution  …. 

I wrote you back about 20 minutes after your last email.  Here is what I wrote:

Did you follow my instructions on the forums?  Specifically did you:

1) Quit all applications, including Photo Mechanic?
2) Start PM up, and set your default Sort type to 'Filename'? (Open the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog, click on the Contact Sheet tab, set the Sort popup menu to 'Filename')

Also, set your Memory Cache down a bit to 512MB from the 800MB you listed earlier.

And lastly, try contacting support@camerabits.com as they might have some other strategies that may help.

Kind regards,

-Kirk

Kirk A. Baker
Senior Software Engineer
Camera Bits, Inc.

[patrickhamilton]

Kirk,

I have tried all that you have suggested ... but I'm still seriously hamstrung by this problem .

What now ? I thought you were the best point of contact , but can you refer these issues to your support area Or do I now have to repeat this whole process again to support ?

Are the issues I am having , common with other users?

Do have any other solutions ?
Should I uninstall PM ?
Does this sound like a PM issue or do I need to backup my laptop & start again ie Is it a problem with Lion OS ?
Any answers you could supply , I would really appreciate .

As I have said before , I depend on PM & this is really slowing my work flow , to the point were , I can't use PM

thanks in advance

PH

[Kirk Baker]

Patrick,

I have tried all that you have suggested ... but I'm still seriously hamstrung by this problem .

What now ? I thought you were the best point of contact , but can you refer these issues to your support area Or do I now have to repeat this whole process again to support ?

Are the issues I am having , common with other users?

Do have any other solutions ?
Should I uninstall PM ?
Does this sound like a PM issue or do I need to backup my laptop & start again ie Is it a problem with Lion OS ?
Any answers you could supply , I would really appreciate.

If you're using PM 4.6.8, you should have no serious issues when running on Mac OS X 10.7.x.

At this point I suggest contacting support@camerabits.com and reference this thread.  They may have other suggestions.

-Kirk

[patrickhamilton]

Hi Kirk….. I'm still having issues when using PM …..

- when ingesting images , the process seems to run for about 10-15 images , then pauses for about 30-45 sec , then resumes . During the pause , I have opened the force quit panel , which shows the message that PM is not responding .

- still getting the beach ball when bring to copy images to other folders .
- I have tried all that has been suggested , even to the point of reinstalling . Do I need to do a complete reinstall of all my software and OS , as maybe there is a bug somewhere , which I can't seem to shake ?

I have tried to contact your support via phone (bloody expensive from Australia) but I can't seem to get through ….. I have a very early start to an assignment , in the morning , can I try to contact you via Skype ?

I really need to find a solution to this , as I have started , I relie on PM so much , but at present it really is slowing my workflow on deadlines ….. Please Help Me  or refer this email to the support area , so we can try & find a solution .

talk soon

Patrick

[Kirk Baker]

Patrick,

Hi Kirk….. I'm still having issues when using PM …..

- when ingesting images , the process seems to run for about 10-15 images , then pauses for about 30-45 sec , then resumes . During the pause , I have opened the force quit panel , which shows the message that PM is not responding .

- still getting the beach ball when bring to copy images to other folders .
- I have tried all that has been suggested , even to the point of reinstalling . Do I need to do a complete reinstall of all my software and OS , as maybe there is a bug somewhere , which I can't seem to shake ?

I have tried to contact your support via phone (bloody expensive from Australia) but I can't seem to get through ….. I have a very early start to an assignment , in the morning , can I try to contact you via Skype ?

I really need to find a solution to this , as I have started , I relie on PM so much , but at present it really is slowing my workflow on deadlines ….. Please Help Me  or refer this email to the support area , so we can try & find a solution.

I'll have them contact you via email or preferably by phone.

-Kirk