So I just started testing out Adobe Photoshop CS4. I ran into a little problem to start with. Every new image I made would be solid black and  I could not see anything I was trying to do. When I first started using  the new version of Photoshop it gave me a message about implementing GPU processing. This was enough of a clue to get me started.

Steps to take to fix the black canvas:

Adobe recommends that you try to update your video drivers to support GPU processing, and if this works I would take this route as it will make Photoshop more powerful.

If that does not work try the following:

  1. Open  Photoshop go to Edit > Prefrences > Proformance.
  2. Then under GPU Settings uncheck Enabled OpenGL Drawing.
  3. A restart may be required, but I do not remember for sure.

Well that is what worked for me. I hope this helps others, because at the time when I Googled for a solution there was nothing.