This is a quick tip for my fellow Wacom Intuos / Intuos 2 graphic tablet users out there. I recently discovered that my Intuos 2 6″x8″ USB tablet had simply stopped working for no apparent reason. I hadn’t installed any new drivers or major pieces of software, and I hadn’t moved the tablet to another USB port or computer. Last weekend the $300 peripheral worked like a charm. This week it seemed to draw power from the USB port just fine, but neither the stylus nor the cordless mouse actually moved the mouse pointer on my monitor anymore, and right and double-clicking the buttons also did nothing.

While a variety of things could go wrong with a Wacom tablet, including a power surge, loose cable, water damage, or a driver conflict, for the most part these things are pretty tough, so if your tablet starts showing the same symptoms as mine, try the recalibration steps below before you pull out your wallet to buy a new one or pay for a repair. What do you have to lose, right? If it doesn’t solve your problem, contact the Wacom tech support line. They were very helpful when I phoned them, and I didn’t have to wait to speak to a tech. When I called about my issue, I was told that Intuos and Intuos 2 tablets occasionally just lost their hardware calibration settings and needed to be recalibrated to factory specs.

Symptoms: (For Intuos or Intuos 2 series tablets on a Windows XP system)
– Tablet LED light still lights up when tablet is plugged in, indicating that tablet is still receiving power
– Moving pen or mouse over tablet does not cause mouse pointer to move on monitor
– Updating Wacom tablet driver does not solve problem
– Tablet also does not work on other computer(s)
– Tablet may or may not work for a few seconds when Windows XP is booting up, but stops working when all drivers are loaded
– Buttons on mouse and pen do not work (right click and double click)
– Tablet has not been abused and computer configuration has not been changed in any significant way since the last successful use of the tablet

Solution: Recalibrate your tablet
1) Do not uninstall your Wacom tablet driver.

2) Plug your tablet into a USB port at the BACK of your computer if it is not already there. Front ports and USB hubs are sometimes underpowered.

3) Wait for Windows XP to detect your tablet as a Human Interface Device. A popup in the lower right corner of your screen will appear when your new HID is installed and ready for use.

4) Open Start Menu > Control Panel > Wacom Tablet Properties

5) Click the “About” button at the bottom left of the Wacom Properties window.

6) Hold down CTRL key and click the “Diagnose” button at the bottom of the “About” window.

7) On the Diagnose screen, make sure your correct tablet model and size are selected in the dropdown list, then click the “Recalibrate” button at the bottom of the window.

8 ) Click the “Size” button, then close out of all of the Wacom windows.

9) If your tablet just needed to be reset to factory specifications, this should solve your problem. If your tablet still does not work even after a restart (mine didn’t even require that…It started to perform correctly as soon as I recalibrated), contact Wacom technical support for further assistance.