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Photoshop error possibly caused by a Windows update

Anonymous
2016-06-21T20:53:46+00:00

I recently started getting an error when I open Photoshop (CS6), telling me it can't use graphics acceleration because my graphics card has less than 512MB of vRAM — even though my card has 2G of vRAM. The usual solution to this problem is updating the driver for the graphics card, but that didn't work. Neither did buying a brand new graphics card — trying several different brands/chipsets, in fact. Switching to an older driver didn't work either.

What did work was a suggestion from someone else who had the exact same problem: Re-installing Photoshop on my C: drive, rather than on the D: drive, where I've had it for years.

The trouble is, I'd really like it installed on the D: drive where the rest of my applications are installed and working fine (even Adobe Illustrator, which recognizes my graphics card and correctly detects the amount of vRAM present).

Since the problem just arose within the past couple of months and I've made no changes to Photoshop or anything else in my system in that time, a Windows update of some sort is my prime suspect at this point. I'd rather not go through the trial-and-error process of removing recent Windows Updates one by one until I find the culprit, so any ideas or suggestions on where to start would be very welcome.

I'm on Windows 7, 64-bit, Using Photoshop CS6 Extended. I've used Graphics cards with the nVidia 610 chipset, nVidia 720 chipset and AMD Radeon HD 6000.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-22T17:42:26+00:00

    I've been searching all over the web (including the Adobe support FAQ and forum) for months now... and I just found the solution this morning. The trick is to disable Adobe's "GPU Sniffer", a program that attempts to identify the GPU  and amount of vRAM present. For some reason it fails (now) if Photoshop isn't installed on the system drive. Renaming the file to sniffer_gpu.exe.old prevents it from running (obviously) and Photoshop then assumes everything is OK and uses the GPU.

    Since this problem just appeared recently I think it most likely that there's a Windows update that gave it problems, but I'd definitely say it's Adobe's fault at root because they apparently wrote some code that assumes a hard coded path when it shouldn't.

    In any case, I have it working again now. I hope this post proves to be of help to someone else with the same problem some day.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-21T21:43:39+00:00

    What has Adobe Support had to say about all this?

    When (exact date) did you "reinstall" Photoshop on the C: drive?

    Which (Windows) updates were just installed?

    Is the computer configured such that driver updates are NEVER offered or install via Windows Update?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-31T19:15:12+00:00

    I just heard from someone who had this identical problem — and solved it the same way, by disabling the GPU Sniffer — on a Mac. So it's definitely Adobe's fault.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-22T22:40:16+00:00

    Okie-dokie...

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