Photoshop 27.8 Remove Tool freezes permanently and cannot be cancelled or saved

The Remove Tool freezes during processing and leaves the pink Remove Tool overlay stuck on screen. Photoshop becomes unusable and will not accept normal input.

This has happened three times in two days. It happened once yesterday and twice today.

Clicking anywhere in the Photoshop window only triggers the Windows exclamation sound. Alt Tab does not show any hidden Photoshop dialog or error window. The application appears trapped in the Remove Tool operation.

This happened during active production work, after a significant amount of unsaved retouching. I work on very large PSB files but have 128 GB RAM.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open a PSB file.
2. Use the Remove Tool on an image area.
3. Wait for the Remove Tool to process.
4. Photoshop freezes with the pink Remove Tool overlay still visible.

This does not always freeze. It only freezes randomly and unfortunately after a significant amount of other retouching work. 

Expected result:
The Remove Tool should complete normally. If it fails, the operation should be cancellable and the user should still be able to save the document.

Actual result:
Photoshop becomes stuck. The Remove Tool operation does not complete. The user cannot cancel the operation, save the document, undo the operation, or continue working.

Already tried:
Esc
Ctrl S
Ctrl Z
Alt Tab to check for hidden dialogs
Win Ctrl Shift B to reset the graphics driver
Waiting to see if the operation completes

None of these recovered Photoshop.
 

Photoshop version:
Photoshop 27.8

Operating system:
Windows 11

Hardware:
Intel Core i9 13900K
NVIDIA RTX 4090 with latest NVIDIA drivers
128 GB RAM