Photoshop cs5 & opengl on acer 3810t

Question

i've a problem with the opengl function on photoshop cs5. when i installed cs5 for the first time everything worked fine, but after few month all opengl function are dead. In the control panel there is no reference to my video card (i'm sure it supports opengl).
the video card is a:
Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset with  integrated 3D graphics, with Intel®  Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (Intel® GMA 4500MHD)
i've tried to solve the problem reinstalling video driver and Photoshop, but it didn't work.
i noticed i'm not the only having problems with this video card.... Does  anyone know how can I fix this?
thanks

Answer 1

The standard answer, which we see again and again from Adobe, is that some part of the OpenGL feature set in the Intel drivers isn't making Photoshop happy, and so you don't even see the option to use OpenGL.  Intel drivers are known to be buggy.  Make absolutely sure you have the latest drivers installed.  Assuming you do...
The first and foremost thing is to contact the video driver maker - Intel in this case - and tell them that their driver software is not working with Photoshop CS5.  Be specific and let them know exactly what hardware and version you have.  I'm sure they care about this.
Then, as a potential workaround there is a registry tweak, which Adobe does not like to see used because it masks problems, that will cause your Photoshop to use the GPU even with whatever's wrong.  This can help you test whether your GPU is capable, as well as potentially helping you work around the missing functionality until such time as Intel releases drivers that make Photoshop happy again.
In the interest of helping you work around this problem, and knowing that Adobe does not like this presented even as a workaround, here it is:
Note:  Do not edit your registry if you do not understand the following format, are not very confident in your abilities to edit your registry, or don't know how to recover if you get it wrong.
This enables your ability to configure the [ ] OpenGL setting in Edit - Preferences - Performance:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\12.0]
"AllowOldGPUS"=dword:00000001
This removes the above tweak:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\12.0]
"AllowOldGPUS"=-
Note that by masking the problem that's causing Photoshop not to present you with the option to enable OpenGL, you're assuming the risk that something won't work right when Photoshop actually uses OpenGL.
-Noel