I have a DELL Isperion with 6 gb of ram. Photoshop Elements 13 and the Organizer work just fine. However, often PRE 13 crashes on start up. Sometimes, as I am working, I do get a low on memory message. Often I can load an hour of video and work along happily and then BOOM, it freezes or crashes. I have PRE 12 and it did the same thing. Dell has helped me reinstall PRE 13 two times.

My first guess would be the graphics adapter, unless it is more than what comes standard with an Insperon you can have problems. I always upgraded the graphics card on the basic Dell systems that I've used. It might work better if you work on your projects in smaller pieces and then combine them all together at the end.

What Graphics adapter is in your system? What version of Windows?

Welcome to Muvipix!

I would also have to wonder about the amount of free space on the hard drive that Windows and Premiere Elements is installed on.

Not likely the video card. With 6GB, you should have a 64-bit version of Windows. Is it? Are you using Windows 7, 8, or 10?

How big is the system drive and how much free space on it?

Do you have more than one drive?

Thank you Bob for helping me:
I think this is the info you are asking for:
I have Windows 8.1
I have 883 GB hard drive and 402GB is free
Processor: Intel (R) Core(TM) i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.50GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 6.00 GB (5.86 GN usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor
Pen and Touch: No
When I purchased this computer I was assured that it would be quite capable of handling Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements. I had version 7 back on a Vista maching and it worked perfectly. What the heck is going on?
When you ask "Do you have more than one drive?" Do you mean internally? No. I have a 4T Seagate Back up I just bought, I have been having the crashes and freezes when I have the media right on the computer and was not transferring it from a backup drive though.
I have tried restarting and loading PSE 13 when nothing else has been loaded. I have had close to an hour of media open and it will work fine for awhile and other times it will freeze whenever I try to add a title or just clip, etc.
It seems to be something incompatible between this computer and PSE.

I'm curious if you've had a chance to check the task manager when this issue begins happening. You should be able to arrange your processes in the Task Manager to see what apps are using the most resources (i.e. RAM) aside from your Adobe apps.

Are you using a lot of still photos? If so, what are the pixel dimensions of the photos that you are using?

PS. Welcome to Muvipix.

I am fairly convinced that my problem with Premiere Elements 13 crashing is due to a lack of RAM space. I have a 6 GB RAM. (Photoshope Elements 13 never crashes.) Photoshop Elements 13 does have a Edit>Preference>Performance setting which allows the user to raise the RAM available for Photoshop Element 13. I cannot find any similar Edit>Preference> Performance option for Premiere Elements. Is there no such ability to raise the RAM space for Premiere Elements 13, or can I find the ability to raise the RAM space elsewhere?

Sorry, I should have been more clear with my question.

Are you using a lot of stills in your Premier Elements project and, if so, what are the pixel dimensions?

6GB should be enough RAM to run Premiere Elements, especially a basic project. There have been a few of the members that have asked questions to help you, please answer them and I promise we will find the cause and a solution. Other programs running at the same time, certain types of video formats, a lot of still images in your project, and dozens of other things can cause problems. Please give us as much information as possible about what other programs are running when the crash occurs, what type of files you have in your project. If you close all other applications and just run Premiere Elements and start a new project with no media of any kind do you still get a crash?

Chuck:
I will try to answer any questions that people trying to help me have asked that I have not answered. Here goes:
*You asked if I close the other programs and the types of formats I use. My answer: It doesn't seem to matter if I load PE13 immediately after I boot up my pc with no other programs running or if I open it from the "Editor" tab at the bottom of the Organizer. It usually freezes without any data in it which makes me think that the format of the clips I am importing is not the issue. FYI: Almost all of my clips are from a in .mod or .avi format. FYI: Other programs that may or may not be running when I open PE13: Facebook, WindowsLive Mail, Photoshope Elements 13 or maybe Word 2013.
*Someone asked if I was putting a lot of still images into PE13. No, I rarely ever use still images.
*Questions back to me about the Task master: The big hogs seem to be IAStorDataSvc (32bit) at 351 mb and Chrome with 120 mb. Right now the memory was at 48%. I tried to load PE13 and it got up to 62% and then crashed. I don't know if this is relevant but there are 2 little PE13 little that show up in the Task Manager when it is trying to load. One is slightly indented below the first one.
*I hope the info I sent on May 4 answers the question about my video card. I am fairly tecky for a 72-year old lady, but cut me some slack, I don't know diddly about video cards. If you need more video card info, please tell me how to find it. All I do know is that I bought this computer directly from DELL and was extremely clear that I intended to use it with Adobe Premiere and Photoshop Elements. Thus, I am pretty sure my video card which be adequate--as one responder to my plight has already also thought.
*I asked the following on May 21 and have not received any replies: "I am fairly convinced that my problem with Premiere Elements 13 crashing is due to a lack of RAM space. I have a 6 GB RAM. (Photoshop Elements 13 never crashes.) Photoshop Elements 13 does have a Edit>Preference>Performance setting which allows the user to raise the RAM available for Photoshop Element 13. I cannot find any similar Edit>Preference> Performance option for Premiere Elements. Is there no such ability to raise the RAM space for Premiere Elements 13, or can I find the ability to raise the RAM space elsewhere?"

Thanks for the additional info Judy, always helps to have as much detail as possible when it comes to issues like this. I am turning 60 this year and a little tecky myself

Not aware of any option that allows the allocation of RAM for Premiere Elements. Usually, in my experience, even in cases of low RAM the program will still load but be extremely slow. It really sounds more like a conflict of some kind. Have you tried to uninstall Premiere Elements and then re-install? Sometimes that fixes a lot of problems, but if you have already tried that then probably no sense in doing it again.

I'm sure that someone will come up with an answer for you but it could take some time. Pretty much everyone here helps people for free so if you don't get an answer right away please be patient. I know you want to get on with your editing and this is very frustrating but hang in there.

OK, so my question on still images drew a blank but at least that is one issue out of the way.

My second thought was how much free space do you have on your hard drive?

In response to Chuck and John's questions from yesterday:
John,
I have 407 GB free of 1T internal C drive and I same 3T of a 4T backup drive free. (It doesn't matter if I only use internal drive for importing and saving--it still freezes.
Chuck,
PE13 does load extremely slowly whereas, PSE13 loads very quickly.
Yes, I have reinstalled both PE and PSE twice. Actually, one of the senior fellows at DELL reinstalled them for me. ( I have a great $140 per year service contract on my 3-year old DELL and I can call them whenever and they will take control of my machine and fix things.) My New Delhi buddies , Danesh, Mona, and Abhi, have all taken a shot at fixing my Premiere issue to no avail.

Thank you for your tenacity in trying to help me. I will check back often to see if anyone has come up with more suggestions.

This would definitely be easier to solve if it crashed every time at the same place. Considering that sometimes it works for some length of time makes it much more difficult to figure out. The Dell service contract is a great idea, glad you have some good support and people to help you

Next time you talk with them please ask them to make sure that all of your drivers are up to date. Other than that you can possibly add additional RAM to your computer, what model of DELL Inspiron do you have?

Another thought, how long do you wait when you think the program is frozen? Do you get crash error messages or does it just freeze up and you have to close the program or restart the computer?