LR Classic CC "Not Responding" after update

Until an update 2 days ago I have not had a problem using LR Classic CC for HDR and panoramas up to 23 images. It has always been very slow doing panoramas because of the number and size of the images but it eventually gets the job done. Since the update Lightroom repeatedly crashes and shows Not Responding. Previews are taking ages to load and anything more than basic processing causes it to hang and show Not Responding. Prior to the update I could easily have a HDR processing in the background while I select and prepare the next one in the dialogue box. Now it takes up to 5 minutes to process a single HDR, assuming LR doesn't show Not Responding. Panoramas of more than 5 images crash the program completely. Nothing else has changed except the update from 7 - 7.1. Windows 10 and all graphic drivers are up to date as of 7 days ago.

Carrying out the same activities (HDR and Panoramas) in PS does not cause it to crash. Memory usage while LR is idle is minimal, just under 1gig of ram being used. as soon as I start to work on an image, even a single RAW image memory requirement jumps to over 4 gig. I have 8 gig on the system. Under idle conditions I am using 25% of RAM. I start working on an image and it jumps to 85%

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Note: I have not included my system details as nothing has changed except the update of PS (which I don't run at the same time), Lightroom Classic CC and Camera RAW 10.1