I know the answer is out there but can't get 'search' to work, so here goes.

[earthshine]

5. Sudden slow downs indicate that the hard drive and processor are busy doing other things.

It may be the case that your computer is running real-time hard disk and memory scans for malware when you are trying to get work done. Try shutting it off temporarily to see if it helps.

You might not be aware of it, but each photo-editing maneuver involves writing to the disk in the designated TEMP folder. It's twice as much if the PSP undo system is enabled, and it probably is.

If there's contention for the disk or processors, there will be stuttering on the screen.

You could upgrade the drive to an SSD, and it would help substantially with these disk-access problems.

This particular computer is not designed to be a production-oriented workstation. Adding memory and a new drive will only get you so far.

It's definitely a nice one for watching videos and doing email. Real nice.