Tablet troubleshooting?

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Evy
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Tablet troubleshooting?

#1 Post by Evy »

AKA "You can't make art assets for your project if you can't draw"

I have no idea if this is the appropriate place for this, so let me know if it isn't. Or, you know, move it elsewhere, idk.

Last week I reformatted my computer (Windows 10, 64 bit) for a clean slate of my hard drive. I also finally replaced my tablet I had been using since 2008 (Wacom Bamboo Fun) with a Wacom Intuos Art. I've been using SAI for drawing since 2015 and have grown very accustomed to it.

The issue is that I'm having a very peculiar issue with the program and only in this program. I have to lift and reposition my hand when drawing, and before reformatting, I could just continue where I left off after resituating my hand. But now, the cursor jumps a few inches elsewhere on the screen, always in seemingly different locations.

The pressure and drift are fine. There's no cursor offset besides the above. There's no lag, shaking or anything.

I've set my tablet preferences to maximum mouse height (I use mouse mode) and it doesn't solve anything. I've tried removing my preferences and starting over. I disabled display scaling in the compatibility properties, and the tablet driver is a fresh install (from two days ago, in fact). I've looked high and low for solutions on Google, but I cannot, for the life of me, even find another person who has experienced the same issue. Wacom's troubleshooting documents only says not to place your tool (pen) on your tablet, which I haven't even been doing in the first place. I've posted on different forums about this too, but they all seem to be very inactive.

If anyone could lend me a hand I would be very appreciative T_T
Last edited by Evy on Sat Mar 25, 2017 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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indoneko
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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#2 Post by indoneko »

Try moving your tablet away from your PC and all other electronic device. If you also use wireless devices (such as wireless mouse/keyboard/whathaveyou), try unplug/turn them off first.
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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#3 Post by Evy »

Unfortunately my tablet is placed as far away from everything as possible already. I don't have any wireless devices that could interfere with the signal, either. :(

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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#4 Post by morinoir »

Have you tried unplug your tablet and plug it in different slot? Things that usually make my tablet magically work (again) is restart the computer, or reinstall the driver, or simply plug it to different usb slot.

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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#5 Post by LateWhiteRabbit »

Evy wrote: The issue is that I'm having a very peculiar issue with the program and only in this program. I have to lift and reposition my hand when drawing, and before reformatting, I could just continue where I left off after resituating my hand. But now, the cursor jumps a few inches elsewhere on the screen, always in seemingly different locations.
This is the behavior I've always experienced with drawing on a tablet - on many different computers on many different tablets. I always use Pen mode though. When you reposition your hand on the tablet and thus move the mouse or pen, you are putting the cursor on a different part of the tablet surface, which is mapped to a different part of the screen. It doesn't act like when you lift and move a computer mouse and isn't supposed to.

It sounds like SAI is treating your tablet like it is in Pen mode, while all your other programs are respecting your Mouse mode setting.

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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#6 Post by Evy »

UPDATE

So initially this was only affecting SAI, but after testing it out some more, it seems to have extended to everything else (or rather, I just didn't see it acting out elsewhere before). The thing is that even with mouse mode on, relative positioning only works less than half the time. I continued looking for solutions on Google and only found fixes for Linux/Ubuntu.

A friend of mine tried to troubleshoot for me and eventually sent me her tablet preferences to replace mine with. Lo and behold, it worked! No more positioning problems!... But then my pen pressure disappeared. The diagnostics window detects pressure when I test it, but none of my programs recognize it. So then it becomes a pen pressure sensitivity problem, and all the solutions I've found for it involve 1) restarting tablet services and 2) removing tablet preferences.

1 doesn't do anything. 2 obviously puts me back at the previous problem with positioning.

tl;dr it's not a SAI issue after all, but a tablet issue. Still, I can't find a fix for this either.

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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#7 Post by Imperf3kt »

Have you tried reinstalling the drivers yet? Is the tablet one where the pen is powered, or the tablet? If its the pen, try changing the battery. Maybe check your exact model number to check if it needs special updated drivers for windows 10 compatibility.

My tablet does funny things sometimes. Literally switching to pen mode and back fixes it every time.
Mouse mode FTW

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Evy
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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#8 Post by Evy »

I've tried that, and the drivers are up to date and compatible. The pen doesn't use a battery, the tablet itself needs to stay plugged in or use a battery for wireless connection (which I don't have).

In any case, I sent Wacom a message for technical support yesterday, but I kinda doubt they'll actually reply in a helpful manner. Gotta wait until the weekend is over for them to reply.

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Re: Art software (Paint Tool SAI) troubleshooting?

#9 Post by ThisIsNoName »

One thing I noticed with my wacom is that pen pressure will only work on GIMP when I open the program with my pen. I'm not sure if it's the same with SAI, but it's worth a shot.

Another thing that you might consider is that each tablet can support multiple pens. Is it possible that your preferences are still set to your friend's pen?

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Re: Tablet troubleshooting?

#10 Post by Evy »

Edited the thread title to make it more accurate.

So here's an update: Wacom got back to me (only when I actually called them) and sent me a possible solution, which entailed manually removing any leftover tablet files before reinstalling the driver. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work.

I've replaced my computer since it was failing since then. It still runs Windows 10 at 64bit, but has more RAM and a better graphics card. I installed my tablet, set my preferences, and gave it a try. At first it seemed to work just fine...

... but I'm on the fourth day of using it, and it just seems to get worse. I got in touch with Wacom again and sent them a video recording of the issue and all they did was tell me to do something I had already done (disabling Touch). It doesn't matter what window I'm trying to use my tablet on, the cursor keeps jumping regardless.

I mean, I can still manage to draw, but it's significantly more time-consuming and VERY frustrating. Switching to pen mode is not a very viable option because that would mean having to relearn everything from these last 9 years of using a tablet, and I don't really have the time or patience for that at the moment. No one I know besides the friend I mentioned in a previous post seems to use mouse mode either, so I don't really know who to turn to... :(

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