Wacom Issues

Illusions

Tablet: Intuos 3 6x8

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem, or heard of it, or know what might be wrong. Sometimes, and this happens quite often, during use the tablet will spontaneously be "disconnected" and "reconnected" (as in I'll hear windows xp's usb disconnect & connect sound), in rapid succession. I'll even get a little popup in the corner telling me a usb device has been improperly disconnected, or a "USB Device Not Recognized". It doesn't appear to be related to the other Wacom issue posted here as I still retain all functionality before, and after the problem. Its just that the problem happens so frenquently, and XP takes a bit to reconnect the device that it becomes a hassle to work with.

I've ruled out it being a driver issue since the problem still occurs with updated drivers. I'm unsure if its hardware related, or software related since the problem will occur both when I'm using the tablet, and when its sitting motionless not being used. The only indication or warning I get that the problem is about to occur (before the audio warning through XP) is that the blue indicator light will turn off, stay off a bit, then turn back on.

Anyone have any ideas (I haven't touched it since typing this up, and its had the error already over a dozen times)?

Rob Galanakis

This happens on my home PC with anything plugged into the USB. Fortunately that POS is for the rest of my family I've never bothered to figure out a solution... would be great if anyone knew what was up.

BTW, you could also try http://icrontic.com/forum/, if it is indeed a hardware problem.

Illusions

Damnit, I just checked it, not only do I still have the old problem, but with the new drivers, the tablet acts as if its permanently mapped to the top left 1/8th of my screen even if told to do otherwise.

alyen

I have the latest drivers installed for the Intuos 3 6X8 and I ran into a problem just recently. I acidentlly moved my pen all the way to the very top right of tablet with a quick like flick stroke, and lost all tablet/pen functions. Everything was normal after I did a reset. I'm not sure what that was, but I didn't bother trying to emulate that effect again.

Joshua Stubbles

That's terrible, illusions. I haven't heard of that one before. Although I get a nice one, where it takes like 5 minutes for the tablet driver to load when Windows starts. Makes everything slow until it's done.

Illusions

I have no idea what it is. Sometimes it'll do it if I move the cord, sometimes when its sitting around doing nothing while I'm typing. When I have time on the weekend, I'm going to plug it into my old desktop and see how that goes. My desktop is faster than my laptop so I'll be able to narrow it down to the problem down some more.

I fixed the mapping issue though, apparently my computer doesn't like the newest June 7th drivers, and had to revert to the driver version before that.

Byterunner

I've experienced this problem of disconnect/reconnect on numerous occasions, though not just with my Wacom. I have two USB ports on the front of my computer and one of them is perfectly fine and the other one does this. I figure it's just a faulty USB port. I just make sure not to plug anything into that one that would cause serious problems with my work (like drives). If you experience the problem regardless of which port you're plugging it in to, then I can't offer any help. But if it's always the same port, try a different one and see if that helps.

peppi

I had a similar problem a while ago.. used to have some troubles with USB dongles that were being detected fine by their drivers but not by the software that needs them (LEDs were working properly etc) for no apparent reason. Windows would also randomly play the disconnect/reconnect sound. It worked when I plugged them into an external USB2 Hub that has its own power supply (~10€). Might be worth a try.

Illusions

I've narrowed it down to two things. Its either what Peppi stated, or another issue entirely that'll cost more $$$. My computer guy told me that it could be that the laptop is heating up the metal connectors in the usb ports, causing them to expand, and making them lose connectivity with any usb devices connected. This would make sense since the exhaust for my laptop is pretty-much right next to the usb ports, and after a few hours of running photoshop and maya the thing heats up so much that even the keyboard is hot to the touch.

Fordy

Have you thought about a laptop cooler, something like this -



Mind you, this particular one is good only for laptops with 15" of smaller screens. It'll certainly keep your laptop much cooler.

SkullboX

I've had a problem with my intuos 3 using recent drivers which caused my tablet to randomly uninstall itself after a reboot. Two of my classmates had the same issue. That problem was gone after I had gone back to older drivers (4.93 instead of 6.x) which you can probably still get from their site.

This doesn't sound like it's related, but it's probably your cheapest and easiest try at this point. Good luck!