hey guys, i havent been here in ages, i'll spare the details, but yeah, i've been busy! one of the things i've been in the process of doing, and why i have been away, is because i'm in the middle of moving and everything is in storage, except the PC of course.... my PERSONAL PC however is in storage, i'm using my husbands while we're waiting on our house. i managed to grab a few personal effects for art, and i left out the most important things... my Photo Shop 7 disc and my Wacom Tablet pen...... i have the tablet and mouse, but thats no good for digital art. i'm truly spoiled with that pen.

what i want to know is....... is it worth it to buy a new pen, this tablem was bought brand new back in 2003, or should i just go out and buy a whole new tablet? are there any upgrades worth my while? is there much of a difference? the website was no help at all. the replacement pen (at least it LOOKS like my old pen) is about 30 bucks... also... if/when i do buy a new tablet, which is the best one to get? all i do is digital art, painting, sketching etc. and some photochopping here and there, nothing too fancy really. they have way to many tablets and they all look too gawdy... whats the popular choice for an artist such as myself?

Given the price of Wacom tablet, I would definitely say that the price of a new pen is far better if your Wacom is still working perfectly fine. Your Wacom is not that old, and is most likely a USB tablet, so it's up to date (unlike mine, which is a serial Wacom).

-- BK

well thats the thing, i dont know if its working normal or not. i dont know anyone else personally that uses them and mine can do some wacky random things.. for example while painting/sketching in photoshop 7 i've noticed the line is continual, as if i never picked the pen up off the tablet. even though i DO pick the pen up like would normally do while drawing the old fashioned way, there is a very faint (if i'm lucky) line that still connects the line i just left, for example: http://www.side7.com/cgi-bin/S7SDB/Display.pl?act=image&iid=326109 if you look close enough you can see all the tiny thin lines all through the image, in the white areas especially. there have been times when it was so screwy and sensitive that i've been able to draw and colour without the pen touching the tablet.. i can hover the pen over the tablet, les than half an inch, and still draw......

the other weird thing it does is it will not give me a fine to bold line at all. when i first turn on the PC and go into PS to draw, my line is something like a big fat sharpie line. something you would expect if you were drawing with a mouse or using the old standard Window's paint program, you know, the one that only gives you three choices each for brush size and shape? the pen also has a tendency to uh... grab things... and yes i've adjusted the tip sensitivity from one extreme to the other and it only makes a difference that moment..... i dont think its the tablet, actually, but maybe the pen.... or maybe some kind of interference with what ever makes that pen work, something magnetic perhaps. i once thought maybe it was the computer and not enough memory, or the graphics card, because the tablet was at its worse if i was online or had a webpage open, but when we got DSL it was still random. if i turned the PC off and reset it and went back into PS to draw it would work normally, either for hours, all day, a couple days, OR it would only work properly for a few minutes..... its just random! again it only started this about two years after i got it..... someone recomended i download the upgrades from the website, and i've done that but havent had the chance to see if its made a difference since my PC and pen are both in storage..... my husband is at a loss too, he's adjusted things, thinking i hadnt thought of doing that... and he had been confident that it was all better and i could stop ranting and raving.... but then it would go right back to being weird again, grabbing stuff, being super sensitive or giving me the big bold line..... i've taken care of my pen. i havent abused it or allowed to be abused. i'm the only one that uses it... its never gotten wet, never been stepped on, and if it was dropped it was always on thick carpet..... but i dont know anything about this stuff.... do you think its the pen or what?

Have you tried updating the tablet's software? You should be able to do so from the manufacturer's website, I would think.

Sounds like the exact problem I'm having with my stylus. In my problem, the rocker switch on the stylus is worn out, and so the slightest pressure on it (even accidental pressure) will cause it to register a click, and it doesn't reset and come out of "active" mode. Check to ensure you get a good firm click out of your rocker switch, and that it returns to the neutral state afterwards.

Definitely sounds like the stylus isn't registering pressure sensitivity, or that Photoshop 7's settings for pressure sensitivity (yes, you have to activate it in PS as well) has been lost somehow. But, if you say it is registering in the Wacom config screen, I'm leaning more towards the Photoshop setting being the issue. If your stylus wasn't registering pressure sensitivity, it would register it for no software.

At this moment, with all that you've described, I would wager that it's probably the stylus' rocker switch that is the main culprit. That's just something that wears out. Simple wear and tear. My stylus has never been abused in any way, and the rocker switch has pretty much rendered my stylus unusable as a result.

The last thing I would try, is calling up Wacom customer support and describing your problems to them, and get a definitive answer from them. They might have some suggestions that I or others haven't thought of.

But, all in all, your tablet isn't that old, so I think the price of a new stylus is well worth it over the price of a whole new tablet.

-- BK

i dont know what a rocker is, how do i go about checking it? also how do i adjust photoshop to accept the tablet? i want to try those things before i get in touch with the manufacturer.

i just got my PC out of storage and have my tablet hooked up to it now. at first it was doing the typical stuff i described and i got so frustrated with it i went into the tablet program thing and adjusted the pen sensitivity to extremely hard.... it worked great lol of course i didnt have DSL hooked up then. i havent used the tablet since then so i dont know what it will act like now.

and yep i upgraded the software online before i put the PC in storage, but it was so soon after the update that i dont remember if it made a change or not. i might go back to the website and see if there are any more upgrades needed.

thanks guys, and sorry i took so long to reply. i didnt forget, we finally got moved into our house two weeks ago and only just got the net last night