25.2 Crashing Computer Regularly

[OTW_DGO]

I like to keep my apps up to date to utilize the newest features. However, in the latest update where some of the new AI timeline features have been implemented, Premiere Pro CC will not run consistantly without crashing my entire PC. I'm a full-time video editor and have ruled out any mechanical errors in my machine. I've also ruled out extensions, files types, and all that. I consistantly edit with all of these and have never had problems in past versions. Just suddenly with 25.2.

If it helps, I'm using...

- Windows 10

- AMD Threadripper 16-core 2900x

- MSI Nvidia 3060 12gb vram

- 128 gb ddr4 ram

- 1000 watt power supply

- All m.2 and ssd drives

This machine has run adobe apps perfectly for a long time and I've gone through all the troubleshooting to discover everything else is fine, it's 25.2. I've already rolled back to a previous version which helped, so this post is more just to complain about the issues and not really to look for a solution right now, but a patch in 25.3 to make the app more stable would be really nice. 

I'm able to open Premiere, use the app for maybe 15 minutes with anything from heavy to light use, then it will randomly lock up my whole PC for no reason. Could be a new timeline or existing project. Locks up either way. Sometimes it's when I drop a new clip into the timeline, sometimes when I start playback, sometimes when I just pull Premiere back up after having another tab open on top of it. It will freeze the app, my mouse, entire pc, then only be solvable with a hard reset. It'll even keep playing timeline audio after the freeze if it freezes during playback. I edit c-raw, mp4, xfavc, mxf, footage almost entirely. I use proxies if I need to. No problems up until now either way. No other apps are even open when freezes occur. I've had hardware monitoring apps open to rule out those problems, everything is up to date, drives have plenty of starage, internet is functioning, etc etc.

Anyways, 25.2 needs major stability help! 

[OTW_DGO]

Found an odd but effective fix to get around the crashing problem. When I disable my internet connection, it works perfectly. Curious if that's the new AI additions crashing the program.

[amalm26650634]

Also experiencing the same issue. When working with Premiere for some time, it becomes choppy and displays a black screen. A major reason for this is memory overflow, which I mentioned in a previous post, but didn't receive any feedback or fixes. With the latest update, I'm now unable to apply transitions to my clips.

[alexander-riss]

Thank you for your feedback - if your whole system freezes this indicates that you have a hardware issue like e.g. overheating CPU/GPU/Power-Supply which would only happen under heavy use.

Ironically a more efficient software would trigger this more quickly as it use the hardware more per time - so the new update  might just run into problems that it did not trigger before as it makes better use of all your hardware.

In theory this should also trigger by running any other intensive GPU benchmarks for long enough if you want to cross check against that.

Best regards,
 Alexander

[OTW_DGO]

Appreciate that feedback. I've been doing the best I can to watch components temperatures and general performance data while I edit to try and rule hardware issues out. From what I can tell, temperatures seem fine, I don't recognize any bottlenecks in voltage or wattage or things like that, and the PC seems to throttle normally, but not insanely. I've been able to use other apps, play graphics hungry games, run benchmark apps like Cinebench and all without issues. Right now I'm running HWinfo and it's logger to see if I can catch sensor activity when it crashes. But honestly, the only reliable fix that I have found is physically disconnecting my computer from the Internet while editing. This seems to keep the entire machine from crashing. So it could entirely be a driver. 

[amalm26650634]

I don't believe the black screen and system hang issue is a hardware problem. If it were, I would expect other non-linear editing software (NLEs) to exhibit similar behavior, but they seem to function properly. Additionally, benchmark tests for my GPU and CPU don't cause the system to behave in the same way. However, I've noticed a pattern where Premiere Pro consistently consumes excessive RAM and crashes when I import large media files (over ~300GB) or open projects with extensive timelines (exceeding 1 hour). The error appears to be random, making it challenging to pinpoint the source of the issue. Furthermore, I recently came across a claim by Autokroma Influx software that they had fixed a memory overflow issue, and installing their plugin could potentially alleviate Premiere's default memory overflow problem. This seems more like a workaround than a professional software fix.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @OTW_DGO -   Thanks for submitting your bug report. We need a few more details to try to help with the issue.

Do you have any third party panels, or plugins installed?

What gpu driver version are you using? Adobe recommends using the "Studio" driver version when working in Premiere Pro.

Sorry for the frustration.

[OTW_DGO]

Yes, I have a plug-in for Envato and Premiere Composer that I consistently use. I did try disabling them and premiere still crashed in the same way. 

As for GPU drivers, I have it completely up-to-date and I'm using the studio version. I had wondered if that could be the problem before and even tried reinstalling the driver with no success towards a fix.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @OTW_DGO - Please let us know which driver version you are using.  How are you disabling the third party panels?  Do you get a crash report dialog box?

[OTW_DGO]

The version is 572.83 realized on March 18th. It's the Nvidia studio driver.

I tried both uninstalling the extension app from my PC and deleting the extension file in the C drive.

I do not. The entire PC just freezes in place randomly. No crash dialogue box or yellow or red warnings while I'm editing.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @OTW_DGO - Are you using any of the features in the Nvidia App, or are you using any custom settings in the Nvidia control panel?

[OTW_DGO]

I have it optimized for some games, but not for premiere, no. It's pretty much stock settings for the adobe products.

[OTW_DGO]

I think I have finally found the reason behind premiere crashing for me. 

After going down many internet rabbit holes to get to the bottom of the issue, I discovered that it might just be my camera and the way it records screwing up premiere. I shoot high resolution files on my Canon R5ii which, like the R5, records AVCHD files into an .mp4 container. These are 4:2:2 12-bit files stored in a compressed .mp4 container instead of an .mxf or c-raw container. And I don't have the storage capabilities to always just use its raw modes. I've always known that MP4 files are very intense on a computer's CPUs as it's tasked with interpreting compressed footage in real time. But what I didn't realize was the nature of the source file being 4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0 being the biggest problem. Having only ever owned cinema cameras before, and being very used to editing raw, I wasn't used to this file difference in Canon hybrid cameras making such a hassle for editing.

Anyways, long story short, I've been able to pinpoint the use of these files as the reason my PC crashes. Considering I'm working on a $6000 custom built PC with more than enough power to edit 8K and 12K raw files, it definitely makes me angry that these compressed 4K files cause such a headache. 

However, I would like to note that this version of Premiere has indeed been much less stable with these files than prior iterations. I've owned this camera and worked with similar footage since it's release and have just now begun having problems with it after updating premiere. So there is still something unstable in Premiere compared to previous versions, but clearly my footage is more to blame than this version of the software. 

While I tried the use of proxies before to solve this issue, it's certainly not a perfect fix and a lot of crashes still occur upon import. This camera is able to record proxies alongside regular recording, which helps. However, because premiere requires uploading the actual footage and then linking it to a proxy in order to toggle proxies in the edit, I still have immense problems with crashes when starting a project. I'm totally aware I can upload proxies to edit and simply replace the file with the real footage before render, but I really enjoy the benefits of toggling proxies on and off within the timeline for color corrections.

At the end of the day, thanks to everyone for your help and I guess I'll jump on a Canon forum to voice the complaint of using MP4 file containers instead of MXF for this camera.

[alexander-riss]

Given the additional information i still think this is just a side effect of your footage being the hardest to decode possible - this is independent of your system hardware as there is no GPU decoding support for this format yet - so all the load is placed on your CPU - if your CPU or your power supply hit a combination of instructions which are not hit in any other case - this could lead to spikes that crash your hardware if it is not 100% functional.
There have been lots of cases of faulty CPUs, RAM, PSUs in the past which only produce a crash with very specific scenarios - and the whole PC going down is a very clear indicator of a hardware or os+driver issue.

Creating proxies or transcoding in e.g. in AME to ProRes would help - but i dont think this would solve the root cause of your problem - it would only avoid the problematic hardware path.