graphics tablet and photoshop smudge tool crashing woes.

June 16, 2008 8:16 AM

I have an old Active XP-Pen graphics tablet with up to date drivers that I use for occasional graphic design work in Photoshop CS2. All seems to be fine except when I use the smudge tool. After a short while the action on screen becomes laggy and then Photoshop hangs completely. No amount of waiting has brought it back so far so I lose work. Will getting a nice shiney new Wacom tablet solve my problem or is this more likely a hardware issue on my PC's side?

I'm using it on a Dell 8600 laptop with 1.7 Ghz processor and 2 GB of ram. Running XP. Thanks.

posted by merocet to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Try it with another computer and see what happens.
posted by grobstein at 8:27 AM on June 16, 2008

Best answer: Hardware issue. The smudge tool requires a lot of horsepower.

The bigger the brush is, the slower the lag, until it hangs.
posted by Memo at 8:30 AM on June 16, 2008

Best answer: When I use smudge, I have to do small sections, let it catch up. Anytime I drag for more than a couple of seconds, I run the risk of a crash. That's on an older desktop setup with similar specs to your laptop. It is almost definitely on your computer for this, as the tablet is a glorified mouse input. Try it with your mouse and see if you have the same result.
posted by shinynewnick at 9:12 AM on June 16, 2008

Best answer: It's the smudge tool itself. It really works the CPU hard. I have a computer with a lot of oomph at work and even then the smudge tool can make it hiccup.
posted by azpenguin at 10:09 AM on June 16, 2008

Response by poster: So much for my attempts to replicate my charcoal drawing technique electronically then! Back to paper and black fingers I go.

Thanks to everyone who answered.
posted by merocet at 11:20 AM on June 16, 2008