Layering Woes In Adobe Photoshop Constantly greeted by chessboard pattern.

[mrdee 1]

Hello,I have recently started using Adobe CSS Photoshop version 12, it runs on a machine with Windows 7 Ultimate, Intel Celeron E1500 2.20 Ghz processor, 2 Gb RAM and 1 Tb hard drive. The graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce 7050.The problem I am experiencing is the following:Whenever I open a graphics file (whehter it be JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF or any other existing file), on my main working space a square appears that looks like a chessboard, just like when working with animated GIFs, in other words, a layer raster.On the right, under the tab "Layers", the drop down menu says "Normal", and then underneath, I get "Layer 0", "Layer 1", or only the former one, depeniding on how many layers there are (I guess).Sometimes, when I double click on one of those layers, the picture appears as it should be seen, sometimes it does not.I seem to remember that, in older versions of Photoshop, when an image was opened, the picture just appeared on screen as it was.I am no expert at all in working with Photoshop, certainly not the newest version, so, has anyone here got more experience than I do, and/or has anyone come across the same problem yet?Have I got to change any of my settings to solve this problem?I would appreciate it very much if someone could give me some good advice, as the problem is not only highly annoying, it also stops me from editing and adjusting image files.Thank you in advance to the people who can help.

Edited July 23, 2010 by mrdee (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

If I am reading this correct it sounds like your talking about canvas, if can take a picture of what your getting we might get a better idea on how to fix your situation.

[mrdee 1]

Of course.Sorry for the crappy language used trying to explain, it is just because I am not very familiar with all the functions and parts of Adobe Photoshop that I have sometimes difficulty explaining things.Anyway, thank you for the reply, and a screenshot is attached.