Pen glitches when palm touches screen

[generalerror]

I got a brand new Surface Pro 3 a month ago. The stylus writes fine until my palm touches the screen. If my skin is touching the Surface, writing is totally erratic. I get dots and dashes instead of lines, and really crazy warped lines when I am drawing straight.

Has anyone heard of this? I can't return it now, since it took me a month to figure out what was happening.

 

[jnjroach]

I got a brand new Surface Pro 3 a month ago. The stylus writes fine until my palm touches the screen. If my skin is touching the Surface, writing is totally erratic. I get dots and dashes instead of lines, and really crazy warped lines when I am drawing straight.

Has anyone heard of this? I can't return it now, since it took me a month to figure out what was happening.

First off... which programs are you using the pen with? With the N-Trig Pen the hover is less than with Wacom so lead with the pen tip and don't raise it very high...

 

[generalerror]

I have the issues with all programs, Onenote and Photoshop for example. I am using up to date N-trig, and have done all updates including "optional".
If I place the tip of the pen down, and then carefully put my palm down, I can see the cursor go on the fritz. Lifting my palm stabilizes it again. I know something is wrong, I just can't figure out if its hardware or software. Are there any "palm settings" that I can restore or something? I compared mine to one at a store and the difference is night and day

 

[jnjroach]

I have the issues with all programs, Onenote and Photoshop for example. I am using up to date N-trig, and have done all updates including "optional".
If I place the tip of the pen down, and then carefully put my palm down, I can see the cursor go on the fritz. Lifting my palm stabilizes it again. I know something is wrong, I just can't figure out if its hardware or software. Are there any "palm settings" that I can restore or something? I compared mine to one at a store and the difference is night and day

Try pulling out the pen tip and putting it back in, also remove the AAAA battery and put back in....

Other things that can cause this is poorly grounded outlets...

 

[generalerror]

Try pulling out the pen tip and putting it back in, also remove the AAAA battery and put back in....

Other things that can cause this is poorly grounded outlets...

Well it's not the outlet, because the problem happens everywhere I go even with battery power. You suspect it's a pen issue? I'm convinced it's the Surface itself, since just touching my skin to the unit causes problems with the cursor movement. Microsoft is sending me a new pen now. But I can't help but think we are just prolonging the inevitable for a defective unit. I wish I bought it at a store instead of Amazon. So that I could've just walked in an exchanged it. I'll never buy electronics online again.

 

[generalerror]

First off... which programs are you using the pen with? With the N-Trig Pen the hover is less than with Wacom so lead with the pen tip and don't raise it very high...

I went to the Microsoft store and exchanged twice and found that this issue is consistent across all surface pro 3s. There's also another issue when drawing with your palm touching the screen where the cursor will suddenly jump down the screen vertically causing an unintended line to be drawn. The manager said they all do that, and no matter how many times I exchange it won't make a difference.

 

[jnjroach]

I went to the Microsoft store and exchanged twice and found that this issue is consistent across all surface pro 3s. There's also another issue when drawing with your palm touching the screen where the cursor will suddenly jump down the screen vertically causing an unintended line to be drawn. The manager said they all do that, and no matter how many times I exchange it won't make a difference.

I would like the name if that manager as he is mistaken, I've used the SP3 since June 21, 2014 so well over a year without these issues and so have 100,000 of users many of who are using the professionally as artists and designers....

 

[generalerror]

Please stand your surface pro 3 on a desk and try this test on your end:

1. This is Photoshop, alternatively you could try any version of onenote. First I am resting my palm on the surface, drawing on the lower left side. (you can see that the lines aren't just dropping out, but they are also EXTREMELY warped -which I assure you is not my doing).

2. Then I am lifting my palm off of the surface while drawing -which is a difficult way to draw but yields better results.

I tried 7 different units, 3 of which were brand new -as I continuously exchanged them for this defect. We settled on this being a universal issue.

I'm starting to think that the issue starts only after touching the bottom of the screen while drawing. That might explain why, after I handed the surface back to the microsoft staff they experienced my same issues.

Maybe if I can avoid the entire bottom of the surface while drawing, it will resolve all my problems.

 

[jnjroach]

Challenge accepted - inking in OneNote

 

[gjblack71]

I've notices a similar issue (maybe completely unrelated but worth considering). When the charger is plugged in the pen sometime glitches and I think it was towards the bottom of the screen as well. Could be related to poor grounding on the charger? - I notice it is worse on my cheap non-microsoft charger than the original.

 

[generalerror]

jnjroach: Thanks for testing that! Are you using Windows 10? I'm hoping that update will fix this for me. Here is another guy with the exact problem:

See how the cursor shoots down toward the end? If he were writing at that moment, it would draw a vertical line. Notice how you have to be writing quickly -for a bit, before the problem starts happening. This guy also notes that his new surface doesn't have the issue.

gjblack71: I usually use battery power.

 

[jnjroach]

jnjroach: Thanks for testing that! Are you using Windows 10? I'm hoping that update will fix this for me. Here is another guy with the exact problem:

See how the cursor shoots down toward the end? If he were writing at that moment, it would draw a vertical line. Notice how you have to be writing quickly -for a bit, before the problem starts happening. This guy also notes that his new surface doesn't have the issue.

gjblack71: I usually use battery power.

Yes, I'm running Windows 10, but I was running Windows 8.1 before and never had this issue...