A specific Paratext user account is causing Paratext to run slow and freeze. Any thoughts on what to check/how to fix?

Question

Hi all,

My Paratext had been working great and suddenly became very glitchy/freezing. In particular, when I try to change views, open notes, reply to notes, do send/receive, or change chapters or books, the whole program freezes up, sometimes upwards of one minute, and windows gives me the "program not responding" error before the program catches up and starts working again.

Here's the odd thing is that it seems to be linked to my user account. My wife and I both have a user account on a Windows 11 computer that we share, and when my wife is logged into her Windows account using her Paratext user account, Paratext works fine (even when we are working on the same projects).

Our translation team also just got a brand new Windows 11 computer, and I was hoping a brand new install on a new computer would fix the problem. However, even with Paratext freshly installed, when I log in to my Paratext user account, the same problems described above occur on the brand new computer.

The sudden change from working normally to being very glitchy/freezing corresponded with me doing a send-receive by USB with a translator who is still on Windows 7. He was using Paratext 9 (I'm not sure exactly which version), but his machine wouldn't access the server properly to do an internet send/receive, so I used the USB option to get his computer up-to-date. The problems began the same day.

An advice is appreciated. The glitchiness is severe enough that it slows down my workflow pretty drastically.

Thanks!

Aaron

Answer 1

Just to clarify, you're saying your getting the same results when you log in using your Registration Name on a different computer, correct?

If so, then maybe there's something in your windows layout that's eating up memory or causing problems. I've had times in the past when an interlinearizer or something in the background was causing problems.

So, my first suggestion would be to close all windows and start adding them back in one at a time, to see if/when the problem re-occurs.

Another option is to reset PT's settings. You do this by holding the Shift key while the program is booting up. It too will close all window layouts. It also resets things in the Paratext Settings menu, so you might need to update those settings (if you've changed them in the past).

Your comment about getting a USB drive from a translator and the problems occurring after that sounds like a virus, but if the trouble is occurring on a separate machine that's much less likely. And if your wife isn't having trouble, maybe that's not the problem (I'm not sure how likely it is for viruses to jump between users on the same machine). Still, running a virus scan wouldn't hurt.

If none of those work, send in a bug report via Help > Give Feedback. That sends them diagnostics that can help them identify problems which are hard to diagnose otherwise.

Answer 2

When Paratext is "Frozen" you could run:

ParatextForceShutdown.exe from:

C:\Program Files\Paratext 9

This will "kill" the running Paratext, But also send a problem report, which should have useful information for the developers as to what is causing the hang.

If you try this, then I suggest immediately restarting Paratext, and sending a Problem Report, and write in the text box that you just used "ParatextForceShutdown" because you Paratext was "freezing".

Answer 3

SOLVED: The suggestion from @mnjames worked. On both machines (the one with the original problem and the brand new machine), once I closed out all windows and added them back in one-by-one, the lag/freezing stopped. Something in my windows layout was eating up memory, and it oddly transferred even to the new machine. But closing all windows and starting over with fresh windows solved the problem. 

I also deleted all saved layouts and started over fresh, just to be sure. 

Thanks!