Need a new iMac

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

Just about to do the latest Big Sur update to 11.4 - how I hate doing these......

 

Carol

[MizBrown]

3 hours ago, CAROL SAUNDERS said:

Just about to do the latest Big Sur update to 11.4 - how I hate doing these......

 

Carol

 

Went well for me.  Both the iMac and the iPad had updates.

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

1 hour ago, MizBrown said:

 

Went well for me.  Both the iMac and the iPad had updates.

Mine also went well, I even left the room while it was doing whatever it was doing - my bravery knows no bounds 😄

 

Carol

[Betty LaRue]

Email from OWC had these instructions. Take a clean pink eraser and stroke the RAM contacts 3 or 4 times in the same direction, both sides. Clean any possible eraser dust with the back of my hand. Put the sticks in slots 1 & 2. Perform PRAM, holding down the 4 keys while turning on the computer. Did all of that, waited quite a while to be sure to give it the required time. It didn’t boot.

 

I just spoke with B &H and they are shipping out new RAM tomorrow. I should get it Monday. Meanwhile, they’ve sent a shipping label to send the defective RAM back. What a pain.

If the new RAM comes on time, installation goes smooth and the computer boots, I may consider getting inebriated in celebration. Nah. That would give me another headache, and I’ve had enough of those lately.

[Betty LaRue]

7 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

People like you for what YOU are and not for what you DO.

 

Allan

 

Appreciate that, Allan.

[Betty LaRue]

I am thrilled to say that my new 32GB RAM, 2x16s, are installed. When my Mac booted, I picked myself up off the floor and did a happy dance.

 

[MizBrown]

Yay.  Now you have 16GB graphics card ram and 32GB for everything else. 

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

5 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I am thrilled to say that my new 32GB RAM, 2x16s, are installed. When my Mac booted, I picked myself up off the floor and did a happy dance.

 

That's fantastic Betty am really happy for you and I'll drink to that !😄🍷

 

Carol

[Betty LaRue]

You should have seen me startle-jump when the startup music played! There was that small lag while it initialized and I did NOT have high hopes!
I just may drink to that with you, Carol. Let’s tip the old elbow. 

[MDM]

28 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I am thrilled to say that my new 32GB RAM, 2x16s, are installed. When my Mac booted, I picked myself up off the floor and did a happy dance.

 

 

Fantastic Betty. I knew it had to work as the computer could not be faulty given that the other RAM was working. 

[Betty LaRue]

15 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

Yay.  Now you have 16GB graphics card ram and 32GB for everything else. 

I had to develop two Images just to be sure everything worked, lol. It’s been a long, troublesome slog. And it wasn’t me, but defective RAM.  
At least my computer-carrying muscles are built up, but my back isn’t thanking me. As MDM pointed out, the computer only weighs 20 pounds, but that’s about 10 over what is barely manageable. I haven’t been able to carry a camera bag in ages, unless I carried my camera in one hand and a small bag with one extra lens in the other. And then, only a very short distance. Why carrying my camera in one hand makes a difference, I guess it’s distributing the weight.

The good thing is I only had to carry it one round trip this time.

All in all, it was worth it, and I’d do it again. My mama gave me a huge dose of stubborn, and I’ve always seen things through once started.  I suspect you are the same.

The only thing I hate about not doing a clean install is I have things popping up on startup, especially mail, that I don’t want to do that. I have googled it and taken the deselect steps but it’s still happening.

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, MDM said:

 

Fantastic Betty. I knew it had to work as the computer could not be faulty given that the other RAM was working. 

Again, Michael, you have been fan-damn-tastic through all of this. 

[MDM]

2 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Again, Michael, you have been fan-damn-tastic through all of this. 

 

No worries Betty. Glad it's working and I hope it will bring you many hours of creative joy. 😀

[MDM]

48 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

 

The only thing I hate about not doing a clean install is I have things popping up on startup, especially mail, that I don’t want to do that. I have googled it and taken the deselect steps but it’s still happening.

 

I have a few suggestions on how to sort this whenever you are in the mood. Or you could read this MacWorld article, given that you are now a Terminal power user - novice grade. As it says, don't touch anything in the System Library but the Library or User Library should be OK.
 

EDIT - there is no need to use Terminal by the way. You just navigate in the finder to the folders where LaunchAgents might reside. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by MDM

[Betty LaRue]

41 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

I have a few suggestions on how to sort this whenever you are in the mood. Or you could read this MacWorld article, given that you are now a Terminal power user - novice grade. As it says, don't touch anything in the System Library but the Library or User Library should be OK.
 

EDIT - there is no need to use Terminal by the way. You just navigate in the finder to the folders where LaunchAgents might reside. 

I’ll dig into this next week. Monday is Memorial Day here, a holiday, and I’ll have family all 3 day weekend. Then Tuesday, ugh, a root canal. Unless you’d like to go in my place since you’re so helpful. 😁 So mid-week sometime. I won’t be (have time to be) on the computer anyway for it to bug me. I think you all have a holiday, too, don’t you?

[MDM]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

I’ll dig into this next week. Monday is Memorial Day here, a holiday, and I’ll have family all 3 day weekend. Then Tuesday, ugh, a root canal. Unless you’d like to go in my place since you’re so helpful. 😁 So mid-week sometime. I won’t be (have time to be) on the computer anyway for it to bug me. I think you all have a holiday, too, don’t you?

 

No problem Betty. I just did a search and learnt something new myself so that is good. I will forego the offer of dentistry. I had one of those root canal fillings a few years ago and then the gum got infected anyway some time later so had to have the tooth pulled. Not pleasant.

 

My son is coming home from uni tomorrow for the first time since Christmas so that is really nice. And summer seems to be coming at last. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by MDM

[Betty LaRue]

It seems that the things on startup that concerned me are gone. I did a few things I found online, and they must’ve worked.

The problem I’m having now is really odd. Ever since putting the 2X16s in, I get pop ups telling mr my RAM is low, close out programs.

Like last evening. I turned on the computer, opened PS and Bridge, opened one image and got that message. Nothing else was open. I had 16GB of RAM on my old Mac and never got that message. I clicked on the Apple and checked, and it shows a 16 in 2 and a 16 in 4. That’s the same configuration the 2X4s were in.

I don’t know how to trace the problem. Could there be programs running in the background I’m not aware of? When I close out PS, I do it in the top left corner, as I do Bridge. There is nothing else that shows as open.

Michael, can I get your expertise, please? 

[M.Chapman]

Michael will probably give the best advice. But I sometimes find PS is not good at releasing memory from previous edits. I find it's worth actually quitting PS (top PS menu Photoshop>Quit Photoshop) occassionally, especially if I've been editing for a day or so. Clicking the Red spot just "closes" the PS application window, but PS itself is still "open" and using memory. Whereas Quitting actually shuts PS down competely and releases more RAM. (Hope my terminology is right there)

 

The Activity Monitor app can be used to check which applications are using RAM. The Activity Monitor app can be found in the Applications/Utility folder.

 

Mark

 

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by M.Chapman

[MDM]

54 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

It seems that the things on startup that concerned me are gone. I did a few things I found online, and they must’ve worked.

The problem I’m having now is really odd. Ever since putting the 2X16s in, I get pop ups telling mr my RAM is low, close out programs.

Like last evening. I turned on the computer, opened PS and Bridge, opened one image and got that message. Nothing else was open. I had 16GB of RAM on my old Mac and never got that message. I clicked on the Apple and checked, and it shows a 16 in 2 and a 16 in 4. That’s the same configuration the 2X4s were in.

I don’t know how to trace the problem. Could there be programs running in the background I’m not aware of? When I close out PS, I do it in the top left corner, as I do Bridge. There is nothing else that shows as open.

Michael, can I get your expertise, please? 

 

Strange one Betty. I really don't know. Activity Monitor is the app to use in your Applications- Utility folder to see what memory is being used. Maybe try a 1-3 configuration if it continues without breaking your back. You could also try putting the original memory back in alongside it. You can do an Apple hardware check to see if something is faulty - do a search and use the guidance on the Apple website. 

[MDM]

20 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Michael will probably give the best advice. But I sometimes find PS is not good at releasing memory from previous edits. I find it's worth actually quitting PS (top PS menu Photoshop>Quit Photoshop) occassionally, especially if I've been editing for a day or so. Clicking the Red spot may just "close" the application without releasing memory, whereas Quitting actually shuts PS down competely and releases more RAM. (Not sure if my terminology is right there)

 

The Activity Monitor app can be used to check which applications are using RAM. The Activity Monitor app can be found in the Applications/Utility folder.

 

Mark

 

 

 

Thanks Mark. I am not so sure my advice would be better than your's. I would be surprised If Photoshop would use so much memory unless there are a lot of big files open. The amount of RAM used by Photoshop can be controlled in the Prefs of course. I wonder if is Bridge caching loads of files. I find it to be a very inefficient app in general for handling large numbers of files.

 

Thinking about it, I would suggest not using Bridge and seeing if it still happens as a first step.

Edited June 10, 2021 by MDM

[M.Chapman]

Something else it might be worth checking is the amount of memory you're allowing PS to use.

In the top menu goto PS>Preferences>Performance

My system is set to allow PS to use 70% of the available RAM.

I have occassionally seen the low memory message too (I also have 32GB RAM in my iMac). The culprit has usually been PS failing to release RAM (I've no idea why). Saving whatever image(s) I'm working on and the quitting and restarting PS usually fixes it. I've only seen the problem arise after several days of editing in PS without quitting.

 

Mark

[MDM]

12 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Something else it might be worth checking is the amount of memory you're allowing PS to use.

In the top menu goto PS>Preferences>Performance

My system is set to allow PS to use 70% of the available RAM.

I have occassionally seen the low memory message too (I also have 32GB RAM in my iMac). The culprit has usually been PS failing to release RAM (I've no idea why). Saving whatever image(s) I'm working on and the quitting and restarting PS usually fixes it. I've only seen the problem arise after several days of editing in PS without quitting.

 

Mark

 

The odd thing is that is happening apparently since installing the extra RAM. But it Is probably nothing to do with hardware. Experimenting with Photoshop or Bridge in the first place and keeping an eye with Activity Monitor would seem to be the way to go,

[M.Chapman]

5 minutes ago, MDM said:

The odd thing is that is happening apparently since installing the extra RAM.

I didn't think Betty did much editing on the new Mac before adding extra RAM? If so there's potentially a lot of things that have changed (new iMac, new MacOS etc., added RAM). So it's hard to draw a conclusion. I agree, to diagnose this I'd use the Activity monitor. I have mine running all the time, becuase, if RAM runs low it's already open (opening another app with low RAM can lockup my Mac for a while). I perhaps see problems more often as I've usually got LR, PS and a Windows 7 VM all running at the same time, and sometimes stitching multi-shot panoramas together.

 

I think another "memory hogger" might be Google Chrome or was it Firefox? Again I find it's worth Quitting some apps now and then.

 

Mark

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

Michael will probably give the best advice. But I sometimes find PS is not good at releasing memory from previous edits. I find it's worth actually quitting PS (top PS menu Photoshop>Quit Photoshop) occassionally, especially if I've been editing for a day or so. Clicking the Red spot just "closes" the PS application window, but PS itself is still "open" and using memory. Whereas Quitting actually shuts PS down competely and releases more RAM. (Hope my terminology is right there)

 

The Activity Monitor app can be used to check which applications are using RAM. The Activity Monitor app can be found in the Applications/Utility folder.

 

Mark

 

 

Thanks, Mark. I always close out PS with Quit. Always. I will check the activity monitor.

[Betty LaRue]

I did some editing while waiting for the RAM to be exchanged by B&H. I could tell PS saved slower with only 8GB, but I don’t think I got the low RAM warning then.

When I finish editing, like I said, I always shut off all programs, then I turn my computer off. I seldom allow it to sleep even when I think I might work again later. Off it goes.

It's weird, for sure.

On my old Machine, I often has PS, Bridge, LR and the Internet open to do research. I never got a low RAM warning with 16GB. I just noticed saving a tiff wasn’t instantaneous.

I’ll let you know if I find something.

Mark, if you assign 70% to Photoshop, does that cause LR to slow? My workflow (usually) is edit in LR, open into PS for a few other adjustments, then saving a tiff alongside the RAW. Then I keyword in Bridge, save a jpeg to an upload folder.