New user with a problem

[Spencerh]

I am a new user here, so please bear with me if I make mistakes.

I am a long time user of Photoshop CS5, but I am far from an expert. I have Photoshop installed on my desktop computer, and this laptop. I have no problem on my desktop computer, but here I have a new problem that I have spent many hours trying to solve.

When I open Photoshop, it looks like this.



When I open any image, it looks like this.



The image appears in a "window" in the upper left corner of the screen. Only part of the image is visible, in the lower right corner of the "window". (This is a ladybug) Any image does the same thing.

I can't move it or do anything useful. I suppose I did something to cause this, but I can't figure out what it might be. I thought that maybe I messed up some setting, so out of desperation, I deactivated CS5 on this computer, and reinstalled. Nothing changed. I thought I had removed all traces of Photoshop, but evidently I missed something. I uninstalled and reinstalled twice. No change.

I am asking if anyone has seen something like this and can provide a solution. I can still use Phootoshop on my desktop, so I am not desperate, but there are occasions when I like to have Photoshop available here on my laptop.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Spencer

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Spencerh
Maybe a forum member still has CS5 to test out options for you. It is 12 years old. Yet since it works on you desktop, that is good news as it is specific to your laptop.

Have you
- Reset Preferences
- A know good JPEG file and do you have the same problem
- Turn off your graphics processor to see if that is causing issues
- Are you using the exact same OS of both desktop and laptop and which version is it

That would be my suggested starting points.

Also, here is a link to a number of debugging steps suggested by Adobe:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-troubleshooting.html

Hope this helps yet it is pretty generic recommendations
John Wheeler

 

[Rich54]

I have CS5, but I haven't been able to replicate your problem. It may be an issue with your laptop settings, but I have no expertise there.

I doubt this will work, but try it anyway. With a file open, if you keep pressing the "F" key, it toggles between three screen modes: standard; full screen with menu; and full screen. In the Full Screen with Menu mode, you can activate the hand tool and physically reposition your image on the screen. See if that does anything useful.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi again @Spencerh
I also noticed that you have CS Live activated and running (or not). That is a possible extensions that may be causing issues. Check to see if it is active or not on your desktop as that could be a difference.

Here is a link on how to disable the many CS Live features if that is desired:

https://helpx.adobe.com/ee/creative-suite/kb/disable-cs-live-internet-access.html

Its a wild shot yet thought it was worth mentioning.

John Wheeler

 

[puraidodes]

As others pointed out it must be a graphics error within Photoshop or your Graphics card driver. You mentioned it works well on your PC but not your laptop.

Did it always work on this laptop?
Is this an old laptop?
Does it have enough memory?

I think have seen this kind of error or similar.
Try the steps @thebestcpu mentioned.

This may help.
For graphics check, Go to Preferences > Performance and Uncheck Enable OpenGL Drawing.
Also, in the same Performance-> check if there is enough space in "scratch disks" & "Memory Usage".

After this close PS-> clear, the temp folder ( if this is on the PC)-> Restart your machine, and try now.

If this still does not work try removing the Graphics card driver and Re-install it again.
Restart your machine, and try now.

If this still does not work Re-install PS.
Or just maybe your Laptop is not able to handle the Graphics processing of CS5 if this is an old laptop.

 

[Spencerh]

I guess I could have provided more details. sp I will try to do that here. '

Both of my computers are running Windows 10. Photoshop ran with no problems on both of them for a long time until this one popped up. This computer (my laptop) is not new, but it ran Photoshop with no problems. It has a fairly fast i7 processor and 12GB of ram. It has an integrated graphics system, but also an Nvidia graphics card, which is what I am using. I don't believe it is a problem with the graphics system. Photoshop is the only application that is having problems. I did disable the Nvidia card and saw no difference. The problem is with Photoshop or something I have done to Photoshop.

I thought that deactivating, uninstalling, and reinstalling Photoshop would fix anything I might have changed, but I did reinstall twice with no change. I tried to remove Photoshop completely, so I could start with a fresh install, but evidently I did not find everything because after reinstalling, I see that Photoshop still remembers files I have loaded recently.

There is no problem with the files I have loaded. I have tried several different files and file types. All behave the same.

I tried the "F" key procedure and that did not change anything. I had tried the same thing earlier from the toolbar at the top.

I am not sure what CS live does for me. Photoshop is the only application I have installed from CS5. I see instructions for desabling it, but I don't know what function I might lose.

As I write this post, I have been going back to each of your suggestions and trying them as best I can, and posting the results. Nothing has worked until I saw the suggestion by puraidodes to turn off OpenGL. When I did that, IT FIXED IT. I have no idea why this would happen. I never changed that setting before, so I assume Photoshop worked normally for many years with it turned on. Maybe a Windows update caused it to malfunction.

I have not done much testing yet, but as far as I can see, Photoshop is working normally again. I am happy!

Thank you to all who took the time to try to help me. I have been frustrated by this problem for some time, and I am very appreciative of the suggestions which finally seem to have fixed my problem.



Spencer

 

[puraidodes]

Glad it worked!
I have had a similar problem with my old Pc & Laptop. But this was eons ago when I upgraded from CS2 to CS4 to CS5.

From what I can understand Open GL helps in smoothing out some UI animations and processing like zooming In/Out, and faster 3D support in older versions. I guess faster things have come up now.
But that was it I think. Not much of a difference.