Acer Aspire R13 (R7-371T) Active Pen problems.

I have purchased a new Aspire R13, with acer recommended Active pen for this model. Touch pad is flicky, and wobbles in its place (very uncomfortable to use) The Laptop screen resolution and brightness are great and it is very responsive to finger touch, and capacitive pens.
However when I use the active pen, it works fine for about 5 minutes and then It starts to jump and skips and then the pen stops working. After a restart Pen starts to work but same thing happens. When I hover the pen over the screen it clearly sees it but the movement is not smooth, similarly when I am using the pen to draw it skips and jumps a lot. I have calibrated my screen and still the problem persists.

Also ACER claims palm rejection, and the palm rejection does NOT work at all.

Has anyone had the same problems? or does your Active pen work perfectly, I cannot determine whether the problem I have is from the Pen or the Screen.

Any suggestions? or comments?

Accepted answers

a2sam

I sent my previous unit back and got a new one from microsoftstore. It seems the problems I had were unit specific. This new one works fine, the touchpad in the last laptop clearly had a physical problem since it wobbled and didn't recognize multi-gesture.

I am happy with this one, it has a updated synaptics driver, not the newest one (there is a newer Synaptics driver on Acer website for this laptop which still doesn't install) but it works.

Contacted tech support, and asked why the updates don't install it seems this model is still a work in progress. They are updating drivers, power managments software etc.

Acer's Active pen works fine in ONENOTE, because the application rejects capacitive touch and only works with digitizer input. but in other apps palm rejection is not working. I'm going to exchange my pen as well and see if the problem is with the pen or not.

All comments

JackE

Does Device Mgr show any device problems?

Jack E/NJ

a2sam

I checked Device Manager, Everything is working properly.
In the Human interface Devices, There are HID-Compliant Pen which the driver is from 2006, similarly the HID-Compliant touch screen's driver is from 2006.
there is a Synaptics HID Device with a newer driver from 2014 as well.

JackE

Looks like an WinXP vintage driver, doesn't it? You might want to check atmel & synaptics and try their newer pen drivers.

Jack E/NJ

a2sam

yeah. Tried to install drivers from Synaptics, it won't install. I'm surprised a brand new laptop, doesn't come with updated drivers...

JackE

OK. Next, have you tried to install the old driver in compatiblity mode?

Jack E/NJ

a2sam

Thanks Jake, the old driver is already installed(A newer synaptics driver won't install in compatibility mode), I think a new driver from synaptics is needed. Given both the touch pad and the touch screen are flicky. I have talked to other users who bought this laptop, it seems the Active pen problem and touch pad jumps are common for this model.

JackE

>>> the old driver is already installed(A newer synaptics driver won't install in compatibility mode)>>>

Did you force the old driver to install in compatibility mode? Windows probably won't do it unless you set it to do so.

Jack E/NJ

a2sam

The old driver installs in compatibility mode but it doesn't support multi-touch gestures. The newer ones when I install them make no difference. tried installin safe mode still doesn't work.

JackE

>>>I'm surprised a brand new laptop, doesn't come with updated drivers>>>

Me too. Since you should still qualify for warranty phone/chat support, click the support button at the top of this page. Choose your country. Then click on contact Acer.

Jack E/NJ

a2sam

I sent my previous unit back and got a new one from microsoftstore. It seems the problems I had were unit specific. This new one works fine, the touchpad in the last laptop clearly had a physical problem since it wobbled and didn't recognize multi-gesture.

I am happy with this one, it has a updated synaptics driver, not the newest one (there is a newer Synaptics driver on Acer website for this laptop which still doesn't install) but it works.

Contacted tech support, and asked why the updates don't install it seems this model is still a work in progress. They are updating drivers, power managments software etc.

Acer's Active pen works fine in ONENOTE, because the application rejects capacitive touch and only works with digitizer input. but in other apps palm rejection is not working. I'm going to exchange my pen as well and see if the problem is with the pen or not.

JackE

Wow! That was a fast exchange! Congrats.

Jack E/NJ

holz1987

Hello,

i have kind of the same problem. the touchpad is very sensitive and jumps to another position where I dont wont to have it. Its almost impossible to work with the mouse touchpad. The active pen seems to make no problems so far.
Then i tried to install the new driver from acers homepage for the touchpad, but it didnt install correctly.

What should i do?

Furthermore I recognized a ghost effect on the display. someone has the same problem?

maximemoreillon

I am experiencing ghosting as well.

This is really frustrating, especially since I bought this laptop as an alternative to the Thinkpad Yoga, which is known to suffer from the problem.

JackE

Is this pointer ghosting that you are referring to? Is it present when using a USB mouse?

Jack E/NJ

maximemoreillon

Ghosting, also known as image retention, is a display issue. When an image is displayed for long enough, it remains slightly visible when switching to another one (not permanently). It is rather difficult to explain with words but this page highlights the problem quite well:

http://www.marco.org/rmbp-irtest.html

After switching to the grey background, the checkerboard pattern remains visible for about two minutes on the sides of my R13's LCD.

However, I think it would be best if this issue was discussed in a dedicated thread.

JackE

You're free to start a new thread on ghosting.

If this issue was not present when you first acquired the machine, I would try to HDMI or VGA out to a TV or external monitor to see if the ghosting appears on these screens to eliminate the video card as a problem.

If it doesn't appear on an external monitor, I would first suggest that you remove the screen bezel and re-seat the screen's ribbon cable connector a few times to clean the contacts. There may be a sticky tape helping to secure the contacts that must be removed. Make sure you remove the battery and power when doing so. Report back.

Thanks

Jack E/NJ

holz1987

Hello,

Well, I don't feel brave enough to do so. I definitely don't want to lose my guarantee. This should be done by a technician worker of acer.

I spoke also with some other owner of the aspire r13 and all of them has the same problems with ghosting and the touchpad.

It seems to be a failure in all used displays.

All the best

JackE

Absolutely!!! If it's still under warranty, you should not attempt this on your own. If you haven't done so already, click the support button at the top of this page. Choose you country. Then select contact Acer for initial chat and phone support. You may be asked to return the laptop for repair or replacement.

Jack E/NJ

ghughes

I am finding that palm rejection doesn't work at all. Especially in the most pen-friendly Onenote program I am disappointed to find that my palm jiggles tha page around and in Word my palm scribbles on the page.

And why is it not possible to disable the annoying pen buttons?

Come on Acer, how long have tablets been around.

mdmaddux

I have a newer machine and have found the Acer stylus fine for the average user.

Not an artist, so I only use it for text or as a mouse substitute in tablet mode on the road.

If you read the docs, you find this:

Acer Active Pen Stylus for Aspire R7-371T

How do I use the Acer Active Pen stylus?

The Acer Active Pen allows for pressure sensitive drawing, and easy access to functions using the hover feature. If Acer Hover Access is not preinstalled, please visit http://go.acer.com/?id=18022 to download and install the software.

Hold the pen close to the display and double-click on the lower button on the pen to launch Acer Hover. This allows you to quickly launch Acer Screen Grasp, Microsoft OneNote, Windows Journal, Microsoft Sticky Note or Microsoft Fresh Paint.

The Acer Active Pen has three modes:

    Sleep mode: Acer Active Pen is waiting for either a button to be pushed or the tip to be touched.
    Hover mode: Acer Active Pen is on, but not touching a surface.
    Touch mode: Acer Active Pen tip is touching a surface.

Note: When the Acer Active Pen has not been in use for 1 minute, the pen will go into sleep mode.

Pretty much says it all.

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