Lightroom Denoise adding random blocks and artifacts to images

[Casga_]

Can anyone help me or shed some light why Lightroom Classic is adding these weird blocks and artifacts to my pictures once run through Denoise. There were no edits applied prior to denoise. These are on other parts of the photo as well.

Lightoom is upto date along with all drivers. My system shouldn't be the issue but here's the details
DELL XPS 17
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
Driver 531.79
11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
32 GB RAM

Plenty of storage space

I only have very basic knowledge of Lightroom so it might be an obvious setting somewhere, but if someone can help I'd be very grateful.

Images are .arw files

[kglad]

<moved from cc desktop bugs>

[Jao vdL]

Not seen anything like this with any of my images. Probably a bug with your specific GPU. Try making sure the drivers are absolutely up to date (check the Nvidia website). If they are up-to-date and you still see this, share the arw file (use dropbox or similar to link to it) and people here can check if it is specific to your arw files or if it is your specific GPU that triggers the issue.

[Ian Lyons]

You're issue is almost certainly driver related. While the most recent version of the Game Ready Driver is 531.79 the Studio version, which tends to be more compatible with graphics apps is 531.61. I suggest you try the latest Studio version.

[Casga_]

Thank you, I'll give this a go and report back

[Casga_]

Sadly this hasn't worked. Most of the time it's crashing saying there is an unknown error. On the couple of times it did manage to do it the same thing is happening

[Casga_]

and just to add it now comes up with GPU Error. I'll attach a screenshot of the error box

[TheDigitalDog]

So disable GPU in preferences, better?

If turning OFF the GPU works, it's a GPU bug, and you need to contact the manufacturer or find out if there's an updated driver for it. This is why disabling GPU is an option as more and more functionality moves to the GPU in newer versions of many Adobe products. Disable third-party graphics accelerators. Third-party GPU overclocking utilities and haxies aren't supported.

Also see: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/troubleshoot-gpu.html

If the GPU and display profile isn't causing the problem, see:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-gives-error-preview-cache.html

[Casga_]

I've tried turning off the gpu and it now crashes with unknown error while processing denoise. It doesn't come up with the error box after the unknown error message this time though

[GoldingD]

Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs.

[Casga_]

Hi,

Here's the info. Hopefully I've managed to get everything you've asked for.

Lightroom Classic version: 12.3 [ 202304101834-a085245c ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition

Version: 10.0.22621

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 16

Processor speed: 2.3GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 0.0%

Built-in memory: 32491.0 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 2318.3MB / 6009.0MB (38%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 32491.0 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 1683.7 MB (5.1%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 4129.2 MB

GDI objects count: 717

USER objects count: 2585

Process handles count: 3221

Memory cache size: 8.6MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 15.3 [ 1451 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 270MB / 16245MB (1%)

Camera Raw real memory: 314MB / 32491MB (0%)

System DPI setting: 216 DPI (high DPI mode)

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 3840 pixels

Displays: 1) 3840x2400

Input types: Multitouch: Yes, Integrated touch: Yes, Integrated pen: Yes, External touch: No, External pen: Yes, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (31.0.15.3161)

Init State: GPU for Image Processing supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-v12.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\Casga\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 

1) AdobeStock

2) Flickr

3) LogiOptions

4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de

Device : 2520

Subsystem : a5d1028

Revision : a1

Video Memory : 6009

Adapter #2: Vendor : 8086

Device : 9a60

Subsystem : a5d1028

Revision : 1

Video Memory : 80

Adapter #3: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024

AudioDeviceName: $$$/dvaaudiodevice/SystemDefaultAndEffectiveDeviceName=System Default - Speakers (Intel® Smart Sound Technology for MIPI SoundWire® Audio)#{comment}DVAAU-4201250: Open the audio hardware preferences page.

AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2

AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000

Build: Uninitialized

Direct2DEnabled: false

[Casga_]

There's lots of lines of GL_ after this. I've assumed that they're the lines you didn't need. If you do need those as well let me know and I'll post those as well

[Casga_]

Lightroom Classic version: 12.3 [ 202304101834-a085245c ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition

Version: 10.0.22621

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 16

Processor speed: 2.3GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 0.0%

Built-in memory: 32491.0 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 2318.3MB / 6009.0MB (38%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 32491.0 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 1683.7 MB (5.1%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 4129.2 MB

GDI objects count: 717

USER objects count: 2585

Process handles count: 3221

Memory cache size: 8.6MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 15.3 [ 1451 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 270MB / 16245MB (1%)

Camera Raw real memory: 314MB / 32491MB (0%)

System DPI setting: 216 DPI (high DPI mode)

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 3840 pixels

Displays: 1) 3840x2400

Input types: Multitouch: Yes, Integrated touch: Yes, Integrated pen: Yes, External touch: No, External pen: Yes, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (31.0.15.3161)

Init State: GPU for Image Processing supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-v12.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\Casga\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 

1) AdobeStock

2) Flickr

3) LogiOptions

4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de

Device : 2520

Subsystem : a5d1028

Revision : a1

Video Memory : 6009

Adapter #2: Vendor : 8086

Device : 9a60

Subsystem : a5d1028

Revision : 1

Video Memory : 80

Adapter #3: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024

AudioDeviceName: $$$/dvaaudiodevice/SystemDefaultAndEffectiveDeviceName=System Default - Speakers (Intel® Smart Sound Technology for MIPI SoundWire® Audio)#{comment}DVAAU-4201250: Open the audio hardware preferences page.

AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2

AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000

Build: Uninitialized

Direct2DEnabled: false

[GoldingD]

What happens if your catalog is not on the cloud (One Drive)

[Casga_]

Exactly the same thing. I thought the same thing this morning so I created a new library in a new folder just under the c drive and it did the same 

[johnrellis]

"DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (31.0.15.3161)"

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 2318.3MB / 6009.0MB (38%)"

"I've tried turning off the gpu and it now crashes with unknown error while processing denoise."

This indicates a problem with the graphics processor hardware (less likely) or driver (more likely).  Setting the option Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor to Off won't affect this issue, since LR's AI commands ignore that setting.

Some next steps to narrow down the problem:

1. Does the problem occur with multiple photos or just the one? If it's just that one photo, upload the original to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here. We can see if the issue occurs on other LR installations and if the file might be corrupt.

2. To definitively determine if this is a GPU hardware/driver problem: Restart Windows in Safe Mode With Networking, which disables the GPU entirely.  Then run LR and Denoise -- it could take 20 - 30 minutes. If the problem still occurs, it's not the GPU but some other part of your hardware. If the problem doesn't occur, then:

3. The problem is likely a driver bug, perhaps one specific to your GPU. You could try the most recent Game Ready Driver from last week:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/204772/en-us/

You could also back up to 6-month-old Studio driver -- there have been a few recent reports of people working around driver bugs that way:

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/194383/en-us/

4. Run a graphics memory diagnostic tool. I don't have any experience with those, but a google search suggests this thread:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/286136/has-anyone-tried-any-gpu...

[Casga_]

Hi,

It doesn't seem to matter which photo it is sadly, it happens with whatever photo I pick.

I tried safe mode with networking to start with - It comes up with error "Failed to import the enhanced photo" That's a new messaage I haven't had before.

I did a clean install of the following drivers and restarted the machine each time.

526.98 Studio Driver: Denoise procceses but same result with blocks and little artifacts. These are randomly placed and not in the same place each time. (photo attached of this one)

531.61 Studio Driver: Program crashes with unknown error. But on one occasion crashed with black screen and system locked up.

526.86 Game Ready Driver: Program crashed and exited after starting denoise. No error messages as program just crashed and quit.
Ran it again and cae up with unknown error message.

531.79 Game Ready Driver: Crashes with unknown error message

I went back to Studio Driver 526.98 and now that crashes everytime with the unknown error message, but this time I can click ok on the unknown error and I get a warning message "GPU Error, The graphics processor has encountered an unrecoverable error. Due to a run-time error, GPU acceleration has beeb disabled for the remainder of the session.

[johnrellis]

"I tried safe mode with networking to start with - It comes up with error "Failed to import the enhanced photo" 

Hmm, that's very strange. It suggests the issue is not related to the GPU at all, since the GPU is disabled in safe mode.

But let's verify that the GPU is indeed disabled on your computer -- restart in safe mode with networking, start LR, do the menu command Help > System Info, and attach the output here.

[Casga_]

Hi, here's the System Info from safe mode with networking. 

Lightroom Classic version: 12.3 [ 202304101834-a085245c ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition

Version: 10.0.22621

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 16

Processor speed: 2.3GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 1.0%

Built-in memory: 32491.0 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 0.0MB / 0.0MB (0%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 32491.0 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 1171.2 MB (3.6%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1380.6 MB

GDI objects count: 679

USER objects count: 2295

Process handles count: 1469

Memory cache size: 147.0MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 15.3 [ 1451 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 307MB / 16245MB (1%)

Camera Raw real memory: 405MB / 32491MB (1%)

System DPI setting: 288 DPI (high DPI mode)

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 3840 pixels

Displays: 1) 3840x2400

Input types: Multitouch: Yes, Integrated touch: Yes, Integrated pen: Yes, External touch: No, External pen: Yes, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 

Init State: GPU Unsupported

User Preference: Auto

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-v12.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\Casga\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 

1) AdobeStock

2) Flickr

3) LogiOptions

4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024

AudioDeviceName: 

AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2

AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100

Build: Uninitialized

Direct2DEnabled: true

Direct2DPresent: true

GPUDeviceEnabled: false

OGLEnabled: false

[johnrellis]

"Init State: GPU Unsupported"

That confirms that in safe mode, your LR is not using the GPU. So if you continue to get the error, "Failed to import the enhanced photo", that strongly indicates the problem is unrelated to your GPU.  At this point, we're in the realm of lower-probability, informed-speculation troubleshooting:

1. I see you have the LogiOptions plugin installed. It gets installed automatically and silently when you install Logitech's utilities, and historically it's caused problems with LR. Try disabling it by going to File > Plug-in Manager, selecting the plugin, clicking Disable in the Status panel, and restarting LR. Most likely the plugin is not causing this behavior, but it's good hygiene to nuke it.

2. Though you said it happens on many photos, maybe there's something about all of them triggering this problem. Upload one of them to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here, and we can verify it's not occuring on other installations.

3. Run a Windows memory diagnostic:

https://www.lifewire.com/windows-memory-diagnostic-review-2626154 

4. Run a full hardware diagnostic tool suite -- Dell might have preinstalled one on your computer.

5. Do a clean uninstall/reinstall of all Adobe Creative Cloud apps using the Cleaner tool:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

[Casga_]

Thank you to everyone trying to help figure this out.

I've run the dell supportassist tool that's preinstalled that checks hardware and other things.

No issues came up there.

I've done the adobe cleaner tool and removed everything and reinstalled and disabled that logioptions plugin you mentioned.

Still doing the same thing.

The only thing I haven't managed to do is run the memory diagnostic program as I don't have and discs or a disc drive.

Here's a link from onedrive to a random photo I've been trying to test it with. I hope I've done this right and you are able to get access to the image. If not let me know.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!An2iHZsEiZ0XjLoLXHHY--GCyu6Gaw?e=RI8Q6Z

[johnrellis]

I just tried Denoise on your uploaded photo and it worked correctly, as expected. So given that you get an error when running Denoise in safe mode with the GPU disabled, the issue is almost certainly not related to the GPU.

Regarding memory tests, that link I sent you is out of date (of course, it was the first google result).  It's been a number of years since I had to run a Windows memory diagnostic.  Searching further, it appears that the Microsoft diagnostic built-in to Windows 10 isn't available on Windows 11, at least on some installations of Windows 11.  The consensus appears that Memtest86 is the standard, most reliable Windows memory diagnostic:

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

I went through the free version, and the instructions are a little geeky but quite thorough.

I'm pretty sure there are Dell hardware diagnostics that may be pre-installed on your computer or that you can download from Dell. But you'd have to search Dell support (ugh).

[TheDigitalDog]

I also tried Denoise on your uploaded photo (20230504-DSC01024.arw), and it worked correctly, so it's an issue with your hardware. 

[Casga_]

It looks like I have windows 11 memory diagnostic tool, so I have run that this morning and it has come back no issues found. It doesn't give me any information or logs. It's just a popup after it's finished scanning and rebooted that says that no issues found

[Ian Lyons]

The specification for your CPU indicates that it incoprporates an integrated GPU (see below link), although it's not appearing anywhere in your System Info. It's a long shot, but check your BIOS to see whether it's enabled or disbled. If it's enabled try disabling and vice versa.

Note - I haven't worked on a PC bioas in over 20 years. So, my suggestion may not even be possible / nonsense. If that's the case, then may need to contact Dell.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/213803/intel-core-i711800h-processor-24m-cache-...