Error: "Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver"

When you open Photoshop, the following error appears "Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver, and has temporarily disabled enhancements which use the graphics hardware" and features that require graphics hardware are unavailable.

Solution

Update your graphics driver and troubleshoot your video adapter hardware.

For solutions, see the following article:

• Troubleshoot Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) and graphics driver issues

Additional information

To help guard against crashes related to problematic video adapters or drivers, Photoshop employs a small program called a GPU Sniffer.

Every time Photoshop launches, Photoshop launches the sniffer. The sniffer runs rudimentary tests of the GPU, reports the results to Photoshop and creates a log file called sniffer-out.txt.

For the location of the sniffer-out.txt file see Preference file functions, names, locations | Photoshop.

If the sniffer crashes or reports a failure, Photoshop displays the message above indicating that it has detected a problem. Photoshop disables the Use Graphics Processor option in the Performance panel of the Preferences. On subsequent launches, the message doesn't appear.

If you correct the problem, either by updating the driver or replacing the video card, the sniffer will report a success on the next launch and the Use Graphics Processor option is enabled.

Run sniffer.exe to get graphics card information

Sniffer text example

Tester="Photoshop"

snifferStart="2020-12-14_15:06:45"

NumGLGPUs=1

glgpu[0].GLVersion="4.5"

glgpu[0].IsIntegratedGLGPU=0

glgpu[0].GLMemoryMB=128

glgpu[0].GLName="Intel(R) HD Graphics 520"

glgpu[0].GLVendor="INTEL"

glgpu[0].GLDriverVersion="24.20.100.6299"

glgpu[0].GLDriver="C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\64gh6299.inf_amd64_94401bd29769cd59\igdumdim64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\64gh6299.inf_amd64_94401bd29769cd59\igd10iumd64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\64gh6299.inf_amd64_94401bd29769cd59\igd10iumd64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\64gh6299.inf_amd64_94401bd29769cd59\igd12umd64.dll"

glgpu[0].GLDriverDate="20181011000000.000000-000"

glgpu[0].GLRenderer="Intel(R) HD Graphics 520"

glgpu[0].HasGLNPOTSupport=1

glgpu[0].CanCompileProgramGLSL=1

glgpu[0].GLFrameBufferOK=1

NumCLGPUs=1

clgpu[0].CLPlatformVersion="OpenCL 2.1 "

clgpu[0].CLDeviceVersion="2.1"

clgpu[0].IsIntegratedCLGPU=1

clgpu[0].CLMemoryMB=3402

clgpu[0].CLName="Intel(R) HD Graphics 520"

clgpu[0].CLVendor="INTEL"

clgpu[0].CUDASupported=0

clgpu[0].CLBandwidth=2.100000e+10

clgpu[0].CLCompute=161.926658

clgpu[0].CLRawDeviceName=Intel(R) HD Graphics 520

clgpu[0].CLRawDeviceVendor=Intel(R) Corporation

clgpu[0].CLRawPlatformName=Intel(R) OpenCL

clgpu[0].CLRawPlatformVendor=Intel(R) Corporation

NumNativeGPUs=1

nativegpu[0].NativeName="6422:Intel(R) HD Graphics 520"

snifferEnd="2020-12-14_15:06:46"