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Edit: I updated thread title and the opening post to reflect new findings.

I'm sorry for returning to an old and already resolved issue but I'm sort of desperate.

I started to experience an issue that manifests very similarly like the referred post described. After trial and error, I was able to reproduce the issue reliably this way (when I skip any step, the issue does not occur):

  1. boot the PC
  2. start Photoshop
  3. start Word 2016
  4. type something in Word and copy it to clipboard
  5. switch to Photoshop
  6. observe that Photoshop is not responding, sometimes Word is not responding along with it, but both eventually recover in like 20 seconds

There is a catch. While the referred poster probably didn't have enough of RAM...

...for me, this issue emerged after I upgraded hardware of my PC including RAM! It is almost brand new build. Originally, I had 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SATA SSD. My software workflow that remains the same for years worked without issues back then. Now I have 32 GB RAM along with 1 TB NVME SSD and this strange issue (which is new to me) occurs. Here is a video: https://clipchamp.com/watch/ah1Xt9h36vF

I have already tried to no avail

  • searching Google for hours (the thread mentioned above is the closest to what I experience)

  • deleting user data of Photoshop

  • reinstalling Photoshop and Office

  • launching Photoshop or Word as administrator

  • various compatibility settings of Photoshop and Word

  • changing core affinity and priority of the Photoshop.exe and Winword.exe services

  • turning off HW acceleration of Photoshop

  • changing RAM allocation of Photoshop

  • Overriding Physical Memory https://appuals.com/photoshop-not-enough-ram-error/

  • switching from 32bit to 64bit version of Word

  • disabled Add-Ins in Word

  • this procedure https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/ms-word-freezes-and-hangs-when-copy-pasting-why/9b86bd1a-10ac-466e-b0a5-6ebe2f11ec4c?page=2

  • upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 (except mentioned components, I upgraded from 3rd gen to 11th gen Core i5, which is said to need W11 to utilize its full potential)

  • turning off virtual memory in Windows

  • setting "Adjust for the best performance of 'Background Services'" in Performance/Advanced options within Windows

  • setting "Adjust for the best performance" in Performance / Visual Effects options within Windows

  • new clean user profile in Windows

  • disabling clipboard history

  • using "sfc scannow" to repair Windows system files (it supposedly fixed some errors, but the issue still persisted)

  • setting various power modes including "Performance"

  • checking Task Manager if the RAM was overloaded (it was not by far)

  • updating BIOS and drivers (including Nvidia Studio drivers)

  • turning off power saving modes in BIOS

  • deactivating certain CPU cores in BIOS

  • running Memory Diagnostics Tool and MemTest: no issues were found

  • removing battery from my motherboard leading to time reset

  • CMOS reset of motherboard's BIOS

  • changing RAM modules combinations (I'm using two modules, I tried all combinations you can imagine)

But when I go to MSCONFIG and select SELECTIVE STARTUP, go to SERVICES, enable MICROSOFT OFFICE CLICK-TO-RUN SERVICE only (needed for Word to run) and obligatory services (they auto-enable after pressing APPLY and getting THE PARAMETER IS INCORRECT warning) and RESTART computer clipchamp.com/watch/FXBaqjdVe1P , the issue is gone. I guess it means that certain service is causing the issue, but I was not able to identify it. Working with MSCONFIG is somewhat difficult. Disabling certain services cancels SELECTIVE STARTUP in favor of NORMAL STARTUP or make Windows unusable.

Any ideas? Unfortunately, some other CPU, MB or SSD is unavailable to me for the purpose of exchange.

Thank you.

carlos_the_hippo
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  • "*I'm using two modules, I tried all combinations ... running Memory Diagnostics Tool and MemTest: no issues were found*" -- Memtest86+ can also report performance numbers. Did you compare the performance of the various memory configurations? Are you using the optimal memory configuration? – sawdust Oct 12 '22 at 20:32
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    Are you using hardware acceleration within Photoshop. [Adobe has a very specific list of supported hardware it supports.](https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html#:~:text=How%20do%20I%20enable%20Photoshop,the%20Graphics%20Processor%20Settings%20section.). – Ramhound Oct 12 '22 at 21:40
  • Regarding GPU, not much has changed from my previous HW configuration. GTX 1060 still remains my primary GPU and I'm using HW acceleration inside Photoshop. Previously, my CPU had Intel HD Graphics 4000 which I guess was not used for anything. My current CPU lacks GPU altogether. Regarding RAM, I upgraded from DDR3 1866MHz to DDR4 3200MHz, which shows 12.6 GB/s datarate in Memtest. In overall, performance is fine, I can run various games. The issue occurs when I'm returning to previously opened Photoshop. I guess there is something wrong with memory management. – carlos_the_hippo Oct 13 '22 at 07:08
  • Photoshop has a tendency to just keep eating RAM over time - as each picture is opened & closed it doesn't give the memory back until quit. After just a couple of days mine is up to 6GB already, but I've seen it over 30GB after a few weeks [I tend to only reboot once a month or so & Ps stays open all that time.] Windows tends to start paging once half the physical RAM has been used. I'm on Mac which doesn't do that, it waits until almost all the physical RAM is used. I do see this issue on a Mac with only 16GB, everything slows down once it's using a fair amount of pagefile. – Tetsujin Oct 13 '22 at 07:33
  • When the issue occurs, Task Manager is showing that GBs of RAM are still empty (and even if it was not, I have fast SSD). I turn off my computer every day and it seems like the issue occurs more often after I reboot my PC. I was able to record it. Photoshop halted for half a minute in this case (on the start, I was clicking to zoom in, but I got no response, which was later confirmed in Resource Monitor as "Photoshop Not Responding; Task Manager data can also be seen). https://clipchamp.com/watch/ah1Xt9h36vF – carlos_the_hippo Oct 13 '22 at 14:19
  • That's only showing 16GB RAM, most of it used, which would give the symptoms I described. – Tetsujin Oct 13 '22 at 15:46
  • Before making the video, I removed one RAM module for the sake of diagnostics. The issue occurred for the first time when I had both modules in place with total capacity of 32 GB. And even if lack of RAM was the cause, I have superfast NVME storage https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-sn570-nvme-ssd#WDS100T3B0C , so it should not result in halt lasting half a minute (and as you can see on the video, my SSD is resting in the process). The issue is sort of random, so I tend to fill my memory with lots of browser tabs. That makes the issue more frequent I guess. – carlos_the_hippo Oct 13 '22 at 21:11
  • Today, I've spent hours diagnosing the issue. It was not resolved, but I was able to reproduce it reliably (9 out of 10 attempts). I found out that RAM does not have to be almost full, but it still seems to be related to RAM to me. It seems like some kind of conflict between Word and Photoshop. **1.** start the PC **2.** start Photoshop **3.** start Word 2016 **4.** type something in Word and copy it to clipboard **5.** switch to Photoshop **6.** observe that Photoshop is not responding, sometimes Word is not responding along with it – carlos_the_hippo Oct 14 '22 at 19:10
  • you might try doing a deeper dive using Process Explorer (run as admin) to try and see if there is any application that is spending too much time somewhere. The properties for applications has a tab that lets you see individual DLL calls and their delta times etc. This doesn't look like RAM to me, but rather feels like a timeout (e.g adobe cloud services on a sporadic connection etc.). ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer ) – Yorik Oct 14 '22 at 20:46
  • New discovery: when I go to MSCONFIG and select SELECTIVE STARTUP, go to SERVICES, enable MICROSOFT OFFICE CLICK-TO-RUN SERVICE only (needed for Word to run) and obligatory services (they auto-enable after pressing APPLY and getting THE PARAMETER IS INCORRECT warning) and RESTART computer https://clipchamp.com/watch/FXBaqjdVe1P , the issue is gone. I guess it means that certain service is causing the issue, but I was not able to indentify it. Working with MSCONFIG is somewhat difficult. Disabling certain services cancels SELECTIVE STARTUP in favor of NORMAL STARTUP or make Windows unusable. – carlos_the_hippo Oct 14 '22 at 23:04
  • This is what Process Explorer shows when both Photoshop and Word do not respond. I'm not sure what to focus on. https://clipchamp.com/watch/9Hz35r4SHWG – carlos_the_hippo Oct 14 '22 at 23:46

1 Answers1

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I noticed that right before the programs stop responding, "Print driver host for applications" process shows up inside the Microsoft Word stack in Task Manager ctrlv.cz/I4Np It led me to delete all printers on my system. The issue is no longer reproducible and the suspected process stopped showing up in Task Manager. I will monitor it further, but I hope the issue is gone. The mentioned process seems to have bad reputation https://serverfault.com/questions/950277/what-is-print-driver-host-for-applications-and-why-does-it-slow-down-my-excel Thanks to all!

P.S.: In case somebody has the same issue and needs printers, I would change their configuration.

P.S.: In case the issue returns, I will get back here.

carlos_the_hippo
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