brush / smudge tools causes the file to stop responding

Windows 11 - all updated graphics files and already disabled geforce overlay.

When using brushes and smudge tool in an 8.5 x 11, 300 dpi file, the tools will randomly stop responding, showing the brush tip staying in one spot. Sometimes "loading" will appear in the center of the screen, but sometimes not. I am still able to close the program and it will save the file, however, when I open the file again, if I tried to draw any lines after the screen freeze, they show up. 

I've tried walking away and coming back later to see if it woudd resume on its own, but it never does.

I have the new MSI creator z17 laptop, with plenty of ram and a good graphics card, so I'm unsure why this would be occuring other than it trying to save to the cloud while I'm working or something of that nature. It gets so bad that this occurs 10+ times within 30 min and I can't complete projects this way. 

I've already scoured the internet for an answer, but am unable to find one.