LR so slow it's unusable on Dell workstation

I've used LR at home with my personal photographs so when I needed photo catalog software for work I got LR again. I have about 15,000 scanning electron microscope photos that need to be indexed and keyworded for easy retrieval. The photos are all 1280x960 pixels, most are jpg with about 5% tifs.

My work computer is a Dell Precision T3500 workstation with a Xeon CPU running at 2.4 ghz, 4 gb RAM, Win XP Pro 32 bit SP3, Nvidia Quadro FX3800 1gb graphics card. I am running LR version 2.7.

The software runs so slowly it is essentially unusable. Any operation takes several seconds before something happens. If I want to scroll down I click on the scroll bar and it takes several seconds before the scrolling begins. If I want to add a keyword it takes about 5 seconds for it to register, etc, etc. I've been trying to keyword photos in the archive and it is maddening to sit and wait and wait for the simplest operation.

I've decided to try and solve this one more time before I give up and find another program to do what I need. Any ideas or help? Or, can you suggest a program that will do fast keywording/cataloging/​retrieval? I really don't need the other parts of LR for this application, I bought it because I was already familiar with it, but if there is a better alternative I'll get it.

Well, it's hard to take a stab on what might be wrong. You say you've been using LR at home -- you haven't been having these issues there, I presume? Can you identify any difference between your home system and your work system that might provide a clue?

As far as alternative software, there are tools that people here are using and can chime in about, but it still sounds like your system is misbehaving and it would be nice to find out why.

Tony, no problems with LR at home, which is running WinXP Pro 32 bit SP3, Intel Q6600 CPU, 4 gb RAM, Nvidia 8600 graphics card.

LR is a resource hog. It tries to take over your life. Instead try a specialist keywording programme that only does what you actually want/need.

Thats the problem with a lot of modern software. LR is primarily a DAM (thats Digital Asset Management) programme and is busy reinventing the wheel or splitting the atom or....... even if you don't want it to.

Is it possible your hard disk drive is full?

Aside from that, I wonder if faulty RAM could be an issue? The amount you have (4 GB) is fine but RAM can cause problems -- maybe if you could find a RAM test -- it's been some years since I've done anything like that but there are system diagnostic tests out there in the InterWebs...

Tony, it's a 250 gb HD with 185 gb free space. Lowner, I'm open to any suggestions for a simpler program that will just keyword/retrieve. Do you have any suggestions?

Make sure Flash & Shockwave fully work on your office machine (if possible, try going to youtube or rhapsody mp3 store if your company's security allows it). My Dell was having fits with PSE and LR until I finally got that issue solved. I also had to do a fresh reboot prior to opening LR or PSE.

Running LR2/PSE7 on a Dell 8300 (Pent IV, 3.0 GHz, 2.5 G Ram).

-- Glenn

Glenn, any more detail on how to make sure those are running and on what you did to resolve that issue on your computer? Can't go to either youtube or rhapsody, they are blocked.

You might try updating the graphics driver. There is a new one just released 8-2-2110:
http://www.nvidia.com …2-259.12-whql-driver.html

Kent,

I'm not sure which other sites are flash intensive. Hmmm, possibly the video on demand section of Amazon.com. Even if you aren't purchasing anything it wants to display previews.

I ended up first removing references from IE8 then completely removing Flash and Shockwave with Adobe's removal tools and Add/Remove Programs-- not sure on the ordering. I also ran a registry cleaner (PC Mechanic) and another from Microsoft itself; I'll have to look it up when I go home. Reboots in-between. Then I installed Flash, rebooted, then installed shockwave and rebooted. Installing shockwave right after flash w/o reboot in between seemed to mess up IE8's recognition of Flash. The issue was very frustrating.

-- Glenn

Are all the files in the same directory?
If so, you are asking the software to catalog a lot of files at the same time.
Don't know much about LR but this idea was the first thing that came to mind.

poloman, do you mean in the same catalog or do you mean in the same folder? I'm not sure what you mean by the same directory. They are on my local drive with folders for each year and then each job has a folder in that year. Each job has up to 100 photos in it. But, I created a new catalog and put 10 photos in it and it ran just as miserably as it does with 15,000.

Does anybody have a recomendation for a pure keywording/cataloging/​retrieval program? I just chose LR since I had used it before but I don't need most of its capabilities. I really need keywords so I can retrieve photos when requested.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Specs sound fine - there's something else going on.

I'd agree on updating the graphics card driver. Also keep an eye on Task Manager to see what's going on.

Have you checked that a virus checker isn't fighting for the same files? Have you tried trashing the preferences, just on the offchance that it'll solve it?

Back when we used to run PCs we found the program imatch to be quite good for adding keywords - could be worth a look as an alternative.

LR3 seems to have trouble on a small number of computers. I use a machine much like the one you have, it absolutely screams, even running Win7 and 4 virtualised operating systems.

I suggest you use a proper DAM program.