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Windows 8 and Photoshop CS6 Black Screen Flickering

Author: | Posted in Drivers, Software 102 Comments
adobe-photoshop-cs6

Anyone running Windows 8 with Photoshop CS6 installed? If you are like us, we run Photoshop every day all day. There is an annoying display driver issue happening that is currently causing the screen to black out in Photoshop when say, expanding a box or going to the crop tool. It appears from our searches that is is only affecting AMD GPUs (** Update ** – we have had similiar reports from AMD, nVidia, and Intel users) and that they are aware of the issue and are working on a new driver patch to fix the problem. It appears to be affecting Photoshop CS5 as well. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

OPTION #1 – Try Beta Driver

Download the ATI 13.2 Beta drivers released on 02.26.2013. http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/amdcatalyst132betadriver.aspx

Download the nVidia 313.96 Beta drivers released on 01.29.2013.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-313.96-beta-driver.html

OPTION #2 – Try Changing Vertical Refresh

If you access to the Catalyst Control Center, try this below.

Step 1

Click on the Catalyst Control Center.

ati-control-panel

Step 2

Click on “3D Application Settings.”

3d-application-settings

Step 3

Change the Wait for Vertical Refresh to “On, unless application specifies.”

frame-rate-control

OPTION #3 – Graphics Processor Change

You might want to try disabling the performance settings in Photoshop, follow the steps below. Unless you are doing something very intensive which requires the GPU, you shouldn’t notice a slowdown. We recommend turning this back on once they release a patch to fix it.

Step 1

Go up to Edit

photoshopcs61

Step 2

Go to Preferences > Performance

photoshopcs62

Step 3

Uncheck “Use Graphics Processor.” Or turn down settings to basic.

photoshopcs63

We will update this post with links to new video drivers once they are released. Follow us on twitter or subscribe to our feed to keep up to date on this issue.

User Tips

You can also try running Photoshop in compatibility mode.

Thanks Ed for this tip:
I went into my Advanced Options and turned the Drawing Mode down to basic. Had to close Photoshop and restart it, but the flicker has gone… So you may not have to turn Graphics Processor completely off.

Thanks lennartbnl for this tip:
I have an nVidia GT555m and Intel HD 3000 (optimus), I fixed it by setting photoshop to always use the nVidia card instead of the Intel

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Brian Jackson

My name is Brian Lee Jackson. I am an IT guru and web developer. I love working as a Systems Administrator and playing with the newest Microsoft products.

  • http://twitter.com/ednailor Ed Nailor

    Thank you for this information. This was becoming VERY annoying!

    I went into my Advanced Options and turned the Drawing Mode down to basic. Had to close Photoshop and restart it, but the flicker has gone… So you may not have to turn Graphics Processor completely off.

    Thanks again!
    Ed

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Thanks Ed for that tip! I have updated the article to include user tips at the bottom for additional things to try. Sometimes people don’t always read the comments. :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/christian.borres.1 Christian Borres

      How do i do that? I cant find the Advance Option you are talking. Help please.

      • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

        If you want to try Ed’s fix, the “Advanced Settings” are located right under the Step 3 image under “Use Graphics Processor”. If Graphics Processor is checked you can go into the “Advanced Settings” and turn the drawing mode down to basic like Ed did. Hopefully that helps :) !

    • Luis Felipe Lino Guimarães

      Gooood.

      • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

        Thanks!

    • http://www.facebook.com/marion.iden Jelena Iden

      Thank you!

    • http://www.facebook.com/LakeofGlass Cassie Davis

      I saw your comment and decided to try this first. It worked just fine as soon as I tried your suggestion. I’ll have to toy with it more just to ensure this did fix it.

      • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

        Glad you got it working!

    • craig potter

      thank you!

    • Stefan Florin

      thank you!

  • http://twitter.com/directcomputers Direct Computers

    Glad I found this page I have had to turn off OpenGL to avoid the black flickering. Hopefully AMD can solve this issue as it had me thinking our brand new laptop was broken.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Yes, I’m still surprised they haven’t released a fix yet.

      • Daniele Ribolla

        nothing to turn off… install new ati 12.11 beta 8 drivers, and anything goes well, on my 5770..

        • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

          Thank you for posting, I can confirm that the beta drivers released on 11.16.2012 work for me as well.. I have updated the post.

  • Tasm

    Wow!

    I’m a graphic designer and use Adobe CS6 daily. This was driving me nuts. Thank you very much for your help. I changed my settings to “Basic” and it solved the flickering.

    Thanks again!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad we could help! :) Yes it drove me nuts the first day I ran Photoshop CS6 on Windows 8 and I didn’t rest till I found a solution.

  • Thomas

    Thanks for posting the fix to this problem! I use photoshop heavily and the flicker was a huge hastle when I was working! Downloading the fix now! Hats off to you Brian!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Hopefully that fixes it for you :) It appears to work so far on ATI 5750 and ATI 5770 models. I wish I had more models to confirm the fix with.

      • Thomas

        I can confirm that it fixes the 7660 and the dual graphics 7600 as well! :)

        • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

          Great, glad to hear it!

          • http://www.facebook.com/watchyourpsandqs Thomas Armstrong Jensen

            This issue has returned with the CS6 13.1 update.

  • Simon Cousins

    My Toshiba Tecra laptop with AMD Radeon HD 7470M display driver was, like you and the other commenters, driving me nuts with black masking in Photoshop CS6 (Win 8 Pro). Turning the Drawing Mode down to basic also solved the problem. I felt that was less dicey than updating the display drivers.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Yes, we have added that under tips at the bottom for those who don’t want to test the beta drivers. Beta drivers have been known to cause other problems :) So the drawing mode fix is probably the safest.

  • http://www.facebook.com/christian.borres.1 Christian Borres

    Thanks!!!!! I just updated my OS into Windows 8 then i noticed this flickering black screen whenever i do something in PS, you’ve enlightened us. Hoping to update this post as sson as AMD make a fix on this. I also use photoshop almost everyday.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      ** UPDATE **

      This has been fixed with the latest BETA drivers from AMD. Download the 12.11 Beta drivers released on 11.16.2012. http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx

      • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

        The new beta drivers do work on ATI 5750 and ATI 5770 models, as well as the 7660 and the dual graphics 7600. I can’t confirm other models yet. Hopefully ATI’s final release of this new driver update will be soon, until then I have had no problems with the new BETA drivers.

  • http://twitter.com/Dvst8ed Nick Murray

    Setting Drawing Mode down to basic worked on my HD 4000 graphics card. Thanks for the article!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad to hear it!

  • Davis

    Thanks!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Your very welcome.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jordan-Burke/1588920593 Jordan Burke

    Looks like its not just AMD gpus guys. I have a Dell xps 15z with an Nvidia GeForce and I got the same issue with Windows 8 as I did with my AMD-based Desktop.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Thanks for the update. Hopefully Adobe and AMD/nVidia will get this issue worked out, as it has become very annoying.

  • http://dapazze.com/ Rahul Chowdhury

    Thank you very much, this problem was annoying me for the past few weeks. Finally found a good solution to this problem.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Your welcome!

  • Mike

    Finally! Many Thanks :)

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      You are very welcome!

  • http://twitter.com/rishiswaz Rishabh Bajpai

    Thanks for the help, the flickering was getting annoying.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      You are very welcome!

  • http://twitter.com/voxie Rhoda Villegas

    I’m using CS5, updated to the BETA drivers – no change apart from no black flickering, but checked flickering in
    Photoshop. But turned my OpenGL settings to Basic in Preferences, and everything is now back to normal. GOSH THANK YOU!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great glad it worked for you! Yes the driver update will only work for certain video cards. So the OpenGL settings is a good fallback so you don’t go crazy :)

  • Sean Scanlon

    Thank you! This was starting to drive me to drink. Dropping down to basic mode appears to have done the trick for me as well.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great glad it worked for you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/court.crawford Court Crawford

    Thanks for posting this; I have an Intel HD Graphics 3000 video driver, version 1.4.2.0, and it suffers the same symptom as the AMD chipset. Setting drawing mode down to Basic and restarting Photoshop removed the symptoms.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Your welcome! Glad it helped.

  • Michael

    ATI 6800 Series still the SAME problem even on latest 13.1 oder 13.2 Drivers. Sure i can go back to BASIC but well, is there another fix to still use GPU like in Win 7???

  • Michael

    Well i could FIX it myself! This “vertical sync” tipfrom David fixed it! http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/windows_8_cs6_photoshop_video_problem

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Thank you very much for posting that link :) I have now updated the post with additional information. Changing the Vertical Refresh does fix it on my system. Hopefully it helps others as well.

  • Kompoeter

    very thx brow :)

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      No problem :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/rajith.g.perera Rajith Gihan Perera

    thank you a lot… OPTION #3 – Graphics Processor Change works me

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great, glad one worked for you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/LakeofGlass Cassie Davis

    Ah wow. I thought this issue was with me. I run into all the really weird problems. I just got a Win8 laptop.This has been so irritating when I’d try to zoom in and do detail work. I’ll have to try the Preferences fix. And by the way, I’m one of the few who reads the comments. Sometimes I find an easier fix that way.

  • NIels Andre

    Thanks Ed Nailor. for the information. it works even drawing mode is normal. ^_^

  • http://www.facebook.com/leo.renard.984 Leo Renard

    The “Use Graphics Processor” part totally worked for me. Thanks!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great! :) Glad it worked for you.

  • Dana Lane

    Thank you! I was getting so frustrated!!!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad you found our article… Yes I was so frustrated too when this first started happening. Adobe/AMD must not realize that some of us live in Photoshop all day long.

  • Josh

    I’m still having a problem. Whenever I type text the background flashes black and whenever I right click a layer the background shows the transparent cubes.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Have you tried all of the suggestions above?

  • pooria kazemi

    it’s work!
    Thank you so much!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great glad we could help.

  • lennartbnl

    I have an nVidia GT555m and Intel HD 3000 (optimus), I fixed it by setting photoshop to always use the nVidia card instead of the Intel :)

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Thanks Lennartbnl for the tip! We have added your comment as a “User Tip” at the bottom of the post.

      • lennartbnl

        Cool :)

    • Gianluca

      How did you do that? I have a AMD Radeon 7730M but Photoshop ‘sees’ a Intel HD graphics 4000. How can I make the switch?

      • lennartbnl

        Oh I forgot to add that, in the software of your graphics card you can set the default graphics card to use for an application. I set photoshop.exe to always use the nVidia card, then the option to select this card appeared in Photoshop.

        In my case I right clicked on photoshop.exe -> Run with graphic processor -> Change default graphics processor :)

  • http://twitter.com/devongilchrist Devon Gilchrist

    THANK YOU for posting this!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Sure no problem Devon! We hope it helped.

  • stacey fuller

    Thank you soo much for posting this. I also upgraded to windows 8 and found this happen to photoshop CS6. The vertical sync tip solved the issue for me!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Your welcome!

  • http://www.facebook.com/teualmeida Teu Almeida

    Drawing Mode down to basic…COOL!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad it worked for you!

  • Silvers

    Thank you very much for the workarounds here, I’ve never had an issue on windows 7 32bit but I recently installed W8 64bit and the flickering issue was hair pulling-ly irritating to me I use photoshop all the time and can’t tolerate interruptions of that caliber. I nearly reverted back to 32bit.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad it worked for you. Yes I was banging my head for the first couple nights. I have Photoshop running 24×7 and it became very annoying.

  • hi

    THANK YOU (in CAPITAL) very much.

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      You are very welcome!

  • Bill

    Thanks very much. It works on me. BTW, I can not find the setting in step 3 “Frame rate control” but it still works. Cheers!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great, glad it worked for you!

  • Joe

    THANK YOU! That was getting SO annoying!
    Has the issue been fixed yet?

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great, glad it worked for you! We keep getting posts every day on this so I don’t think it has been fixed yet. Will test this weekend with newest driver and fixes removed.

  • Kelvin

    This isn’t just a problem with AMD It’s doing the same on my Intel I3 and Intel HD graphics (It’s a terrible intergrated GPU but It’s on a laptop)

  • kurt

    Thanks, I just did Uncheck “Use Graphics Processor.” and it worked

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad it worked for you!

  • Helen Bushe

    Thank you. You have saved my sanity. Will this ever be fixed?

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      We hope so :)

  • Gianni

    Good job!
    Thanks.

  • Dez

    changing the draw mode option to basic worked for me as well. I am in windows 8 photoshop cs6 environment. Thanks much Ed!!

  • ahlot

    Thanks,I used option #2 its work very well :)

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great, glad it worked for you!

  • http://twitter.com/blackhawkso Philip Thompson

    Just to let you know it affects intel systems as well

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Thank you for your comment. We have updated the post above as we have had reported issues from AMD, nVidia, and Intel users.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jordan-Burke/1588920593 Jordan Burke

      Ok good. Thought I was the only one for a while

  • Donna

    Thank god for this post. I just upgraded and my CS5 is doing this. It’s been driving me crazy!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad this helped you!

  • http://twitter.com/blackhawkso Philip Thompson

    I don’t know if this is a related issue or not but since fixing this problem photoshop doesn’t seam to replicate colors properly. For example I opened an image that had a couple of different shades of black and grey but photoshop is displaying it with a slight shade of brown mixed into it. It might just be my machine doing it but I’m not sure. Is anyone else getting this happen to them too?

  • http://twitter.com/RoboMaximillion RoboMaximillion

    Thanks for the tips

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Glad we could help!

  • Mindy

    This post saved my sanity. THANK YOU!

    • http://theitbros.com/ Brian Jackson

      Great! Glad we could help :) We were going pretty crazy too when this first started.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jordan-Burke/1588920593 Jordan Burke

    This also happens on my intel machine. Anyone else?

  • Sander Van de Moortel

    Still happens on Intel HD Graphics 4000, irrespective of me turning on GPU use in Photoshop or Vsync in the Intel Graphics control centre. Can’t believe it takes so long for Intel or Adobe to bring out a proper fix.