Why does my Wacom pointer freak out and go jumpy?

October 27, 2009 12:33 PM

Wacom tablet (Graphire2) on Win2K machine. Sometimes the pointer goes nuts and becomes jumpy and unusable until I unplug and replug the tablet. Drivers appear to be up to date. Any thoughts on why this happens?

I have a Wacom Graphire2 4x5 tablet hooked up to my Windows 2000 PC. I use the stylus/tablet instead of a mouse, so it's in constant use. It's plugged into one of the machine's USB ports (previously one of the front ports, now one on the back).

Occasionally, the pointer just WIGS OUT. It suddenly relocates to another spot on the screen and becomes jumpy and overly sensitive (an ordinary small movement makes it fly to the other side of the screen). It stays like this until I unplug and replug the tablet.

I don't know what causes this; sometimes it happens after I bring the machine back up from being on standby, and sometimes it happens if I just haven't been mousing for a few minutes. This tends to happen once or several times per workday.

I tried installing more recent drivers from Wacom's site, but they didn't appear to affect the problem. The tablet is 5-6 years old, but this problem has been happening for a couple of years. It also happens on my home computer, which has the same setup (5-6 year old Graphire2/Win2K).

Any thoughts on what might be causing this? It's driving me up a wall!

posted by cadge to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Try going to the Wacom control panel and on the top row, where it lists the tablet double click the icon for your graphire. A drop down menu should appear (for my Intuos, it does) with 3 different data modes. Try reseting it to default or try one of the other options.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:07 PM on October 27, 2009

Well, you're using very old hardware on a very old OS, and that has to count for something. However, up until about a month ago, I had the same setup, Graphire2 on W2K, but I never saw the behavior you're describing, at least not while actually using the tablet. The only time I've ever seen the cursor freak-out is when the pen is lying on the tablet. Could that be your trigger? See if the behavior goes away if you always return the pen to its holder when you're not actively using it.
posted by sageleaf at 1:07 PM on October 27, 2009

Response by poster: I never leave the pen lying on the tablet. I've lost the holder, so I always set the pen down on my desk, about half a foot away from the tablet.

(Also, yeah, old hardware and old OS! Also likely culprits!)
posted by cadge at 1:36 PM on October 27, 2009

and sometimes it happens if I just haven't been mousing for a few minutes.

Its probably just getting old and doesnt support standby very well. A quick and dirty work around is to run a mouse jiggler in the background. There's an example script here you can compile into an exe using authotkey. It can run in the background and move the mouse every x seconds.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:55 PM on October 27, 2009

USB support on Windows 2000 was far from stellar. Given that and the fact you see it on home computer too, the likely fix is upgrade to a newer OS. XP actually did pretty well with USB.
posted by chairface at 9:10 PM on October 27, 2009

Response by poster: Nice - thanks, everyone! I've been meaning to upgrade this computer to XP anyway, so that might take care of it. In the meantime, I'll try the autojiggler.
posted by cadge at 7:07 AM on October 28, 2009