Driver Troubleshooting

Question

• How do I troubleshoot driver issues?

Symptoms

• My driver cannot be used
• I don't have pen pressure
• The driver control panel does not work
• The Wacom driver shows an error message when starting the computer

Similar symptoms which are not covered here

• Device is not recognized -> Hardware troubleshooting
• Installation of the driver fails

Sections in this article:

• Essential Driver Troubleshooting Checklist
• What "Quick fixes" are there to get straight to the problem?
• How does driver download and installation work?
• Delayed responses
  • Delayed driver start
  • Pen Lag
• Pen Pressure issues
  • Tip-Up Assist
• Troubleshooting Flow
• Tablet Data Handling Overview

Essential Driver Troubleshooting Checklist

1. Have you followed the Essential Troubleshooting Checklist to rule out compatibility and hardware issues as far as is possible?
2. Open the Diagnostic Data panel from the Wacom Desktop Center »Support: is there an error message?
   1. • you can also open the control panel directly
   2. No error, Diagnostics opens: The driver is running correctly.
      1. Reset the driver settings ("warm restart" the driver) to make sure there are no errors there, then try again.
      2. check in Diagnostics for pen/touch/ExpressKey hardware issues
      3. Check for Operating System or Application issues.
   3. Opens with error message:
      1. Reset the driver settings ("warm restart" the driver) to make sure there are no errors there, then try again.
      2. follow the steps given in Driver Error Messages for that specific message.

 

What "Quick fixes" are there to get straight to the problem?

The following symptoms and solutions might give you a quick fix.

If it does not work on the first attempt, work through all troubleshooting steps.

• Driver Error Messages when opening Settings or Diagnostic Data (Wacom Tablet Properties/preferences)
• Cursor is stuck at top left on macOS: reset settings
• OS issues which can appear to be driver issues:
• Windows:
  • Ring around the cursor / Unwanted ripple effects on Windows: turn off Windows Ink
  • Brush Tools keeps opening in Photoshop on Windows: turn off Windows Ink.
    • Check if your customer needs Windows Ink for pressure sensitivity. If they do, turn off "Press & Hold". It may be necessary to revert Photoshop to WinTab.
  • Unable to smoothly adjust sliders on Windows, e.g. in Adobe Lightroom: turn off Windows Ink
  • Can't click or select anything in Google Chrome: turn off Windows Ink
• macOS
  • Unable to use the tablet to log in: Driver only runs after login. Use Arrow keys and Enter, or use mouse/trackpad. Refer customer to Release Notes.
  • A yellow box appears whenever they put the pen on the tablet: turn off Mac Ink
  • Wacom Tablet preferences opens, but pen and/or touch not responding: give the driver macOS security permissions

How does driver download and installation work?

• Driver uninstall
• 'Clean' or 'Manual' reinstall means removing all Wacom software from the system before installing the driver afresh.

  This is only necessary when there has been a problem with a previous installation.

• Check Driver Error Messages (and local templates) for error-specific solutions which can usually avoid unnecessary reinstallations.
  • Process for Windows
  • Process for Mac

Delayed responses

A delayed response can be when the driver is not ready as soon as the user has logged in, or when they have "pen lag".

Delayed driver start

1. If the driver is not running on startup, first check Driver startup troubleshooting
2. Delayed driver startup could be caused by things like security software or OS settings, such as:
   • Driver startup recovery on Windows
   • 'Login Items fix' on macOS
3. If the driver is properly installed, and the settings are OK, but it is still not running, you can usually get it going again by:
   1. resetting/restoring the settings, or double-clicking a settings backup
   2. on Windows - Start driver manually in Services

Pen Lag

Pen lag comes in two variants:

1. the cursor is "chasing the pen", which can be caused by:
   • slow connection, especially if wireless
   • application, graphics card, or operating system settings e .g. ; cursor setting in Corel Painter / Corel Painter Essentials
   • OS, graphics card, or processor issues
   • application version
2. the cursor doesn't move at the start of the stroke, which can be caused by:
   • Wacom driver settings such as double-click distance
   • operating system settings such as Windows Ink Press and Hold to Right-click or
   • application version or settings
   • brush selection (large/complex brushes take longer to process)

Pen Pressure issues

Pen pressure issues can be caused by the hardware, the connection, or the software (, driver settings,

Note that

• It is not possible to turn pressure off in the Wacom Driver (but see Windows Ink)
• The tablet itself can not be the cause of a pressure issue as it is measured in the pen.
  • If the pen is OK, it could be the connection or it's in the software.

• No pressure (won't click at all), or unresponsive / slow to react
• Always has pressure (it won't drop to 0%): see
• No pressure sensitivity (stuck on 100% and only draws max width lines like a mouse)

Things to check

• Pen troubleshooting including
• Connection troubleshooting
• Reset settings
• Windows Ink
• #Tip-Up Assist
• Try in a different software application
• Graphics software settings

Tip-Up Assist

What is Tip-Up Assist and what does it do?

In some applications, including Photoshop, Tip-Up Assist can cause full-pressure "ink blots" / blobs, usually at the end of strokes, as shown in this example.

To turn off Tip-Up Assist open Settings, select Options, and deselect the checkbox for Tip-Up Assist.

• If this does not solve the issue, collect a log file and escalate.

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Troubleshooting Flow

Does Diagnostic Data (the Driver Control Panel (CPL)) open? Yes: Start troubleshooting the pen / tablet functions with the driver diagnostics: Tests with the Diagnostics dialogue No, error message on system start: Go to Driver Error Messages No, no reaction at all: Go to Reset the settings
Reset the settings Does Diagnostic Data (the Driver Control Panel (CPL)) open? No: Go to clean install of the driver Yes: Reboot Does the Driver Control Panel (CPL) open? Yes: Success, issue should be solved No: Go to manual reinstallation of the driver
Run a manual reinstallation of the driver and reboot: Windows: How do I uninstall (manually) and re-install the Wacom driver on Windows for a Pen Tablet, Pen Display, or Pen Computer? macOS: How do I uninstall (manually) and re-install the Wacom driver on Mac OS for a Pen Tablet, Pen Display, or Pen Computer? Does Diagnostic Data (the Driver Control Panel (CPL)) open? Yes: Success, issue should be solved No: Escalate the case as for further troubleshooting. Ensure that all steps are documented as described in Driver Issue Reporting

Tablet Data Handling Overview

If you understand how the tablet "talks to" the computer (for Pen and for Touch), you will be able to troubleshoot more effectively.

Data sent from the tablet is handled in two different ways.

1. basic HID data from pen or touch is handled differently to pen tablet-specific data
   • basic HID (Human Interface Device) data is the same as comes from a mouse or keyboard and includes position (X/Y coordinates) and button clicks (left-click/right-click, ExpressKey keystrokes etc.).
   • HID data goes from the tablet, through the USB circuits, to the Wacom driver. This passes it unaltered to the OS, which passes it to the applications, and to the graphics card (GPU) to show the cursor.
2. tablet-specific data includes pen pressure, pen tilt, rotation, Wacom touch gestures, tablet-specific driver settings etc.
   • App-specific commands may have been saved into Settings, this is the only way that applications can respond differently with the same tablet input.

     Reset settings to rule this out as the source of the problem.

   • Tablet-specific data (pressure, tilt, rotation, gestures) is saved by the driver in the '"bucket", a data store in the computer. This data is then called up as required by the application.

data transfer is one-directional

The tablet does not "know" what application is active or what it is doing.

Related Links

• Consumer driver
• Driver Issue Reporting
• Driver startup troubleshooting
• Driver Troubleshooting
• How to log crash files in windows
• How to driver error log files on a Mac
• How to save msinfo32
• How to save Windows systems events log
• Preference File Utility command line options
• Driver Error Messages
• Remove App specific settings
• Wacom Desktop Center
• Windows - Start driver manually
• Windows Update .dll error

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