Pen pressure hiccuping in Photoshop

[bbwildfire]

Hi, I have a Wacom Intous Draw tablet, and CC 2018, running on Windows 10. At random, my pen pressure will stop working, and draw like I'm using a mouse. The rest of the tablet is still functioning fine. Sometimes just saving the document fixes it, but mostly I have to unplug the tablet and plug it back in or restart Photoshop. Always, it happens again within the next hour, mainly 5-10 minutes. I have two tablets, and both have the same issue (one is bran new). I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers. I also contacted Wacom, who told me it must be Photoshop that causes it. I've reset all the brushes, but I haven't reset all my preferences (couldn't find a clear way how for windows 10). I've also totally uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop, tried all the USB ports, and nothing has helped. It isn't a detrimental issue, but is annoying. Does anyone have any solutions? Thanks

[Brad Lawryk]

Sounds like your machine is running out of memory.

[bbwildfire]

It's a bran new computer, with not much on it

[Brad Lawryk]

What are the specifications of your computer. New doesn't always mean it meets specification requirements. Especially RAM is what you want to check.

[bbwildfire]

I don't remember the exact specifications, but it's a tower and well suited for Photoshop.

[ethandale]

I also have extensive issues with the Intuos Draw. They have been going on for about 15 months now, and this is after extensive troubleshooting from Adobe, Microsoft, and Wacom (though Wacom has only gotten back to me about 10% of the time). Multiple other people I know, 8 or 9 have the same issues with their Cintiqs, and everyone that has a Wacom device in my class has struggled with driver issues at one point or another.

I bought a Dell Canvas for at home use, and I plan on purchasing either a Surface or some other American made product. Never looking back into driver hell.

I probably should mention, this happens both on my laptop (Dell XPS 15) and my desktop. The desktop has 64 GB of RAM, and 50 of those are dedicated to Photoshop. It's not a RAM issue. It's a Wacom issue.

What I would recommend doing (short of purchasing a different tablet) is keeping another window to another program open, like File Explorer. Sometimes, if you alt tab to File Explorer and then back into Photoshop, it can fix the issue temporarily, and Photoshop will start reading your pen pressure sensitivities again.

I've also read online that people have had success with Wacom tablets after disabling Windows Ink. Unfortunately, this did not work for me, but maybe it'll work for you? It's always worth a shot.

[bbwildfire]

Thank you for the advice, so far you've told me the most info. I saw a couple other places about the Windows ink, but not the other window solution. If it keeps on going, I'll look into some of the other brands you mentioned. Thank you again!  

[SirInkman]

I had this problem for years. I tried every "solution" that I could find and nothing worked.

After years of working at it, I discovered that it might be related to the buttons on the pens. I had set the bottom button to disabled, and the top button to the hand tool. After disabling the top button as well and just using the space bar for the space bar instead, I have not had this problem again.

I can't understand why disabling the pen buttons would fix it, unless the OS, Photoshop, or the wacom device was constantly checking the pen for a mouse click event or something. Regardless, try disabling the pen buttons and see if it fixes this problem. I'll try to post this solution to other places so people can try it.