"Pattern" option greys out in the middle of job, never to return!

[NoobiusMaximus]

This has happened more times than I can count, and across multiple versions. In my job, I use the "cookie tool" (sorry, no official training, that's what they call it here at work), and use the Pattern literally all day, every day. In the middle of working on a file, it will suddenly grey out, and NOTHING I do will bring it back. Rebboting has no effect. Switching modes back and forth has no effect. The only thing that does is a reinstall, and sometimes THAT doesn't even work. This brings my entire day to a crashing halt. Is there ANYTHING that can be done to remedy this? (BTW, tried to install the latest greatest ver22, and it won't open an existing file, and won't even create one from scracth, so not an option). Running Windows 10.

[JJMack]

Do you have any patterns ins your Patterns palette?