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Pinsukka
Known Participant
July 17, 2022
Answered

Could not use brush tool because of a program error

  • July 17, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 2910 views

"Could not use brush tool because of a program error" <- This error keeps popping up when I'm drawing with a stylus on touch screen. It happens with both the brush and eraser tools very often and it's really ruining my workflow. What's causing this to happen? It doesn't happen with mouse.

    Correct answer CShubert

    Thank you for the systinfo @Pinsukka , a couple things we notice.  You should not set the memory allocated to Ps over 70%, you have yours set to 100%. Also, your video drivers are a couple months old, if there is an update, you should do that.

    Go to Preferences > Performance... and uncheck Multithreaded Compositing - and restart Photoshop. Does the problem persist? 

     

    (Masks) - Go to Preferences > Performance... click Advanced Settings... and uncheck "GPU Compositing" - then restart Photoshop. Does the problem still occur? 

     

    Thank you,

    5 replies

    Pete.Green
    Community Manager
    Pete.GreenCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    July 19, 2022

    @Pinsukka, 

    Curious if a reset of the preferences helps with this for you?

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually
    If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back.

     

    Do you still get the program errors if you use a mouse instead of the stylus?

     

    Let us know!

    Regards,

    Pete

    P
    PinsukkaAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 29, 2022

    @Pete.Green Manually resetting preferenced didn't help. It only happens with sylus (Slim Pen 2). The only thing I have found out to somewhat aid the situation (but doesn't completely fix the problem) is to use "High Performance" power settings in Windows instead of "Recommended". It cuts down the frequency of the errors a lot, but it still happens quite often.

    CShubert
    Community Manager
    CShubertCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    July 19, 2022

    Hi @Pinsukka sorry you are seeing this.

     

    When did this error start, what changes have happened to your computer, ie OS, etc?  As @Mylenium mentioned, it may help if we could see your Photoshop System Info. Launch Photoshop, and select Help >System Info...and copy/paste the text in a reply.  

     

    Thank you,

    P
    PinsukkaAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 29, 2022

    @CShubert I tried providing you with the System information, but for some reason the reply gets deleted when I do?

     

    And nothing has really changed, besides the system itself and the fact that I'm using Slim Pen 2 instead of mouse. Been using Surface Pro 8 for couple of months, replacing my Windows desktop and late 2016 Macbook Pro (neither of which had this problem).

    CShubert
    Community Manager
    CShubertCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    July 29, 2022

    Thank you for the systinfo @Pinsukka , a couple things we notice.  You should not set the memory allocated to Ps over 70%, you have yours set to 100%. Also, your video drivers are a couple months old, if there is an update, you should do that.

    Go to Preferences > Performance... and uncheck Multithreaded Compositing - and restart Photoshop. Does the problem persist? 

     

    (Masks) - Go to Preferences > Performance... click Advanced Settings... and uncheck "GPU Compositing" - then restart Photoshop. Does the problem still occur? 

     

    Thank you,

    P
    PinsukkaAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 19, 2022

    Sensitivity didn't really do anything to aid the situation. I checked the perfomance preferences but found nothing obvious wrong there either. What should I look for in terms of brush settings?

    P
    PinsukkaAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 17, 2022

    I'm using Surface Pro 8 i7 16GB/256GB with Slim Pen 2. I'll try fiddling with sensitivity settings and see if that does anything, thanks!

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    July 17, 2022

    Without exact system info, including what stylus is used and all that nobody can tell you much. As a start I'd check the tablet/ stylus settings. Perhaps it's simply set too sensitively and registers a lot of phantom double-clicks or similar and that throws off PS. Likewise of course check your hardware acceleration prefs and relevant brush and cursor settings.

     

    Mylenium

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