[Switch 3] Stylus occasionally "cuts out" when side button is pressed.

Hello,

I've been using a Switch 3 for note taking with OneNote since august 2018. Ever since the start, there has been an issue with the stylus where it sometimes stops working for a few seconds.

Usually, this happens when I press one of the buttons on the side of the pen to use the eraser in OneNote. The pen and tablet seem to just sort of lose contact with each other. The pen won't write, neither of the buttons work, and the little cursor that tracks the pen tip also disappears. This lasts for a few seconds and then it comes back. This does not happen every time the erase button is pressed, and I have yet to see a pattern in when or why this happens as it does. It also feels like it's happening more often lately, although this might be bias.

The pen doesn't work in other programs during this time either. I don't think it's an issue with OneNote specifically, although I have not tested this enough to confirm it, as I really only ever use the pen there.

Recently, I got myself a Wacom Bamboo Ink, thinking that this might all be an issue with the pack-in stylus. The Wacom pen also has this issue of randomly "disappearing" when the erase button is pressed. Either I have been incredibly unlucky and ended up with two pens that both have an issue with the erase button, or this issue is caused by something else.

I've tried updating the Pen drivers, but Win10 claims that the device doesn't need a driver. I've changed the batteries in both pens multiple times. I'm out of ideas here, and the issue is becoming a serious bottleneck in my workflow.

Any thoughts?

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

Open Control Panel. Search 'power plan'. Click 'edit power plan' in left pane. Set the computer to NEVER sleep both on battery and plugged in. The computer uses very little energy if kept awake. Jack E/NJ

MortB

JackE said:

Open Control Panel. Search 'power plan'. Click 'edit power plan' in left pane. Set the computer to NEVER sleep both on battery and plugged in. The computer uses very little energy if kept awake. Jack E/NJ

I already have sleep turned off. How does this relate to the pen cutting out while in use?

JackE

Intermittent response delays sometimes happen if system idle time is set too low. Trackpads can be similarly affected. But usually only 1-2 second delays. Does the touchscreen seem to otherwise act OK without the pen? Jack E/NJ

MortB

I don't really use the touchscreen much, but when I do I never have issues similar to this. I don't know if the finger touch function cuts out at the same time as the pet touch. I usually have the finger touch disabled, since the palm rejection on this device is absolutely atrocious when writing, which really messes things up for me in OneNote. The issue with the pen is unrelated to the touchscreen being disabled, though. I was experiencing the pen's "disappearances" long before I decided to do something about the palm rejection. In fact, part of the reason I decided to try disabling the touch screen was to see if the malfunctions were caused by some sort of input interference between pen and finger touch.

As for system idle times and response delays, I have had the power settings set to give the best performance I can squeeze out of this thing. Most (if not all) power saving/performance limiting settings are disabled for both battery and charge modes. I was also experiencing the stylus problems before I canged the power plans of the system.

This problem also doesn't strike me as a performance issue, at least not with the system in general, as the machine is fully responsive to every interaction (BT mouse, keyboard, trackpad, both in OneNote and other programs) except from the pen whenever the issue occurs. It's as if pressing the side button that has the Erase function in OneNote occasionally, randomly stops the system from detecting the pen.