Paint.net slows down quickly and eventually freezes

[steveorg]

I've recently moved to a computer with better specs which was updated to Windows 10 Creators edition.  On my old computer I was able to have several big Paint.net files open simultaneously while running several other programs, without Paint.net issues. On the new computer with one Paint.net file open and many fewer other programs running and with about 1/3rd less plugins, Paint.net starts out snappy but slows down quickly. A fresh reboot provides more Paint.net running time than closing and restarting Paint.net.

 

File saves are very slow at all times. That is especially surprising since I'm using solid state memory and my old computer had a traditional hard disk.

 

I've been working on a 1500x15000 pdn. Actually, it started as a png  and I had freeze problems at that stage. Usually they began after a copy command, even on a small selection. The pdn is a fairly simple file. It's the same png with a white layer below and a little text above. 

 

Chkdsk  and sfc /scannow come up clean. I've searched to see if Windows could be the culprit. Windows Defender can be a problem so I excluded the following from scans: PaintDotNet.exe, .pdn and other graphic file types,  the effects and file types folders.

 

There aren't any plugins that failed and the crash report folder is empty. Here's the diagnostics:

 

Application    paint.net 4.0.17 (Final 4.17.6411.1908)
Build Date    Friday, July 21, 2017
Install type    Classic
    
Hardware accelerated rendering (GPU)    True
Animations    True
DPI    120.00 (1.25x scale)
Language    en-US
    
OS    Windows 10 x64 (10.0.15063.0)
.NET Runtime    4.0.30319.42000
Physical Memory    8,073 MB
    
CPU    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4302Y CPU @ 1.60GHz
    Speed    ~1596 MHz
    Cores / Threads    2 / 4
    Features    DEP, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4_1, SSE4_2, XSAVE
    
Video Card    Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
    Dedicated Video RAM    112 MB
    Dedicated System RAM    0 MB
    Shared System RAM    2,048 MB
    Vendor ID    0x8086
    Device ID    0x0A1E
    Subsystem ID    0x221B103C
    Revision    11
    LUID    0x00006D5F
    Flags    None
    Outputs    1
    
Video Card    Microsoft Basic Render Driver
    Dedicated Video RAM    0 MB
    Dedicated System RAM    0 MB
    Shared System RAM    4,036 MB
    Vendor ID    0x1414
    Device ID    0x008C
    Subsystem ID    0x00000000
    Revision    0
    LUID    0x0000707C
    Flags    Software
    Outputs    0

[toe_head2001]

For troubleshooting purposes, can you try running paint.net in Windows Safe Mode?

This can rule out if other third-party software is interfering with paint.net.

[steveorg]

Sorry for the slow response. I had already finished my last project and it could be some time before I have another. I'll be back after trying safe mode, but I do not know when.

[Rick Brewster]

On my old computer...

What were the specs on the old computer? Particularly, what CPU type, e.g. "Intel Core i5-2500K", and memory size?

 

Your new laptop is an Intel Core i5-4302Y, which isn't actually a very fast CPU (no offense). It may be newer, lighter, use less power, and not run as hot, but I'm curious if it might actually be slower! It maxes out at only 2.3 GHz according to https://ark.intel.com/products/76613/Intel-Core-i5-4302Y-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_30-GHz 

 

File saves are very slow at all times. That is especially surprising since I'm using solid state memory and my old computer had a traditional hard disk.

File saving should be mostly CPU bound, not disk bound. So either your CPU is actually slower (which I can't assert without the answer to the above question), or something else is going on that we need to figure out.

 

Once I know what the old CPU was, that'll help me figure out if things are slower because they actually should be slower, or if maybe I made a tweak somewhere that's hurting performance on a 2C/4T CPU like your new one.

 

Anyway, I have a dual core system that I can do some testing on. If you or someone else can get me a list of simple instructions/steps that reproduce a slowness issue like you've described, then I should be able to investigate it and hopefully find a solution.