XP-Pen Artist 16 - Please Help - I'm Desperate
So I'm dirt poor and luckily people I know were very generous around the holidays and gave me some cash so I decided to finally get myself a drawing tablet. I chose the XP-Pen Artist 16. I'm using it on a PC running Windows 7.
I really love it and the time I've spent with it while it works has been amazing. The problem is that it stops working EVERY time I use it. The tablet just stops responding to the pen and the hotkey buttons on the tablet stop working. The screen remains on and I can still use the mouse. The tablet settings icon is still in the system tray when it stops working, and I can click and open the settings, but the tablet buttons just don't work anymore and the pen doesn't work. The only that that makes it work again is if I restart my computer.
Here is what I've tried so far:
-Uninstall and reinstall the drivers and make sure they're the right ones.
-Disable my firewall and antivirus software.
-Make sure Windows is updated.
-Try turning it off and on or unplugging it and plugging it back in.
-Try the other pen that came with it in case the pen is faulty.
-Make sure no other tablet drivers are on my pc.
-Tried to test it out on my gf's macbook, but that had different problems and I couldn't get it to work at all, which was even more confusing because I'm not very familiar with macOS and I found no help when I googled it.
-Disable any windows tablet settings that might conflict with it like touch screen stuff or handwriting stuff.
At this point I'm really scared that I've tried to troubleshoot for weeks and overshot my chance for a refund and I'll be stuck with this expensive, broken product. I've gone back and forth via email with their customer service, but English isn't their first language and they keep suggesting things to me that I've already tried. When I tell them that, they keep blaming my pc and give me the same suggestion.
Has anyone had a similar problem with an XP-Pen product or understand drivers or windows 7 enough to know what else might be causing this to happen? I know I can just keep restarting my computer to get it to work, but I'm worried about what that will do to my computer, and it's also extremely inconvenient to have to save my project, close the software I'm using, close the browser, which usually has a movie, music, tutorial video, or podcast on, restart, sign in to windows, open the software and the project, open the browser and get back to netflix, spotify, etc., and then get back to what I was doing. I bought this thing to streamline the process of creating art or animating things, but this just makes it unbearable.
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I mentioned in the beginning that I'm poor to make it clear that I can't just say "oh well," and then go buy another one. It's been years since I've had an opportunity to spend this amount of money and I don't think I'll have that chance again for some time. I really need to find a way to get this thing to work. Sorry for the long post and thanks to anyone who read this far.
I really love it and the time I've spent with it while it works has been amazing. The problem is that it stops working EVERY time I use it. The tablet just stops responding to the pen and the hotkey buttons on the tablet stop working. The screen remains on and I can still use the mouse. The tablet settings icon is still in the system tray when it stops working, and I can click and open the settings, but the tablet buttons just don't work anymore and the pen doesn't work. The only that that makes it work again is if I restart my computer.
Here is what I've tried so far:
-Uninstall and reinstall the drivers and make sure they're the right ones.
-Disable my firewall and antivirus software.
-Make sure Windows is updated.
-Try turning it off and on or unplugging it and plugging it back in.
-Try the other pen that came with it in case the pen is faulty.
-Make sure no other tablet drivers are on my pc.
-Tried to test it out on my gf's macbook, but that had different problems and I couldn't get it to work at all, which was even more confusing because I'm not very familiar with macOS and I found no help when I googled it.
-Disable any windows tablet settings that might conflict with it like touch screen stuff or handwriting stuff.
At this point I'm really scared that I've tried to troubleshoot for weeks and overshot my chance for a refund and I'll be stuck with this expensive, broken product. I've gone back and forth via email with their customer service, but English isn't their first language and they keep suggesting things to me that I've already tried. When I tell them that, they keep blaming my pc and give me the same suggestion.
Has anyone had a similar problem with an XP-Pen product or understand drivers or windows 7 enough to know what else might be causing this to happen? I know I can just keep restarting my computer to get it to work, but I'm worried about what that will do to my computer, and it's also extremely inconvenient to have to save my project, close the software I'm using, close the browser, which usually has a movie, music, tutorial video, or podcast on, restart, sign in to windows, open the software and the project, open the browser and get back to netflix, spotify, etc., and then get back to what I was doing. I bought this thing to streamline the process of creating art or animating things, but this just makes it unbearable.
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I mentioned in the beginning that I'm poor to make it clear that I can't just say "oh well," and then go buy another one. It's been years since I've had an opportunity to spend this amount of money and I don't think I'll have that chance again for some time. I really need to find a way to get this thing to work. Sorry for the long post and thanks to anyone who read this far.
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**UPDATE**
They wrote back to me and basically said it must be my system that's the problems and not the tablet since the tablet works fine for a while each time I use it. Even though I couldn't get it working on my gf's macbook at all, they want me to give them details about that thing so they can help me get it working on there, just so I can test it out to see if I run into the same problems once it's functional.
As for the USB power options that I changed to disable randomly shutting down USB devices, it doesn't seem to have worked, because I just used the tablet again and after about half an hour, the thing just stopped working.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm not very hopeful about testing it on the macbook, first because it will take forever to troubleshoot those problems just so I can actually test the thing, and second, if it does work fine on there, I'd still be right back to my current problem, which is having to figure out why it isn't working on my pc.
They wrote back to me and basically said it must be my system that's the problems and not the tablet since the tablet works fine for a while each time I use it. Even though I couldn't get it working on my gf's macbook at all, they want me to give them details about that thing so they can help me get it working on there, just so I can test it out to see if I run into the same problems once it's functional.
As for the USB power options that I changed to disable randomly shutting down USB devices, it doesn't seem to have worked, because I just used the tablet again and after about half an hour, the thing just stopped working.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm not very hopeful about testing it on the macbook, first because it will take forever to troubleshoot those problems just so I can actually test the thing, and second, if it does work fine on there, I'd still be right back to my current problem, which is having to figure out why it isn't working on my pc.
wow, this sounds like wacom's support, which i experienced a few weeks ago.
the difference is that the wacom cintiq costs waaaay more and in the end, paypal refunded my money.
since you have one year warrenty, i would suggest keeping on with the contact to the support. 7nikage has a great suggestion! in my experience, their support is more helpful than wacom's support. so try it!
good luck to you!
the difference is that the wacom cintiq costs waaaay more and in the end, paypal refunded my money.
since you have one year warrenty, i would suggest keeping on with the contact to the support. 7nikage has a great suggestion! in my experience, their support is more helpful than wacom's support. so try it!
good luck to you!
Damn, so you weren't able to find a solution at all and had to return it? I guess the thought I've had running through my mind, which was, "If only I had more money, I could have purchased a more expensive and reliable product from a known brand and I wouldn't have these problems," doesn't make sense if getting a Cintiq could put me in the same situation. Did you end up getting a different tablet that works?
no, it definitely was a hardware problem, so no other driver, pen or laptop could solve it.
and wacom's support (same language as mine) didn't help at all.
they even refused to take the cintiq back. i had to make much pressure like threatening with "i'm going to take my money with other ways back", so they sent me a retoure bill. but in the end, paypal had to solve this problem.
i don't trust wacom anymore. spending more money doesn't mean you have a safe support at all.
the funny thing is, that now i have an XP pen artist 15.6 which works and before purchasing, i had a mail conversation with the support, just to check out how they are. and i find them reliable.
and wacom's support (same language as mine) didn't help at all.
they even refused to take the cintiq back. i had to make much pressure like threatening with "i'm going to take my money with other ways back", so they sent me a retoure bill. but in the end, paypal had to solve this problem.
i don't trust wacom anymore. spending more money doesn't mean you have a safe support at all.
the funny thing is, that now i have an XP pen artist 15.6 which works and before purchasing, i had a mail conversation with the support, just to check out how they are. and i find them reliable.
Also, check your USB drivers and your chipset drivers. Make sure you don’t have any USB power saving features enabled that could be fucking with the driver
Thanks for this suggestion! It does seem USB related, because if the power stays on and I could just use the mouse and keep working, but the pen and buttons stop working, that would suggest data isn't going from the tablet to the pc anymore. I looked up the USB power options and disabled an option that selectively powers down USB devices. I'll try it out and see what happens and update this post accordingly.
It looks to me like the 16 only has drivers for Windows 10 available. What driver are you using exactly?
Nah, it's got a driver for Windows 7 (Screenshot from XP-Pen driver download page)
Keep going along with what customer support suggests. I suggest not trying to move the conversation forward on your own by being like "But I've already done this and this and this" because that can often confuse or restart the whole conversation because they're ESL (English as a Second Language).
Instead, go along with everything that they suggest in order, each time confirming whether it fixes the problem or not.
The fixes they suggest will of course be really basic for the first few emails, but eventually, they'll start suggesting fixes that you haven't tried, and if they don't have any ideas, they will most likely suggest that your product is defective and offer to switch it out for another one under the 1 year warranty.
The email exchanges will take quite a while (personally, I expect around 1 reply per weekday), but since you're already past the return window, I suggest taking the time to trudge through it.
Instead, go along with everything that they suggest in order, each time confirming whether it fixes the problem or not.
The fixes they suggest will of course be really basic for the first few emails, but eventually, they'll start suggesting fixes that you haven't tried, and if they don't have any ideas, they will most likely suggest that your product is defective and offer to switch it out for another one under the 1 year warranty.
The email exchanges will take quite a while (personally, I expect around 1 reply per weekday), but since you're already past the return window, I suggest taking the time to trudge through it.
Yeah, I'm definitely being polite and patient with them in the emails. It takes them a few days to reply, maybe 3 or 4, so I'm just getting impatient. What happened was, I ran into a particular problem when I first tried to use the tablet and was able to find the solution on my own, but then started having the disconnect problems. So in my first email, I mentioned having that initial trouble but that I solved it, and now have this new problem.
They responded and gave me a word document attached to the email that explained how to solve the first problem I already solved. I did it again anyway and told them it didn't make a difference. They responded and asked if I could follow the steps in the word document again.
I know the language barrier is tough on both sides, so I responded politely and tried to make it more clear that I did that already and told them I was open to any other suggestions. Hopefully they have a new suggestion in the next email, but hopefully the USB power saving settings I changed based on what pyrohmstr suggested did the trick. If it did I'm going to explode with relief and excitement, because this thing is really fun to use when it actually works.
They responded and gave me a word document attached to the email that explained how to solve the first problem I already solved. I did it again anyway and told them it didn't make a difference. They responded and asked if I could follow the steps in the word document again.
I know the language barrier is tough on both sides, so I responded politely and tried to make it more clear that I did that already and told them I was open to any other suggestions. Hopefully they have a new suggestion in the next email, but hopefully the USB power saving settings I changed based on what pyrohmstr suggested did the trick. If it did I'm going to explode with relief and excitement, because this thing is really fun to use when it actually works.
Ah, that's quite a bit slower than I expected from their customer service. I guess I was overestimating XP-Pen support from my experiences with other companies like Huion/Ugee/Artisul/etc who replied to me on the very next business day consistently. Honestly, I think you might need to word your emails in a way that makes it obvious that you're dissatisfied with their service to try and get them to take you a bit more seriously because 3-4 business days per reply is quite pathetic.
I'm also interested to hear if disabling the USB Selective Sleep option in power management fixes your issue. I've heard that enabling/disabling it does absolutely nothing in Windows 10, but I'm interested to see if it changes anything in your Windows 7.
I'm also interested to hear if disabling the USB Selective Sleep option in power management fixes your issue. I've heard that enabling/disabling it does absolutely nothing in Windows 10, but I'm interested to see if it changes anything in your Windows 7.