Images and new documents open up "blank. PHOTOSHOP CS5

     Hello everyone,

I'm having trouble figuring out what my problem is. Did a little poking around on the Internet and still haven't managed to find anything. Whenever I'm opening a document, such as an image(jpeg), the image appears blank. What I mean by blank... the background appears to be transparent. I know the image is present because it shows up in the layers and if I use the pen tool to draw on the picture the new drawn line will appear but only the line. if I choose to zoom in on the picture everything goes back to transparent. This problem also occurs when I create a new document. Nothing appears except for a "transparent" background even though its solid white. Can anyone please help me out here? thanks in advance.

Rick