After Effects 2020 - display turns off and on, most projects cause white preview & crash

[timk84510813]

Hello everyone,

When opening a project I've previously worked on in AE 2020, the app will cause my whole display to turn off & back on again after a few seconds. Upon opening the project, my preview window will be completely white (screenshot 1). Attempting any action -- namely, dragging new elements to the comp, trying to open menus -- will cause the app to hang and not respond. I can scrub the timeline, but nothing happens. Pressing spacebar to play will cause the app to hang and not respond. Task manager shows little, if any, activity when the app hangs (screenshot 2). Admittedly, I haven't opened AE for a month, and in that time, I've gotten a new graphics card. However, I've uninstalled the AMD drivers for the old one, and installed fresh ones after putting the new card in. In troubleshooting, I've removed the graphics drivers, installed the old card, and installed current drivers for the old card again. Still the same. Also, I can easily open a new project and make edits, but when I close the app and try to open the project I just created, the above happens.

Screenshots attached.

Specs:
Windows 10 Pro build 1903
After Effects version 17.1.3 (Build 41)
AMD Ryzen 7 2700
32GB RAM
Sapphire RX 590 (8GB VRAM)

Steps taken:
Completely uninstall and reinstall After Effects

Trash AE preferences (multiple times)
Ensure all CPU/GPU firmware is up to date (they are)
Run app as administrator
Try disabling disk cache as recommended in this thread
Try investigating security software (Win Security / Malwarebytes) to see if there's any interference per above thread - nothing interfering
Submit crash report to Adobe

Hopefully Adobe will get back to me on this because not only did I lose 2/3 of a completed edit, but now I can't really use the app at all. If you folks have any suggestions in the interim, I'm all ears.

[Wim_Schalley · Accepted solution]

Hi,

So a month ago, AE worked fine. That was AE 17.1.2. My next step would be to install an older version of AE and see if that works. If not, a clean system install with the new graphics card would be my next try. And maybe a useful tip: I always make a system disk clone the night before I update/upgrade using Macrium Reflect. That way, I can roll back in an hour if things don't go as planned.

Good luck,

Wim

[timk84510813]

Excellent, thanks. I did just that -- uninstalled AE, deleted any folders it left behind in the install drive, installed 17.1.2. Worked like a charm and I'm back to editing.