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Participating Frequently
September 25, 2021
Question

I feel like this product is just broken

  • September 25, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1087 views

Last year at the beginning of the pandemic I purchased Premiere Elements 2020 bundled with Photoshop Elements 2020. Photoshop Elements is slow to open but otherwise works fine. My issues are with Premiere. Premiere Elements absolutely obliterated the performance of my laptop. The specs were barely above the recommended, so I wasn't too too upset about it. I have moved on to a new computer. My gaming PC has the below specs:

 

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700F CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB (7.78 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

 

It's not a bad computer. I have no issues running and streaming modern games while recording audio from my mic and 1080p video from my webcam using multiple applications all running simultaneously. But if I try to use Premiere Elements, with no other applications open, it's a miracle if I can edit for more than 5 minutes before my entire computer, including the cursor, freezes and I have to manually reset. Even when the computer isn't frozen, I frequently have to wait for up to a minute just for the application to register one single click. Frequently the video preview just goes totally black. Rendering the media takes an astronomically/unreasonably long time. Why do I have to go into Task Manager and end certain background processes just to get the application to open? This is perhaps a touch overstated, but it feels like this software is held together with Scotch tape. I truly can't use it in its current state.

 

Adobe, please let me know if there is anything I can do to troubleshoot. Why do I have to fiddle around in task manager just to open the application? Why is this software crashing so frequently? Why does it run so aggressively slowly/poorly?

 

To everyone else, I really recommend you stay away from this software.

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3 replies

John T Smith
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 26, 2021

>My gaming PC

 

One other thought... have you ever used the driver disc that came with your computer, or by going to the vendor of your motherboard, to install any motherboard driver updates?

 

I don't remember the details of exactly what I did, but the driver disc that came with my motherboard had 'some' drivers that had been updated after the date the motherboard design was 'locked' to be manufactured

Community Expert
September 26, 2021

Premiere Elements is not broken.  It runs well enough to be a "best seller" and it runs very well on my relatively simple Lenevo Legion laptop.  

 

To troubleshoot, you might provide what you are editing, where it comes from, how you are opening projects, what your project settings are and what you are trying to do in your projects. 

Participating Frequently
September 26, 2021

Thanks so much for the response! So glad you've had a better experience with the application than I have.

 

I can't open the app without fiddling around with task manager's background processes. The app repeatedly freezes my computer. My PC runs slower now that I've installed the app. This is the second PC that has experienced these exact same issues, and both of them were within the recommended specs. So it has been my personal experience that the app is broken, but I'm really glad yours has been different.

 

Will do my best to provide the info you mentioned! Thanks for nudging me in the right direction. I'm making simple gameplay videos for YouTube. Two mp4 files in the project - one of me playing the game and one of the gameplay itself. Each mp4 is about 7gb and around 2 hours long. I'm hoping to cut this down to be much shorter than 2 hours and would love to be able to add in some effects/animations, but I haven't been able to get that far without everything crashing. The files are saved in a folder on my desktop. I open the project by double-clicking on the project file. If it doesn't open then I go to Task Manager, look under Background Processes, click on Adobe Premiere Elements and then click on End Task. Then I can open it. Note that even if I try to open Premiere Elements through the Start menu there is no guarantee it will open. Task manager is still frequently necessary. I've uploaded a screenshot of the project settings.

 

Please feel free to let me know if I haven't provided enough info, and thanks in advance for the assistance!

John T Smith
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 26, 2021

I can only say that I have ZERO problems with PrE 2021.3

 

What I have (home built Jan 2021)
Windows 10, currently at version 21H1 - Premiere Elements 2021.3
Intel i9-10900k CPU in ASUS-Prime-Z490-P motherboard with 64Gig TEAMGROUP-3200MHz Ram
Seagate-FireCuda 500Gig M.2 for Windows and programs and usual Documents files
500Gig SSD for temporary and output files, 1T SSD for video and picture input files
Video MSI GeForce GTX 1650 128 Bit Graphics 4Gig GDDR6 Ram driver 456.71 + a DVD drive

Participating Frequently
September 26, 2021

This is good reference to have. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this info. I really appreciate it.

John T Smith
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 25, 2021

Do not count on Windows to be fully up to date when it comes to device drivers
Go to the vendor site to be sure you have an updated driver for your graphic adapter
nVidia Driver Downloads http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
-for Premiere Pro (and MAYBE Premiere Elements) use the STUDIO driver, not the GAMING driver
-such as (this MAY not be the latest) https://www.nvidia.in/Download/driverResults.aspx/177929/en-in

 

There are also intermittent reports that the newest driver is not always the best driver due to driver bugs or compatibility issues, so you MAY need to try an earlier driver version

Participating Frequently
September 26, 2021

Thanks so much for the response - really  appreciate it. It's good to know that sometimes the drivers need to be manually updated. In this case that does not appear to have solved the problem. I am writing this post using my phone because I am waiting on my computer to restart after yet another crash caused by Premiere Elements.