Suddenly Editing Is a Nightmare

[Neofilm]

My preview is set at 1/4 and I'm editing small HD track and an mov screen capture. Normally premiere would cut this fine. In fact, normally I can edit two 4k and two HD tracks fine. But, today for some reason the preview is not refreshing. I cleaned cache, moved cache to a faster drive, lowered preview to 1/4 from 1/2, and it's just horrible the delay in showing me what the time line indicator is actually over. I'm not scrubbing just cutting, trimming, and playing. No effects at all. I've tried both using software and GPU. This is unbearable! There is no way to use this software under these conditions.

I just don't get how this software can keep getting worse over the years. Am I paying every month for updates that invariably make this software worse??? This should be easy to cut!

I even run my task manager and all my components are hardly running when this thing hangs up. Here's what my system looks like when Premiere is hanging up:

Here's what the project looks like:

[Cross Aerial Photography]

Ive also been having issues with this same issue. Randomly my PC cannot edit footage anymore at a reasonable speed.

[Peru Bob]

Try resetting the preferences:

FAQ: How to reset preferences in Premiere Pro?

If that doesn't work, try resetting the Workspaces:

Reset a workspace

Reset the current workspace to return to its original, saved layout of panels.

1. Do one of the following:
   • Click the Workspace menu icon and select Reset to Saved Layout.
   • Choose Window > Workspace > Reset to Saved Layout.

from here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/workspaces.html

If that doesn’t work ,try updating or rolling back your graphics driver directly from the video card manufacturer’s site.

[Neofilm]

Everything is updated. The drivers are current and haven't changed in a long time. I reset preferences and plug-ins as you suggested. I turned off a unnecessary programs in system tray (killed malwarebytes). I am still having problems with playback. This is killing my productivity and livelihood.

[excited_Genie16B8]

Here's what I would do.

1. Use the following to completely remove any and all office programs.

IObit Uninstaller - Best Free Software Uninstall Tool for Your Windows XP/7/8/10 PC

2. Kill Malwarebytes.  Run manual scans only, don't leave it running in the background.

3. Use Cineform proxies at Full Playback Quality.

Work offline using proxy media |

[Neofilm]

I need my word documents this should work, it always has before. I killed malwarbytes. I shouldn't need proxies, like I said, i normally can handle significantly more than this. This should be a cakewalk cut.

[Neofilm]

Here's the video card I'm using, the driver wasn't up to date, so I just updated it, but the performance is still bad for editing.

I'm not sure if there's something I need to changer here or not:

Here's my build.

Normally, I can cut through projects without a problem, esp. as small as the one I'm working on right now. Look how not complicated this  is:

This is a different project I just finished two days ago before having these hang ups:

This more complex project has 4K video, a large variety of other video and audio formats, a lot more tracks of things going on, but the one above it that I'm working on now with just two tracks is hanging up 100 times worse it feels like!

The assets I'm having trouble previewing while editing are merely:

and