Delay/Freezing in video editing

[ChrisPC]

Photoshop Premier Elements 2021

I am in the process of editing a concert music video. I will be working on a section of it and move to another section of the video and it locks/freezes up on me. I wait a few mintues and it becomes active again. I render and save quite often as I am editing so I don't have to go back and recreate the wheel.

I have a Dell XPS 8930 desktop, with a Intel (R) Core(TM i7-8700CPU@3.20GHz, 16GB Memory. I am using a 5TB Seagate external hard drive to store the files on.

Do I need to increase the RAM? Or is it the processor.

Thank you,

Chris C.

[John T Smith]

How is that external drive connected, and what is the rpm of the drive?

Hint... USB-2 and 5400 rpm will not work well

[ChrisPC]

Thank you John. I will try saving to the CPU harddrive to see if it changes the issue.

[Bill Sprague]

Check the Audio Hardware preferences.  The Default Input to "No Input".   Why?  If the audio processing gets "confused" the entire editing process can slow.   Also check for Timeline Render Quality in General preferences.  It might be better at "Draft Quality, High Speed".   There are a couple other check boxes on that page that migh make a difference too.  

[ChrisPC]

Bill,

Thank you for your recommendations. I will check the Preferences out as you suggested.