Hi,
9 characteristics with 2 positions means 9! (factorial 9) possibilities. So 362880 products in the database.
In your case, if you have between 5 and 23 position, HikaShop will have to create around 20 000 000 000 000 products in the database.
It is a little bit too much for your database.
The problem is not really how many HikaShop can handle but how you will manage your products for this incredible number of combinations.
Please use "item custom field" and "options instead". The characteristics is not the real good solution in that specific case.
You won't edit these billions products to specify a price for each combination.
Regards
Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.
Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.