LR6 Flickering GUI

Richard

I just recently started using Lightroom, version 6 for Windows. I have been keywording pics in small batches and am getting a lot of GUI misbehavior--lags, white screens, disappearing altogether so that I see other stuff on my desktop. My machine has adequate power--i7, 16GB RAM, SSD--and I have never had problems like this with any other software, including PS CS5. I have tried running it with no GPU support, with the motherboard Intel GPU and with a 2GB Quadro K1000 card, but the problems are the same.

This can't be normal behavior. Anybody know what the problem might be?

ziggy53

Richard wrote: »

I just recently started using Lightroom, version 6 for Windows. I have been ... getting a lot of GUI misbehavior--lags, white screens, disappearing altogether so that I see other stuff on my desktop. ... I have tried running it with no GPU support, with the motherboard Intel GPU and with a 2GB Quadro K1000 card, but the problems are the same. ...

I would normally suggest a driver issue with these sorts of problems, but you've tried enough to likely rule that out. It could also be screen resolution and display related.

The first thing I suggest trying is an external display. Use it as a duplicate display, rather than an extended display.

The second thing to try is a different screen resolution.

Are you using any text-specific Windows settings, like an enlarged font for easier reading? That has caused me problems in the past with some software.

Richard

The first thing I thought of was the video drivers, but they are all up to date. I don't have an external monitor, I'm afraid. I'm using my native screen resolution 1920 x 1080 and I'm letting LR pick the fonts automatically (it likes tiny ones, alas, but I'm hoping to get used to them).

Nevertheless, something is wrong. The program is borderline unusable, and this morning at one point it hung altogether--had to terminate it from task manager, which is generally a really bad move for a database application, but there was no choice. I've ruled out resource contention from other applications by running it as the sole application--it has plenty of memory and cycles available. It feels like the program is just not keeping up with the input, and I'm hardly a speed demon at the keyboard. I posted a query on Adobe's forum, but have not received anything useful so far.

Very disappointing.

Richard

I think I've figured it out, or at least have a work around. By closing all of the histogram, develop and metadata sub-panels except the keywording one, it seems to be keeping up. It's a little hard to believe that those panels were creating more work than my machine could cope with, especially since I was only selecting maybe a half-dozen pics at a time. But after about 30 minutes of work, I haven't seen any hiccups. Stay tuned.

ziggy53

Richard wrote: »

I think I've figured it out, or at least have a work around. By closing all of the histogram, develop and metadata sub-panels except the keywording one, it seems to be keeping up. It's a little hard to believe that those panels were creating more work than my machine could cope with, especially since I was only selecting maybe a half-dozen pics at a time. But after about 30 minutes of work, I haven't seen any hiccups. Stay tuned.

Odd that a few overlays could have such an effect, but computers do posses odd traits at times.

Richard

ziggy53 wrote: »

Odd that a few overlays could have such an effect, but computers do posses odd traits at times.

Yes, I agree it's odd, which is why I think this is a work around rather than a solution. Nevertheless, after closing those panels, I didn't have a single glitch for the rest of the day. I suspect that there's a thread management problem somewhere in the code. I just hope Adobe quietly fixes it before it surfaces somewhere else.

Anthony

Just a thought Richard, are you using the GPU? I just wondered if you are, whether that might be a factor.

Anthony.

Richard

Anthony wrote: »

Just a thought Richard, are you using the GPU? I just wondered if you are, whether that might be a factor.

Anthony.

I tried it with GPU support disabled in LR, but it made no difference. Interestingly, even after restarting, LR showed GPU disabled but Windows reported that LR was using the NVIDIA card. I also tried it using the onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU, but the result was the same. Adobe says that GPU acceleration is only used in the Develop module for now; I wasn't using Develop, though perhaps having the quick develop panel open meant that LR thought I was. I haven't done much with the Develop module so far, but it does seem to benefit from a GPU, as well it should. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I even had the Quick Develop panel open, just the histogram and metadata, besides the keyword stuff.

pathfinder

Sorry to hear about this issue, Richard, after our discussions about LR6.

I think Adobe still has some work to do in the background with their handling of video, as I get some strange negative imagery when I am in the Develop module using tools with real-time masks.

It would not seem like key wording requires much in the way of GPU or CPU horsepower - Have you tried using the "spray can tool" to do some of your keywording when in the Library mode?

Richard

pathfinder wrote: »

It would not seem like key wording requires much in the way of GPU or CPU horsepower - Have you tried using the "spray can tool" to do some of your keywording when in the Library mode?

I played around with the spray can tool a bit when I first started using LR, but not enough to notice whether the GUI problems were present or not. My work-around seems solid. Since I'm not giving up anything by keeping those panels closed while keywording, I'm not going to worry about it anymore unless it appears somewhere else in my workflow. So far it hasn't, but I have yet to go through my complete cycle on a normal batch of new pics. I've been too busy with LR to do any photography .