Auto Smart Tone

I don't currently have Elements 14 on my computer but if you go to the Edit>Preferences>General dialog, do you have an option to Reset Auto Smart Tone learning?  If you do, it's worth giving it a try.  Here is what is available in Elements 12:

239gb of914 available.  These stalls only occur using thes feature.  Never had problems before. At any time i use smart tone i can reproduce the freeze.

Try this:

Restore default preferences
Preference settings control how Photoshop Elements Editor displays images, cursors, and transparencies, saves files, uses plug‑ins and scratch disks, and so on. If the application exhibits unexpected behavior, the preferences file could be damaged. You can restore all preferences to their defaults.

Note: Deleting the preferences file is an action that cannot be undone.

Do one of the following:

Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Mac: Option+Command+Shift) immediately after Photoshop Elements begins launching. Click Yes to delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements settings file.
Go to Edit > Preferences (Mac: Photoshop Elements > Preferences > General), click the Reset Preferences on next launch button, and then click OK. When you restart Adobe Photoshop Elements, all preferences are reset to default settings.
A new preferences file is created the next time you start Photoshop Elements Editor. For information on a specific preference option, search for the preference name in Help.

from here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/preference-file-locations-photoshop-elements.html

What are the specs of that laptop? Maybe also interesting to know: how much free space is available on drive C?

Do these stalls happen when using this specific feature or the program in general? And when do they occur? Meaning does the program stall at a seemingly random moment or can you more or less reproduce the freeze?