[filmscanners] Photoshop (on Mac) bogs, VueScan hogging processor?

["Julian Vrieslander" <julianv@mindspring.com>]

I have Photoshop 6.0.1 running on a Mac G4/867, under OS 9.2.2.  This Mac
has 1.5GB RAM (600MB allocated to PS).  PS has a 10GB scratch partition
on a second internal HD.  This is usually a very quick system.  But
sometimes I see Photoshop operations slowing to a crawl.  Example: I set
a up a selection rectangle for a crop or free transform, and drag on one
of the handles.  The handle does not move with my mouse drag, and the Mac
is unresponsive for 30 seconds or a minute.  Then the screen suddenly
redraws and the Mac is responsive again.

VueScan 7.4.2 is running in the background (with a scanned image, but
idle).  If I quit VueScan, and retry the same operations in Photoshop,
the selection handles move properly as I drag them, and the image redraws
in a few seconds.

Has anyone else seen effects like this?

One possibility is that VueScan, although idled, is in a state which hogs
CPU cycles.  Mac OS versions 9.x and earlier run cooperative
multitasking.  When applications are running in background they are
supposed to quickly yield the CPU.  Another wild guess: some sort of
activity at the driver level.  I use VueScan on a Nikon LS-4000.

--
Julian Vrieslander <mailto:julianv@mindspring.com>

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