Solved Pen/Stylus not working after upgrade to Win 10 1903

[Rick Knight]

I inherited an SP4 without power supply or pen/stylus. I purchased a replacement power supply and pen. The power supply works great. The pen worked at first, but when I upgraded the SP4 to Win 10 1903 (from 1703) the pen stopped working. The pen is a generic pen, probably from China and when it was working, it seemed to work pretty well. Also, the pen is not Bluetooth. The package is labeled S Pen Active Stylus. I have rebooted the SP4, I have installed and re-installed the drivers from Microsoft. Nothing has worked. I don't see the pen icon in the task bar area, and there is no pen pointer on screen when I move the pen to the display. Can anyone recommend next steps to get to get this pen and Surface working?

 

[sharpuser]

Hi, @Rick Knight . Congrats on your SP4.

It is good to know you updated Windows 10 to 1903, and it is running well, except for the 3rd party capacitive touch pen you have ("S Pen"). Have you found any help here: Solved - SP4 touch screen isnt responsive

You might want to start a personal conversation with one of those SP4 members.

 

[jnjroach]

If your pen is listing S Pen Active that is a WACOM compatible pen not a N-trig Pen that MS uses.

 

[Rick Knight]

If your pen is listing S Pen Active that is a WACOM compatible pen not a N-trig Pen that MS uses.

Jnjroach, it sounds like you're saying the S-Pen stylus is not compatible with Surface Pro 4, and that I need to find an N-Trig stylus. Is that correct?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Rick Knight]

Hi, @Rick Knight . Congrats on your SP4.

It is good to know you updated Windows 10 to 1903, and it is running well, except for the 3rd party capacitive touch pen you have ("S Pen"). Have you found any help here: Solved - SP4 touch screen isnt responsive

You might want to start a personal conversation with one of those SP4 members.

Thanks Sharpuser, I held over there and take a look.

Rick

 

[jnjroach]

Jnjroach, it sounds like you're saying the S-Pen stylus is not compatible with Surface Pro 4, and that I need to find an N-Trig stylus. Is that correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Sorry - correct, WACOM EMR pens are incompatible with Microsoft's N-trig Digitizers

 

[Rick Knight]

Sorry - correct, WACOM EMR pens are incompatible with Microsoft's N-trig Digitizers

Thanks JN Roach,

I've replaced the S-Pen with another pen that is supposed to be Surface Pro 4 compatible. It also does not work. Is it possible that Windows 10 update 1903 doesn't support the pen functions or that I may be missing a driver for the pen?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Rick Knight]

Thanks JN Roach,

I've replaced the S-Pen with another pen that is supposed to be Surface Pro 4 compatible. It also does not work. Is it possible that Windows 10 update 1903 doesn't support the pen functions or that I may be missing a driver for the pen?

Thanks,
Rick

Found the solution. First off, after running the Surface Diagnostic tool again, I discovered that Multi-Touch also wasn't working. I started a new web search looking for a solution to "multi-touch and stylus not working". After combing through several sites I finally found a post with exactly my issue. The person answering the post said this was a common problem after doing an upgrade, but that the solution was simple. In Device Manager, under Human Interface Devices uninstall the Intel Precise Touch Device, and then restart the Surface tablet. It worked. Now I have a Surface Pro 4 Running Windows 10 update 1903 with Pen and Multi-Touch support. I'm happy.

Thanks all,
Rick