Problems with apparent slowness in Reader, and laptop with two graphics cards

[kevinm19144874]

Reader 2017.11.30080

Win10x64, Build 1607

Laptop is a Lenovo P50

I was having what initially looked like a performance issue - any PDF I opened would take up to 20s or 30s to display the first page, and if I scrolled through the document, it would take another similar length of time to display the new page.

Opening a PDF and immediately alt-tabbing away from and back to Reader worked, and this was the only way i found to get it to display more quickly - but you would have to do this any time you navigate a file within Reader.

Tried all the usual preferences - page display, 3D handling etc. without luck.

The only solution I've found is to go into the BIOS and change the graphics options. The laptop I am using has two graphics cards, an Intel one for low-power work, and an Nvidia Quadro for higher powered work. By default, the system works in 'hybrid' mode which means both are active.

When I changed it to 'Discrete' mode - Nvidia only - the problem has gone away; so maybe there is some confusion in Reader about which card was being used?

Is this a known issue with a known software fix? We have multiple P50s in the organisation, and the BIOS change is not an option I can suggest - partly because we have Bitlocker installed and changing the BIOS triggers Bitlocker to require the recovery password.

Thank you!

[AnandSri]

Hello Kevinm,

We're sorry for the trouble you had while opening the PDF files in Adobe Reader. Please install the latest patch of Adobe Reader from help>check for updates, or install the patch manually from 17.011.30096 Planned update, July 10, 2018 — Release Notes for Acrobat DC Products There has been a lot of changes way the files are being rendered from previous versions.

Reboot the machine after updating Adobe Reader and see if this brings any difference.

Please disable the PDF thumbnails preview in Windows Explorer, also navigate to Adobe Reader's Preferences from Edit>Preferences>Security (Enhanced)> Disable the Protected mode at startup and Protected View and see if disabling the Protected mode brings any difference.

Note: Disabling the Protected Mode is only for testing purpose, please enable it back.

There is no such known issue with Adobe Reader, for better performance, it is recommended to choose the graphics card for display if you have more that one graphics card.

If the PDF files contain more images or drawings, and you want Adobe Reader to render them fast, then navigate to Adobe Reader's Preferences from Edit>Preferences>Page Display, uncheck "Smooth line art", "Smooth images.

Also, uncheck the two options from the Preferences "Show online storage when opening files" and ''Show online storage when saving files" from Edit>Preferences>General.

Let us know how it goes and share your observation.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[kevinm19144874]

Thank you - i have tried many of the options you mention (protected mode, online storage, and smoothing text and pictures) which have not made a difference.

I am going to try graphics driver updates first before upgrading Reader itself. I'll update this page if it makes a difference.

[AnandSri]

Let us know how it goes with the latest update.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[kevinm19144874 · Accepted solution]

The latest driver available allowed me to select 'Integrated Graphics only' in the 3D section of the control panel, which solves the issue.

It will probably be easier for us to distribute this driver to affected clients, and look at further upgrades of Reader after.

It is worth noting that the issue was occurring regardless of whether there was 3D content in the PDF; it was happening in documents with nothing but text.

Kevin

[Juan Pablo26483168k0om]

The changes in Page Display really helped me. Thanks.