Dorico is sluggish/freezing

[IPclassical73]

For people smarter than me:

My Dorico 5 is sluggish/freezing very frequently, and I was not able to pinpoint the cause. When it happens, even note entry in a 20 measure flow with a single piano takes forever. I tried to follow tips from Steinberg forum, like

disabling automatic polyphonic voice balancing
disabling autosave
picking silence as a default playback template

They seemed to work for a short while, but the same issue randomly comes back. I am not using any third party VTS either.

I LOVE Dorico’s intuitive concept, its alignment with the way musicians think, and the beautiful layout it creates and I would be really disappointed if I would be forced to go back to my old Finale or a current Musescore. I absolutely do not care about its playback function, all I need is to be able to efficiently type in music and easily format the layouts of solo and small ensembles.

I am using the latest version of Dorico Pro 5:
Version 5.1.81.2225 (Jan 16 2025)
Dorico 5 AudioEngine Version 5.6.42.5

My hardware is:
Dell Inspiron 3505 laptop
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3450U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx (2.10 GHz)
RAM: 12.0 GB (9.89 GB usable)
Graphics card: AMD Radeon™ Graphics (2 GB)
Storage: 917 GB of 1.14 TB used
System: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Windows 11 Home

I also have a MIDI cable to connect with my old Casio CDP-100 5-pin connector. When Dorico isn’t acting up, it seems to work perfectly with no latency, both in recording and simple note entry mode.

I guess I have the following questions:

• Is there a simple way to disable ALL the high processing aspects of Dorico, and stick with the note engraving function only?
• Is Dorico so robust that my laptop isn’t able to handle it?
• Would any mid-range laptop currently on the market be capable of handling the basic functions of Dorico for a good number of years? Perhaps a Lenovo Yoga something? Anything (type, brand etc.) to look for or to avoid?

Thank you for your help.

[Christian_R]

Hi @IPclassical73, and Welcome to the Forum.
Your issue seems not normal, if you speak about small prohect without playback.

I don’t have an answer for you, but you can read this recent thread with many posts about Dorico vs Computer (Click on the blue link):

Advice wanted about suitable laptops

Hello! I would like to ask the advice of people who have gone from Windows to Mac. I have a pretty decent (Intel Core Ultra 7, 32Gb RAM) laptop that is about 2 years old, and it seriously throttles when it gets hot, and it seriously gets hot when you have a big orchestral score open. Dorico ends up being laggy and slow. Given that Windows is quickly turning (turned?) into a buggy, ad-filled mess, and Linux isn’t on the cards right now, I think it is time to bite the bullet and spend more than …

[derAbgang]

@IPclassical73

I absolutely do not care about its playback function,

If you don’t care about playback, have you tried applying the Silent template? Play → Playback Template → Silent (apply&close)

[IPclassical73]

Yes, I have… Every time I tried a suggestion from Steinberg Forum (including Music XML import setting, silencing playback) it seemed to work for a while, then next time the same issue occurred as if the software (or my laptop) has a grudge against me.

David Santamauro <notifications@steinberg.discoursemail.com> ezt írta (időpont: 2026. jún. 16., K, 13:30):

[Ulf]

If Dorico freezes you could take a mini dump and post here.

How to create such?

Download the free utility Process Explorer and run it. When Dorico becomes unresponsive highlight the Dorico process and do a right click on it. From the pop-up menu choose Create Dump > Create Mini Dump. Then save and zip up the mini-dump and then post here. Thanks

[benwiggy]

@IPclassical73

Storage: 917 GB of 1.14 TB used

Your disk looks worrying full. You can expect slowdowns and worse if the OS doesn’t have enough space for temporary files, caches, etc. And SSDs themselves need space to move files around. Usually you want to leave a minimum of 25% free space, so around 250 GB.

@IPclassical73

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3450U

That is not a very powerful CPU from the look of it. It gets a Geekbench CPU score of 1100 /
3295.
Most cheap laptops would score double that, today. Higher performance laptops would quadruple that, or even more.

@IPclassical73

I am using the latest version of Dorico Pro 5:

Dorico 6 has efficiency optimizations that should make it faster – as well as all the additional features for engraving.

@IPclassical73

• Is there a simple way to disable ALL the high processing aspects of Dorico, and stick with the note engraving function only?

The note Engraving IS the high-processing function!

[IPclassical73]

Thanks for taking the time!

Actually it has two disks:
OS (C) 67 GB free of 237 GB
DATA (D) 182 GB free of 931 GB

Does it eliminate the storage issue?

[IPclassical73]

Thank you for walking me through this. Just downloaded Process Explorer in case the problem keeps coming back.

[IPclassical73]

Dorico5 010.zip (1.5 MB)

Dorico5 012.zip (1.4 MB)

Well, as before, it did work for a while, then next time things froze even by selecting a single note or attempting to input one. I am not even sure about the usefulness of these uploads, as sometimes Dorico was working again by the time I managed to hit save on the zip files.