CS4 smart sharpen issue

I'm having a problem with my Smart Sharpen feature in CS4. I've tried a few things to remedy it, but I'm not sure what else to do. Even if you dont know exactly what the problem is any suggestions would be appreciated.
-I open photo (jpeg) , open smart sharpen, & adjust to my liking. When I hit "OK" a small watch or clock appears in the place of my cursor like it's saving but the image does not retain the sharpness. It looks like it did when I opened the picture.
Any ideas? I googled it but couldn't find anything so it's probably some kind of setting that needs to be adjusted.
Any Ideas? Thanks
BTW, it does this on all types of files, not just jpeg.

first step: try cranking up the amount to 300% so that it is noticeable in the window, then apply it just to help verify that it isn't applying the effect.

also! make sure you aren't making a selection.

Good thought. I just opened a pic and did just that. I cranked up the radius and the amount all the way up ,hit OK and the effect was applied. It did lose some intensity though.
When working with less extreme amounts of sharpening it seems to lose the entire effect though.

Remember that the preview is just that, a quick best guess of what the final render will be. If the preview was 100% accurate then dragging the sliders on a slow machine would be painfully slow or cause crashes.

Yes, I understand, but there's something wrong here. it loses so much of the effect that I cant tell anything has even been done. I've also noticed that I'm having the same problems in all the sharpening tools, unsharp mask, sharpen more, etc. I've also uninstalled the program and reinstalled it but no luck.

That's odd, can you post something like this?

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

I have the same problem with my CS3 .. Anyone have solution for this? I tried reset everything back to default .. uninstalled, reinstalled .. no work

I'd be curious to know the image size, and the computer specs.
How long does the little "clock" thing stay on?
Assuming you have a noticable radius setting applied, perhaps the computer is taking a little longer to render the preview.

It seems like it is applying a fade effect automatically.

mayerk wrote in post #7325525
I'm having a problem with my Smart Sharpen feature in CS4..

I assume you're viewing at 100% when you do your sharpening...

Gary McDuffie wrote in post #7560177
I assume you're viewing at 100% when you do your sharpening...

This has nothing to do with it in CS4. Only lightroom. The way lightroom creates it preview caches, you cannot see the effects unless at 100%. This is not an issue with photoshop.