aspire r7-372t stylus buttons not working

In hopes of being able to use it with my R7-372T-77LE, I got a Dell Active Stylus. However, when I use it I can see the cursor hovering where the stylus on the screen, but neither of the two buttons work.

This seems to suggest that it would work properly:

http://community.acer.com/t5/S-and-R-Series-Laptops/Does-the-latest-Aspire-R-13-refresh-have-a-digitizer-stylus/m-p/419369#U419369

But a post here says otherwise:

http://community.acer.com/t5/S-and-R-Series-Laptops/Aspire-Active-Stylus-V-NP-STY1A-005/m-p/423088#U423088

So, considering that the stylus is able to move the cursor around but the buttons don't work, is my stylus broken or does the r13 not support it properly.

Accepted answers

DAlchemist

I haven't bought a r7-372t yet although its on my short list. One of the issues I had with the one I looked at at microcenter is the same problem you are having. I believe its a synaptics digitizer so I tried a Dell Active Stylus (for synaptics) and the Acer stylus. Both behaved the same way on the r7 in the store.

Basically when you put the pen close to the screen you get a over cursor... but touching the pen to the screen doesn't draw in drawing apps or select anything like a tap... and the buttons have no effect. So its recognizes that the pen is there but doesn't do anything with it.

I read somewhere that Acer might have a newer pen that is required for this model but I haven't seen anything concrete on that.

I have noticed that a lot of PCs seem to have synaptics compatible screens but not fully implemented or included on their feature list. For example... hold a synaptics pen up to a HP pavilion 13 2-in-1 screen and you will see the hover cursor then it will crash the video driver... every time. So the hover cursor appearing doesn't necessarily mean its supported or fully implemented. Although it would be a real shame if they took out that feature. The easl screen is perfect for drawing.

All comments

DAlchemist

I haven't bought a r7-372t yet although its on my short list. One of the issues I had with the one I looked at at microcenter is the same problem you are having. I believe its a synaptics digitizer so I tried a Dell Active Stylus (for synaptics) and the Acer stylus. Both behaved the same way on the r7 in the store.

Basically when you put the pen close to the screen you get a over cursor... but touching the pen to the screen doesn't draw in drawing apps or select anything like a tap... and the buttons have no effect. So its recognizes that the pen is there but doesn't do anything with it.

I read somewhere that Acer might have a newer pen that is required for this model but I haven't seen anything concrete on that.

I have noticed that a lot of PCs seem to have synaptics compatible screens but not fully implemented or included on their feature list. For example... hold a synaptics pen up to a HP pavilion 13 2-in-1 screen and you will see the hover cursor then it will crash the video driver... every time. So the hover cursor appearing doesn't necessarily mean its supported or fully implemented. Although it would be a real shame if they took out that feature. The easl screen is perfect for drawing.

DigitalSpud

Thanks for the information. I was hoping that the Dell would work.

It's not listed on the actual r13 page, but looking through the store i found the newer one you mentioned:

https://store.acer.com/en-us/np-sty1a-005

and the stylus that worked with the previous versions of the r13:

https://store.acer.com/en-us/aspire-active-stylus-r13-switch-11-12

Looking at the model combatibility for both, they seem to support the r13 and switch series, only the newer Stylus V has support for the most recent models. So, its possible they changed the technology used or the drivers are different.

DAlchemist

Thanks for the links to the new/old stylus. It does sound likely they changed pen technology... the big question now is what did they go with?

Does Synaptics have something new they are using which is kinda sorta compatible with the old pens (so you get hover cursors).

Or did they go with ntrig or new/old wacom technologies. Has anyone tried a Surface Pro 3/4 pen on one to see what it does?

Artists can be really particular on which tech they like... acer should really publish that information in their specs somewhere so people know what it can do. For example if they switched to the new Wacom or nTrig tech on the pen the R13 just got a lot more interesting to whole segments of the pen using population. Synaptics still needs to build a rep.

Btw... the dell active pen works great on the Spectre x360 models.

KEHinWA

here is a list of which Acer Models use which stylus technology

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/42080

The 371 uses Primax/Synaptics ( I think)

The 372 used Elan (estylus)

Here is a link that shows a couple of other units that use Elan technology.

It shows which stylus models work with the Elan system

https://issuu.com/surfaceproartist/docs/aes_pen_interop

These may well be alternates for the 372

If I were looking for an alternate pen I would look for [from a source I can return to]

The Dell Active PEN (not Stylus) , HP Active Pen, Lenovi Active Pen for Miix 700

KEHinWA

I got my 372T today and it was a SKU that came with the stylus. Nice! I had also ordered the Lenovo miix 700 Active Pen as I found one for under $20.

I can confirm this Lenovo pen does Not work with the R7-372t system. Not even detected so even though both systems are from ELAN they are totally different. UGGG What mess the stylus systems are.

That pretty much says my guess that the newer Dell Active Pen abd HP Active Pen will not work as there has been some artist community testing that listed those as interchangable.