After the Fall Creators Update, many users reported that their Surface pen stopped working as expected and started giving bizarre problems. Sometimes the computer would register the pen as a touch input instead of pen input. Sometimes the touch wouldn’t be registered at all. This is a well-known problem which is acknowledged by Microsoft. We have a few workarounds listed to help you get your pen up and running again.
Solution 1: Restarting your Surface Device
First of all, before moving on with all the solutions, make sure that the batteries in your Surface pen aren’t drained. Replace the batteries and check if it works as expected. If it doesn’t, carry on with all the solutions. Restart your device properly and check all the functions of your Surface device. If this doesn’t change anything, you can force shutdown the device using the following steps:
Solution 2: Running Hardware and Device Troubleshooter
Hardware Troubleshooter is a utility present in the Windows operating system. It detects problems with your existing hardware and tries to resolve it after following a series of steps. We can try running the hardware troubleshooter and check if this does the trick.
Solution 3: Making sure AC Power is plugged in
Another bug which seems to present with Surface devices is the AC power. Many users noticed and reported that while the AC power was plugged in, their Surface Pen worked as expected with all the functions available. As soon as the power was plugged off, some of the functionalities of the pen were gone. You can try keeping your Surface plugged in if this resolves the problem. Hopefully, Microsoft will launch an update soon enough to address this problem.
Solution 4: Using Side-buttons for Normal Writing
Another workaround which was observed was pressing the side-button present on the Surface pen and then writing on the screen. Using the method, the writing is registered as normal pen writing whereas if you release the button and write normally, the computer will register the writing as touch (instead of pen). You can use this technique if you are completely unable to write on your Surface until Microsoft releases an update to fix this problem.
Solution 5: Fixing Keyboard button missing on Surface
Some users actively reported that they found their keyboard button disappearing after the update. The keyboard was popping up automatically but it is located behind the problem you are currently working in. This makes it unusable and you are stuck with only touch input without the on-screen keyboard. The workaround for this issue is enabling the keyboard button back again. In the new update, Microsoft has added an option to show the keyboard on your taskbar. This option is disabled by default after the update.
Solution 6: Disabling Hibernate Mode
Another phenomenon was seen by the Surface users where their pen input didn’t work as expected after the computer went into hibernate mode. It only started to work correctly after the computer was restarted properly. We can try disabling hibernate mode completely and check if this solves the problem for you.
Note: If your computer still goes into hibernate mode, you can execute the following command in PowerShell as an administrator. powercfg.exe /hibernate off
Solution 7: Refreshing Intel® Precise Touch Device
The module responsible for managing your touch inputs is the Intel® Precise Touch Device. It can be found in the device manager of your computer. We will try disabling it and after a while, enabling it again. This will refresh the device and hopefully, our problem will be solved.
Solution 8: Turning off Power Saving for Intel® Precise Touch Device
Another problem which seemed to exist was the power saving of the device by the operating system. It seems that windows automatically turns off the device to save. However, when you try to use it again, it doesn’t work. We can try to disable this option and check if the problem gets solved.
Fix: Mobile Hotspot not Working after Update 1709Fix: OneDrive not Working after 1709 Update (On-Demand Feature also missing)Fix: RDP not Working after Update 1709Fix: VPN not working after 1709 Update
