Illustrator problems all around

[DigitalBrown]

I have just purchased and installed Illustrator CS.
I have a 2gig processor, 512 mb ram and a seperate HDD of 80 gigs for a scratch disk running Windows XP Pro. My problem is I cannot get anything to work, unless I constantly hit control-alt-delete. After every move/select I must hit control-alt-delete to "free up" my comp to make another move/selection. PhotoShop works fine. Can anyone help me out here?

 

[Kirderf]

Do you have any other programs running when Illustrator is running?

I would reinstall the program and see if this fixes it.
Mine works fine on a similar setup....even with 6 or 7 other programs running.

I'd gladly pay you on Thursday
for a hamburger today!

 

[DigitalBrown]

have no other programs running (and I too can usually run several other programs whilst using PS). I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it twice. I just do not understand what is causing this problem. I have scanned my drives for viruses, and defraged the system, still no help.

 

[jmgalvin]

You might be having problems caused by anti-virus software. Ill saves things sort of wierdly, sometimes being effect by AV. I believe that Norton has been noted as causing the most problems.

You might try disabling your AV, reinstalling IL and trying it without your AV enabled. If it works, enable AV and see if the problems recur.

You did not mention if your machine has a separate video card with it's own VRAM. Illustrator is a total RAM/VRAM hog - much more than Photoshop (unless you're working with an ungodly number of layers and filters). If you use any embedded graphics or display high quality liked EPS, you're eating memory.

To do a test, try opening your Settings (preferences) and go to Units & display performance. Select faster updates - all the way. Got to File handling and check Low Resolution Proxy For Linked EPS. Go to General and UNCHECK everything. If you get any better performance, you're low on RAM/VRAM. Being low on VRAM will definitely slow redraws. Being low on RAM will require your machine to access virtual memory on the hard drive, slowing performance. Adobe is very clear on this - ILL likes lots of memory.

As a reference, I use a Mac G4, 1.25 ghz single processor with 1280 megs of RAM plus a 64 meg ATI video card. I typically run Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign/Acrobat/Word/Safari/Entourage (That's Mac version of Outlook), simultaneously with no difficulties at all.

 

[DigitalBrown]

Thanks for the replies so far.
jmgalvin I will try your ideas.
Just for infos sake, I do have a video card, GForce Ti with 128 mb of memory.

 

[DigitalBrown]

Woohoo! jmgalvin your advice of reinstalling without virus protection was brilliant. All is well now. And I feel silly, I guess its just easy to forget the virus protection is there. Thanks again for all the replies and attempts at helping me solve my problem.