Phil,
I doubt that it is a Photoshop problem. I have used dual monitors since version 7 (or was it 6?) and never had problems, neither with the mouse nor with my Wacom tablet.
I rather think it’s a graphic card’s driver problem. I would suggest to try the latest driver, maybe this will solve your problem.
Ronald
I have a 15" vga and a 22" DVI set of monitors. Last week I was having issues with vanishing mouse cursor… it would disappear.. then it would reappear but slide under the tool bars and pallets. I could not select even the FILE to save the image.
I found that by deleting the preference file – on starting up Photoshop CS2… hold down the SHIFT | CTRL | ALT key.. and it will create a new preference file.
Mouse works now !!!
Hope this helps
Thanks for the replies.
Unfortunately neither suggestion helps.
I already have the latest graphics card drivers. I also temporarily installed Photoshop 6 to see if the same problem occurred, and PS6 was fine – the cursor was displayed correctly regardless of the size of the image window, which seems to indicate that it is purely a CS2 issue.
I tried deleting the CS2 preference file, but the problem persists.
In checking this I realised that the cursor in CS2 only disappeared when it was over the image window client area – if the cursor is above the window border or the CS2 parent window, the cursor is visible – again suggesting that the hardware is working fine.
It looks to me as though the CS2 code that controls the dynamic display of the cursor when it’s over the image window is somehow incorrectly assuming that the image size is no greater than the monitor size. Apparently CS2 doesn’t know how to draw the cursor when the x-coordinate is greater than this. The problem with this interpretation is that no-one else has reported this issue. If this was a CS2 bug I would expect it to have been experienced by others using large image windows on dual monitors.
I’ll keep trying different things to see if I can find a solution, but for the moment it looks like I may have to have both Photoshop CS2 and 6 installed simultaneously, and just copy large image layers out to 6 for editing, then copy them back to CS2.
Phil
Are you patched up to Version 9.0.2?
John,
Yes, patched to 9.0.2.
Phil
Try turning hardware acceleration (right-click on desktop > Properties > Settings > Troubleshoot) off, or down, and see if the problem persists, as a troubleshooting step. If it goes away, it’s most likely a video driver problem.
Update: I’ve discovered that the problem only occurs with some of the tool cursors – the Move, Zoom, Hand, Path Selection and Notes tool cursors all work ok. All of the other cursors disappear when moved beyond an x-coordinate of 1024 within an image window.
Michael: The Nvidia DualView driver does not work with hardware acceleration turned off – when I tried it I got a Windows error relating to the Rundll32.exe system file and had to reboot.
But to reiterate: This disappearing tool cursor problem only occurs in Photoshop CS2 in an image window greater than 1024 pixels wide.
It does not happen in any other application whatsoever, including Photoshop 6. I have tried nearly every program on this computer to see if I can recreate it outside of CS2, and every one of them works perfectly except CS2.
I appreciate your attempt to help me, but I really don’t see how it could be a hardware problem if it only ever occurs in CS2. If every other program I’ve used, including Photoshop 6, can function without this problem then how could a hardware issue cause it to occur in CS2 only?
Could I impose on people with a dual monitor setup to see if they can get the same problem? To check, try opening any image, and stretch the image window horizontally so that it’s wider than the width of one monitor, and therefore displayed partially on each. Then select the paint tool and see if the cursor is visible across the whole width of the image window.
Thanks again for trying to help. I really do appreciate it.
Phil
I appreciate your attempt to help me, but I really don’t see how it could be a hardware problem if it only ever occurs in CS2. If every other program I’ve used, including Photoshop 6, can function without this problem then how could a hardware issue cause it to occur in CS2 only?
It has been stated that PS CS2 is more demanding on a system’s hardware than most other applications. Symptoms appear that don’t occur elsewhere. Therefore it is prudent to troubleshoot based on this assumption, rather than to discount any possible hardware/driver shortcoming as impossible.
Phil,
and see if the cursor is visible across the whole width of the image window.
Even 3 monitors causes no problem…
(2 monitors on a Matrox Millennium P650 and the third on a Nvidia Geforce4 MX 420)
CS2 on Windows XP
Ronald
You wouldn’t happen to have a tablet, would you? If so, try moving the pen away from it.
Phil,
I have no problems here. I’m running a 24" BenQ LCD monitor at 1920×1200 on a DVI connection and a CRT at 1600×1200 with a VGA/DVI adapter, to my dual-DVI nVidia 7600GT card which is using ForceWare version 93.71. Stretching an image across the full 3520-pixel width, my cursor remains visible regardless of the tool chosen whether using precise or standard/normal tool cursors. This is all on PS CS2 with Windows XP/SP2, an Intel chipset-based ASUS motherboard, and Intel Core 2 Extreme processor.
Regards,
Daryl
turn off the nvidia desktop manager (dualview? nview?) and let windows handle the desktop spanning. i almost guarantee that’s your problem.
as others have said, there’s no problems with ps and multi monitor setups going back for several versions at least.
Wow! I never expected so many responses. Thanks.
You’ve answered my question, anyway. It clearly isn’t a CS2 bug.
I’ve tried playing around with the Wacom, and that doesn’t make any difference.
I’ll try disabling the Nvidia DualView desktop manager, but I’ve got other stuff that I’ve set up to rely on it so I’ll do a system backup first in case I run into problems.
I’ll let you know what happens…
Not to say the problem isn’t with nView, as I’ve seen quirky behavior such as having two desktop wallpapers not being properly maintained, but I do have desktop spanning currently enabled in nView’s Window Control section of Desktop Manger. In fact, if it’s worth anything, here are my settings in the various named tabs of nView Desktop Manager where tabs not listed have no features enabled:
WINDOWS
– Enable window spanning across multiple displays
– Enable child window spanning across multiple displays
– Open windows on Default display
– Snap window edges by No window snapping
– Reposition dialog boxes on Move to Display 1
– Center dialog box on display
DESKTOPS
– Available desktops: Default
– Disable multiple desktops
USER INTERFACE
– Enable nView option in the Windows desktop right-click menu – Title bar buttons: Full-desktop maximize, Next display, Collapse to title bar – Add nView options to system menus
EFFECTS
– Make windows minimize and maximize faster
MOUSE
– Enable throw window action
And in the normal Windows Display Properties, Display 1 is primary and Display 2 is set to extend the Windows desktop to that monitor.
Daryl
Ok, problem solved.
To all of those who said it was a graphics driver problem, you are hereby officially entitled to give me a big ‘I told you so’.
When I switched the display to the standard Windows monitor spanning setup, the problem was gone.
I then switched back to Nvidia DualView – and the problem is still absent! CS2 is now displaying perfectly using exactly the same configuration that was previously giving the faulty cursor display.
I assume that something was wrong with some internal setting within the DualView driver, and disabling then re-enabling DualView caused it to be reset. It still seems strange to me that it was only causing a problem within CS2, but there you go. Lesson learnt.
Thanks again for all your help.
I hate it when that happens!
what, bent your wookie john? 🙂
