WACOM problems on Windows 7 64-bit

3DLee · Mar 2010

I searched but it doesn't look like anyone else has asked this yet. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, and I have a WACOM Intuos 3 6x11" that I sadly neglect all too often. I decided last night to work it into my workflow more often, so I attempted to install the drivers and get it running.

The newest WACOM drivers installed just fine, but when I plug the tablet in and try to use it, the cursor moves just a few pixels before it stops working. Attempting to open the WACOM options under the control panel returns a "WACOM DRIVERS NOT FOUND" error, but when I look under Windows Services the WACOM service is clearly running and even restarting the service doesn't help.

Has anyone else run into this? Googling around for about an hour returned some similar complaints but no answers.

MM · Mar 2010

try disabling "Wacom Virtual Hid driver" under "Human Interface Devices" from the device manager.

uninstall current driver and install driver again and restart.

ironbearxl · Mar 2010

Did you disable the Win 7 tablet pc drivers?
Might be the problem.

Emil Mujanovic · Mar 2010

I get this problem all too often!
I generally just re-install the driver as soon as I see that the cursor isn't responsive (like you said, a couple of pixels). And as soon as it's done. It all works fine and dandy.
It's just annoying, but it's the work around I came up with and seems to work for me.
I hope it helps.

Also, moving this to Technical Talk.

Cojax · Mar 2010

Haven't had any problems yet with the Cintique 21u with Win7. Latest drivers seem to work fine.

3DLee · Mar 2010

Thanks for the suggestions, but no luck so far. I tried all of the above, and I even reinstalled the driver in safe mode in case something else was interfering with it. Nothing seems to work.

I'm going to submit a ticket to WACOM and hope they have the answer.

hijak · Mar 2010

might seem obvious but have you tried opening the wacom fie preference utility and saying remove all. that fixed it for me when i had that issue. Then just steup your talbet and save a profile, so if you have to do it again you can just restore your settings.

also as has been mentioned you have to set the windows tablet service to disabled startup type in your services editor.

LiselottePulva · Mar 2010

same problem here, i reinstalled old drivers. the current drivers got many problems with w7,that can you also see if you go to the wacom-support forum.

Hayden Zammit · Mar 2010

Pretty sure I just use the latest drivers. I just keep reinstalling them till it works. I'm using a Intous 4, but it shouldn't be much different. It was a pain to get working when I first got it though, too.

3DLee · Mar 2010

WACOM's support is pretty speedy, I'm impressed:

After disconnecting the tablet from the computer, I would recommend removing your current driver from the programs and features of your control panel, and then restart when prompted to do so. After the restart you'll want to download the newest driver for your tablet to your desktop. Once the driver has been downloaded youll then want to hold down the windows key on your keyboard and press the R key. This should open the Run dialog box in which youll want to enter msconfig and click OK. This will open up the System Configuration utility in which you'll want to select Diagnostic startup and click OK to restart. Diagnostic startup is like safe mode but it disables any of your startup programs such as your antivirus and also disables your internet access so that you're not at risk. Once you've booted into Diagnostic startup you can then double click on the download to install the new driver. After the driver installation you can now use the same msconfig utility to select Normal startup and restart again. Once the computer has finished booting you can then reconnect and test your tablet.

Heres a link to the newest driver for your tablet for your convenience: http://www.wacom.com/downloads/driver-detail.php?id=214.

Which is great... but it didn't work.

I'm hoping they have a few more tricks up their sleeve.

zolanda · Mar 2010

hi all... i was also having this prob before..plug in and out more than 100 times n it would not work, but finally found a solution fr here

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7hardware/thread/83ca5be3-b14f-40f0-9c98-e9f8af600e92

" It's definitely the new driver but I did notice that it works fine once its initially installed but stops as soon as a restart occurs. Although the service is started, the driver still fails to work. I noticed if you stop the service: TabletServiceWacom and restart it everything works fine. I think I tried every combination of startup type in conjunction with the TabletInputService and could not get the wacom to properly start after a reboot. Heres the workaround that Ive came up with: save a shortcut to services and simply stop and restart the TabletServiceWacom service to get it to work each and every time you need to use the tablet (a pain in the butt but still easier than re-installing the driver each time) or a better way: set the TabletServiceWacom to startup type: manual and create a bat file that contains NET START "TabletServiceWacom" and place it in the startup folder. This eliminates the manual process of stopping and restarting the service and it occurs upon every startup/restart. To create the bat file open a new text document > paste the following: NET START "TabletServiceWacom"
Go to file save as and under File Name using the quotation marks whateverNameYouChoose.bat and hit save
Place this file in the following path (Windows 7): C:\Users\YourUserProfile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup "

3DLee · Mar 2010

Tech support's latest reply:

If you are still getting the unusual behavior at startup or with your preferences, you may still be fighting something more specific in the operating system related to how the system is going through its startup items. Go to Start : and type Services in the search dialog, hit enter, and in Services scroll down to TabletServiceWacom, double click and set its startup type to (Automatic Delayed Start) then click apply and see if the problem persists.

And my results:

After changing the service startup to "Automatic Delayed Start", my tablet did start working on my next reboot. I was able to load Photoshop and use basic paint functions, but pressure sensitivity did not seem to be working, and the tablet was also mis-aligned on my primary screen and was "running over" slightly onto my second screen. After a few minutes of testing I loaded 3ds Max and instantly the tablet stopped functioning completely once again. Going to the WACOM driver options under the Control Panel returned the same "WACOM DRIVER NOT FOUND" error.

So... progress, I guess? haha :poly142:

renderhjs · Apr 2010

For a couple of days I have been working with my new Win7 64 bit computer and I had the same issues with my intius4 tablet. I contacted wacom to get this please sorted, on some forum people suggested downloading a way older driver version for win7 that is however not anymore available on the wacom website.
Also the whole tablet shit in Win7 is hell annoying took me some time to find the right triggers to kill it.

sama.van · Apr 2010

hmmm I don't if it can help you guys...
But I just dropped on my FTP older version of Wacom Intuos 3 driver I downloaded from their website....
I don't even know Intuos driver is a common EXE for all Intuos version then....

I am using the last version you can find on my ftp... and it run pretty well with Intuos 3 on W7-64

http://a.samavan.com/Wacom/

3DLee · Apr 2010

I wanted to share how I solved this, as I was wasting a bunch of time this week trying to fix it with no less than 6 emails back and forth with WACOM support and no luck.

On a hunch last night I uninstalled the WACOM drivers once again, rebooted and then I ran an Explorer search on my OS drive for "wacom". It turns out, almost all of the old driver files were still there; the uninstaller hadn't removed them. This is why every time I would "reinstall" the WACOM drivers my tablet still wouldn't work - Windows was still reading the bad driver installation from last year.

At this point I figured I would delete the files, reinstall the correct drivers and be good to go. However, it turns out that Vista and Windows 7 system files (including the left behind WACOM drivers and pre-fetch files) are protected by a hidden user and cannot be deleted.

I attempted this guide on how to take ownership of the files so I could delete them, but after working with command line prompts for a while I had ownership of the files and yet Windows still would not let me delete them:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/how-to-delete-a-system-file-in-windows-vista/

I also tried a few "file unlock" applications without luck. Finally, I stumbled upon this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

I added the file to my registry and right clicked on the left behind WACOM driver files and clicked the new "Take Ownership" option. The command line ran, and reported success. I pressed Shift+Del, deleted the files, and rebooted using msconfig to set a diagnostic boot. Once in the diagnostic mode, I ran the WACOM driver installer again then rebooted normally.

My tablet now functions 100% correctly with all control panels and options!

I was about ready to go bulldoze Microsoft HQ though. I mean, the hand holding is out of control. I'm an Administrator on my computer, why should my OS prevent access to ANY files? Or why isn't there a better way to take ownership other than a creative solution by someone else who was fed up?

renderhjs · Apr 2010

just wanted to drop a support email I got today here as well so its a bit better documented here;

Good afternoon Hendrik,

You may be dealing with an issue we are trying to get to the bottom of, but I want to first verify that it is not something that was resolved with our latest driver release. With our latest driver some attention was paid specifically with the startup of the driver as well as some preference file access issues. After disconnecting the tablet from the computer, I would recommend removing your current driver from the programs and features of your control panel, and then restart when prompted to do so. After the restart you'll want to download the newest driver for your tablet to your desktop. Once the driver has been downloaded youll then want to hold down the windows key on your keyboard and press the R key. This should open the Run dialog box in which youll want to enter msconfig and click OK. This will open up the System Configuration utility in which you'll want to select Diagnostic startup and click OK to restart. Diagnostic startup is like safe mode but it disables any of your startup programs such as your antivirus and also disables your internet access so that you're not at risk. Once you've booted into Diagnostic startup you can then double click on the download to install the new driver. After the driver installation you can now use the same msconfig utility to select Normal startup and restart again. Once the computer has finished booting you can then reconnect and test your tablet.
Heres a link to the newest driver for your tablet for your convenience: http://www.wacom.com/downloads/driver-detail.php?id=214.

Now, if you are still getting the unusual behavior at startup or with your preferences, you may still be fighting something more specific in the operating system related to how the system is going through its startup items. Go to Start : and type Services in the search dialog, hit enter, and in Services scroll down to TabletServiceWacom, double click and set its startup type to (Automatic Delayed Start) then click apply and see if the problem persists.

Please reply with any questions or if this does solve the problem we would really like to know. If you are still having problems I will need to collect more information. Please reply with the exact version of the Operating system including 64/32 bit as well as any Antivirus software you may be running. There are still a few other things we can test, but I would first just like to know if we are fighting a current issue or just a problem with an over-install or older driver first. I hope this helps, and if you have any problems or other questions please do not be afraid to call the number below, or simply reply, making sure to include any prior correspondence.

I will be working through the email tomorrow or so as I am busy today with non painting stuff, but it is nice to see that they actually response in such a detailed and quick way, thumbs up for Wacom!

WACOM problems on Windows 7 64-bit

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