Known Participant

P: (Windows) Photoshop v27.9.1 Crashes at launch: OpenCLOn12.dll exception 0xc0000409 (possible Windows/NVIDIA driver conflict)

Forum|Forum|3 days ago
August 18, 2026
55 replies
244 views

Simply went to open Photoshop. Intro screen came up and little blue wheel was spinning but then it just stopped, no messages, etc. Went through various potential solutions on Adobe and on the internet. Nothing worked. Finally uninstalled and reinstalled through Creative Cloud. Had put it in “Run as Administrator” in trying to solve the problem. Changed that and Photoshop ran once. When attempting to reopen it again, it would not run. Lightroom works. The Beta version of PS works.

Pinned Reply By Sameer K

Hi everyone! This thread is now designated as the main thread for tracking and consolidating similar and related reports. I have shared this with the team for their review.

Based on detailed investigations and feedback from affected contributors, we understand that the issue may be stemming from external sources (non-Adobe).

Here are two of the user-reported workarounds you can try:

Uninstall the Microsoft OpenCL/OpenGL Compatibility Pack: Go to Windows Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > search for "OpenCL, OpenGL and Vulkan Compatibility Pack" > Uninstall. This removes the broken OpenCLOn12.dll translation layer entirely, forcing Photoshop to use NVIDIA's native OpenCL driver instead.
Uninstall Windows Update KB5121003: Go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall updates > remove KB5121003. This rolls back the Aug 12 update that introduced the NVIDIA driver conflict and triggered the D3DMappingLayers auto-update.

Will circle back to update, or post new notes from the team soon.

Thanks!
Sameer K

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hi everyone! This thread is now designated as the main thread for tracking and consolidating similar and related reports. I have shared this with the team for their review.

Based on detailed investigations and feedback from affected contributors, we understand that the issue may be stemming from external sources (non-Adobe).

Here are two of the user-reported workarounds you can try:

Uninstall the Microsoft OpenCL/OpenGL Compatibility Pack: Go to Windows Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > search for "OpenCL, OpenGL and Vulkan Compatibility Pack" > Uninstall. This removes the broken OpenCLOn12.dll translation layer entirely, forcing Photoshop to use NVIDIA's native OpenCL driver instead.
Uninstall Windows Update KB5121003: Go to Windows Settings > Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall updates > remove KB5121003. This rolls back the Aug 12 update that introduced the NVIDIA driver conflict and triggered the D3DMappingLayers auto-update.

Will circle back to update, or post new notes from the team soon.

Thanks!
Sameer K

M

MrFreeze33

Participant

Same issue here.

RG631971Author

Known Participant

First, I want to say thanks for all the people who attempted to suggest a solution. I think I have eventually found the culprit in my case and it looks to be as if the same or something similar impacts a number of people. It does relate to the video driver. As noted elsewhere, my event viewer error related to OpenCL…dll. My video card and drivers are NVidea. RTX 4060 Ti and latest studio version. In continuing to try and solve the problem, I stumbled across the fact my computer had an additional video driver from Intel. Thinking it was redundant/not used I deleted it. Windows reinstalled on boot and PS began working again. I am assuming the driver was being used and somehow got corrupted. I have no idea as to why or how since I did not have any specifically related error messages. I hope this might be something else to check that will resolve this issue for others as well.

From all the comments it seems it takes a relatively ill defined trial and error approach to identify this type of problem. I maintain that Adobe could facilitate identifying potential solutions for PS users by better error checking and reporting. A general overview of the process and/or how PS differs from PS beta as an application would also help. Obviously, there is a significant difference since PS beta continued to run throughout. And even though some users have developed a troubleshooting process and shared it (again thanks), starting with more definitive input would be monumental. Especially if people are facing professional work deadlines dependent upon viable software.

I have had various problems with Adobe software over the last couple of years or so. I have been critical but do not think it has been unwarranted. Considering much of the feedback on these forums and many others, seems a decent portion of the customer base is frustrated with the Adobe approach of late. Many of the software’s capabilities are impressive and have been for years. However, out of the blue failures that take hours to figure out for those without a highly detailed understanding of the intricacies of computer hardware and similar “developer” expertise has come to potentially outweigh the benefits. The indifference Adobe shows to how so many of their users work is also disconcerting.

M

MrFreeze33

Participant

Same issues here … have tried all the steps I am familiar with. Splash screen comes up, it gets to memory and then disappears. Nothing in my task window to stop, either.

E

eworkflow9

Participant

Same problem here. 27.9.1 worked earlier but now does not go pass Measuring Memory step. This is a critical issue.

S

Sights Creative

Participating Frequently

Completely sorted. It was not the Nvidia driver as Adobe said. It was the Windows OpenCL,OpenGL and Vulkan Compatibility Pack that was installed on the last windows update. I simply uninstalled it and turned my NVidia drivers back on and it works perfect.

E

eworkflow9

Participant

My Photoshop 27.9.1 and PS Beta 27.11 were working earlier but refused to start today past Measuring Memory step. I tried all the remedies I found here (except reinstalling OpenCL) and nothing worked. What finally worked was downgrading my Nvida driver to the previous studio version (from 610.88 to 610.62).

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @paiser01,

I understand you've already tried reinstalling and resetting preferences without success. Let's go a bit deeper.

Troubleshooting steps to try:

Whitelist Photoshop in your antivirus/security software: Don't just temporarily disable your antivirus; instead, add Photoshop.exe (and the entire Adobe Photoshop installation folder) as an exception/exclusion in your security software.
Disable GPU acceleration before launch. While Photoshop is closed, rename the file:
- C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2026\Adobe Photoshop 2025 Prefs.psp (add .bak to the end [Adobe Photoshop 2025 Prefs.psp.bak])
- Then create a text file in the same folder named PSUserConfig.txt containing this single line: DisableGPU 1
This forces Photoshop to skip GPU initialization at startup. If it launches successfully, the issue is GPU-related. Could you update your graphics driver or check GPU settings inside Photoshop once it opens?
Launch Photoshop without third-party plugins. Hold Shift immediately after double-clicking Photoshop to skip loading optional/third-party plugins. If Photoshop starts normally, one of your third-party plugins is causing the hang. Re-enable them one by one to find the culprit.
A corrupt font on your system can freeze Photoshop during startup. Try temporarily moving all non-system fonts out of your Fonts folder (or use a font manager to deactivate all custom fonts), then launch Photoshop.
Open the Windows Start menu and select Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners.
Select the Adobe PDF printer, then click OK to save your changes. If you can't find the Adobe PDF printer, choose any printer, such as Microsoft XPS, or send it to OneNote. Select Set as default and ensure that Allow Windows to manage My default printer option is deselected.

A few questions that may help narrow it down:

Are you on Windows or Mac, and which version of the OS?
Does the splash screen always stop at the same point (e.g., always at "Loading plugins..." or "Initializing..."), or does it vary?
Do you have any third-party plugins installed (e.g., Nik Collection, Topaz, DxO)?

These answers will help us pinpoint where exactly the startup process is hanging.

Best,
Anshul Saini

P

paiser01

Participant

Thanks Anshul

Ik gebruik Windows 11 Home

Ja na de regel controleren van geheugen verschijnt de volgende (gaat te snel om het te lezen) en dan is het scherm weg

Ik heb met shift opgestart, krijg de vraag of ik zonder derde partij plugins wil opstarten, maar dan kan ik niet op ja klikken en verdwijnt alles weer.

Ook opstarten met alt+shift+ctrl geeft een popup en na op ja geklikt te hebben verdwijnt alles.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Do you have an integrated Intel GPU in addition to the RTX 4060? The most common problem with laptops is conflicting dual GPUs. Typical symptoms are crashing and freezing. The standard advice is to disable the Intel GPU in Windows device manager.

There is no way for Photoshop to control which GPU is being called. That depends entirely on how the laptop manufacturer has configured the operating system and the two GPU drivers - and this is something that can change in an update.

Dual GPUs are fine for simple applications that just send data one way downstream. But Photoshop uses the GPU in a much more complex way, as an integral part of the processing pipeline.

As for the Nvidia driver, what you can do is uninstall it, and when you reinstall, check “clean install”. This will remove all traces of the old driver(s).

All that said, some people have had issues with the 610 drivers from Nvidia. I’m one of them - nothing major, but a couple of annoyances - and I rolled back to 596.36, which has proved very stable and reliable.

A

AxelMatt

Community Expert

See here: Photoshop will not open | Adobe DME

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI

jeromew25529914

Participant

I had same issues different versions of photoshop, none of them working, window opened and started to load an then nothing…. tried first all the reset, reinstalling and other stuff, and finally it was simply my nvidia driver that needed to be updated, installed the latest driver of nvidia studio driver and now it works fine again.

I dont really understand why a driver, a stable version of phoshop, with no changes at all stopped working, why did my graphic card or photoshop needed a new driver to make it work while it was working fine yesterday...but anyway update nvidia studio driver worked for me.

S

Sights Creative

Participating Frequently

See this it may help

Peru Bob

Community Expert

Try resetting the preferences.

To restore preferences quickly using a keyboard shortcut:

Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.

Note: Using the keyboard shortcut, preference files for custom shortcuts, workspaces, and color settings will also be reset to default.

P

paiser01

Participant

Ik heb dit ook geprobeerd, geen effect.

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