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Wacom Mobile Studio Pro - Basic setup for a usable experience (yes, seriously). This is a little guide I made after just over a week of using this machine listing all the problems I have encountered so far and how to fix them. Below you will find a link to the resources used to fix certain specific problems. This is now a review but if you are considering buying this device I can already say that if you are not like me, a tinkerer, someone with extremely niche needs and someone with years of experience fixing and messing around with computers I DO NOT recommend this machine. If you are not comfortable editing the registry, manually fucking around with drivers or messing with core systems settings, just stay away. If that sounds trivial for you and you need the drawing capabilities then, by all means, go for it Resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_r4zEu9OprkcpbFQ0rOFcd1QStk0W4Kd?usp=sharing Windows/driver related issues Note, the listed driver issues would probably not exist if Wacom actually had the compatible drivers and their versions available for download on their website like any other PC manufacturer does, but they don’t, or are at the very least really good at hiding them. Because of this, you will have to rely on what is pre-installed, Windows Update or random Google searching through dubious sources to fix your issues. Luckily, I already did this so you don’t have to. No, Driver Booster or similar won’t help you either. Yes, I tried. Prevent further bullshit, headaches and wasted time: Immediately go into system settings as soon as your device allows, preferably before it ever connects to the internet, and search for "Device installation Settings". Open it and select "No (your device might not work as expected)", then click apply. This will prevent Windows from automatically getting "the best drivers" for your hardware. This may sound like a bad idea and I’d usually say it is, but trust me, on this PC leaving it on does nothing but break things and delete your Wacom settings. Yes, Wacom deletes your settings when updating the driver and has done so forever for no good reason (often also breaking other stuff while they’re at it) and Microsoft thinks this is a good idea to do in the background without asking you. Updating any and all drivers manually has proven much more reliable. Fix fingerprint reader not working or stopping to work: Windows update will instantly brick this as soon as you connect to the internet by downloading a newer broken/incompatible driver. I got it working again by installing the ELAN fingerprint reader driver version 1.5.7.1 from 2016 which is included in the resources. I found one driver newer than this also sort of worked but was much worse at recognizing the fingerprint. There is no official source for this driver. I found this working driver at Acer’s website, meant for a completely different machine. Thanks for providing expected standard service, Acer. You need to cut the internet connection and uninstall this device through Device Manager with the option to delete any drivers associated with the device checked to remove the newer faulty driver, then install the old one manually as well as disable Windows automatic device update to keep it working for more than a minute and/or one reboot, see “Prevent further bullshit”. Fix backlight flicker that makes it look like your screen is defective: Enter Intel Graphics Control Panel by right clicking the desktop, press the home button in the top left and go to power options. Disable screen power saving options for all 3 power modes and hit apply. DO NOT update this driver or let Windows automatically update this driver, this will make the control panel inaccessible and make the icon for it disappear altogether because of a bug or incompatibility, leaving you unable to fix the problem and/or change other settings. I thought my screen was broken because of this for nearly a full day of tinkering as the settings for this literally didn’t exist anymore. The program also claims these settings will have “little impact on image quality” but in reality, makes the screen flicker like if the backlight were faulty at random intervals and blink as it tries to unsmoothly adjust the screen brightness. Even after knowing what caused it and what it does I couldn’t live with it on, whatever amount of power this saves is not worth a flickering/blinking screen. I also think that this may be a serious danger for someone suffering from photosensitive epileptic seizures. I’m no expert on the subject, but that is not a joke. Fix the camera sensor with an incompatible/broken driver right out of the box: I haven’t gotten to this guy just yet, but I will. Fix poor drawing performance after Windows update 1803/1809: This one is simple but I didn’t realize this setting changed with the update for some time. Go into power settings in the taskbar by clicking the battery icon and drag the newly added performance slider to max. Anything but max is too weak to run Photoshop smoothly and the setting is one step from max by default, even on wall power. Of course, you can adjust it on the fly when you are for example writing an angry fix list on Google Docs for a lengthier session (this got improved after deleting Photoshops pre-installed PSUserConfig file, now works fine one notch or two down, more info in the Wacom problems section). For some dumb reason the 1809 update also removes that neat screen brightness option previously found on the power menu in version 1803, I have no fix for this, yet. Fix broken 4k app scaling (Zbrush, Maya, Photoshop, etc): Run the .reg file included in the resources or create a DWORD (32bit) regentry in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/SideBySide" by rick clicking the empty space and name it "PreferExternalManifest", right click this new entry, set the value data to "1" and set the type to “Decimal”. Then copy the "manifest" text file found in the included resources into the main directory of the application containing the .exe file of your program. Rename the text files so that it looks like for example "maya.exe.manifest.txt". You need to do make one of these for every application that scales improperly. Fix bad touch navigation/video performance in web browser: Set nVidia GPU as default for Chrome/etc instead of the Intel integrated GPU through nVidia Control Panel. I don’t know why this is an issue as any standard android/apple tablet runs this stuff fine on a much shittier chip. Perhaps the desktop browsers are just unoptimized for this kind of interaction combined with the high resolution of the display. Fix generally spotty video performance: If you can’t get video better performance by forcing the better GPU to be used and setting the performance slider on max, you are basically out of luck here. This is due to the 4k screen, there is just too many pixels to push for some situations/applications on a laptop graphics chip. The only option you have in these situations is to run the screen in a lower resolution. If you want proper scaling/a sharp image, your only other choice is 1920x1080 on the 16” model, being exactly half of 3840x2160, meaning you will use 4 physical (2x2) pixels as 1 digital pixel. 1920x1080 is however too little and makes menus take up half your work space as well as make everything terribly low-res. You could use 2560x1440 but that makes the screen a little bit softer due to the 1.5 (improper) pixel scaling but looks just fine most of the time while also being the correct aspect ratio and 33% less pixels to render. There is also is no preset setting for 2560x1440 so you would have to create it yourself through Intel Graphics Control Panel to use it. There are however plenty of preset options using the wrong aspect ratio as well as improper scaling for whatever reason. This is a pretty solid option so far, the pixel density is so high the softer scaling is barely noticable most of the time and performance is noticeably improved when scrolling through websites, panning/zooming, etc. The screen also just isn’t that great of a panel, so some things like the ghosting, backlight bleed and the pink tint to anything high contrast that moves is caused by the somewhat poor display quality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s “fine”, but it should be better in a product like this in my opinion. Especially considering the price is higher than your average Macbook Pro, which has a fantastic display and those are built for café novelists. This thing is made for digital artists but has a display with significantly lower image quality. I don’t know about you, but think that is kind of backwards. This is especially interesting as I have no real complaints about the panel in my old Cintiq 27 QHD or any newer Cintiqs I have seen so far, I don’t know if they cheaped out here or if there are other factors at play limiting what type of panel could be used and what quality was achievable. You can draw on it however, which is worth a lot. The smaller model comes with a 2560x1440 screen, which makes much more sense for these screen sizes if you ask me. I’d argue 4k is practically irrelevant until a screen is about 24-27” or larger, if you can’t see pixels at the intended viewing distance there are enough pixels and 4k at 16” is complete overkill, eats at your performance and your battery life while giving you nothing extra in return. The 2560x1440 screen on the smaller model is the best choice while the 4k screen can only be properly ran with either too many or too few pixels. The smaller model doesn’t come with a dedicated GPU however, making it unsuitable for 3D work. But why take my word for it? I’ve only tinkered with this stuff since the Gamecube was the new hot thing. Wacom driver/software related issues These are universal Wacom problems, affecting all their products when used with a Windows computer and not this device specifically. These are not occasional issues or things that occur sometimes, all of this has to be fixed on every single install to make their tools work properly. Fix pen being unusably laggy/delayed: Navigate into "FixMyPen" in the provided resources, right click the ViziblrFixMyPen.exe and run it as an administrator. Click the "make everything good" button, the “make everything bad” button will restore your default settings. All of the affected settings can be changed individually through Windows control panel but this is easier. Double check “Pen & Touch” settings in Windows control panel and make sure both “Flicks” and “Press and hold to right click” are disabled, FixMyPen should fix this but do make sure it worked. All of this truly hinders drawing performance by a significant amount while adding nothing of value. Ideally Microsoft would have this crap disabled by default and Wacom should start nuking all of this when the pen driver is installed for a better experience. Fix odd and illogical behaviour when using the pen to control Windows or any application: Open Wacom Tablet Properties, select the "All Others" profile, click the pen you use, go to the "Calibration tab" and uncheck "Use Windows Ink" checkbox. Repeat for any and all pens you intend to use in all program profiles you create in order to prevent yourself from screaming in pure agony when trying to accomplish anything. You’d think this would be better left off by default as it does nothing but make things worse, but no. There is however one possible exception to this rule, Photoshop. Pen pressure doesn’t work in Photoshop with this setting turned off unless you replace the used API with Wintab via the method mentioned below, using Wintab does however perform worse on this machine and I don’t recommend using it unless you have a specific need for it. Photoshop is the one and only profile where you may want to leave Windows Ink on, even though it’s usually responsible for all pen related weirdness you may experience. To make matters even more complicated the Wintab bypass may come pre-installed with Photoshop as it did for me this time, how to remove it is also mentioned below. Fix pen pressure not working in Photoshop after disabling Windows Ink/enable Windows ink after Wintab: Open an explorer window and write %appdata% in the searchpath and navigate to “AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 20xx\Adobe Photoshop CC 20xx Settings”, create a txt-file and name it "PSUserConfig" and add the line UseSystemStylus 0, save and close. This will force Photoshop to use Wintab instead of Windows ink. Double Check this folder regardless of what API you want to use in case the Wintab bypass comes pre-loaded and delete the "PSUserConfig" file if it’s already there and you don’t want to use it. Testing both APIs to see which performs better on your device is recommended. Rebooting Photoshop is required after adding/removing the text file in order for the change to take effect. I included a pre-made PSUserConfig in the resources for easy copy/paste. Fix Wacom drivers being automatically replaced/updated in the background, removing your preferences: See "Prevent further bullshit" under “Windows/driver related problems”. Fix Wacom preferences being deleted at every reboot: Revert to an earlier driver. This is isolated to the most recent driver as of the writing of this document (6.3.32-3). Fix Wacom preferences backup not working, giving an error message when trying: Revert to an even earlier driver, This issue is isolated to the release prior to the one mentioned above (6.3.31-4). You’d think they would test this stuff before releasing drivers, but I don’t believe they do. The amount of usability breaking problems I have had over the years are numerous, sometimes being present in driver revisions spanning months. In short, never run the latest Wacom driver. There is almost always something wrong with it. If you have one that works, does all you need and is compatible with all your devices, stick to it until there is something you want or need added to the functionality, which is basically never. The risk of them breaking something important is MUCH higher than the chance of them fixing or adding something relevant. I base this statement on over a decades worth of experience using their products on a daily or near daily basis and a long list of fantastical software oversights. Don’t get me wrong though, Wacom makes the best tablets, just not the most reliable software. Hardware related issues This entire segment can be summarized by “don't buy the stand”. If you didn't buy the stand or if you're not interested in the stand, there is no need of reading it. But you need a stand you say? I do too. It's just too horribly built to recommend. It looks nice, it fits snuggly on the machine but it's a joke in terms of build quality. Any third party option will probably work better. So what’s the problem then? The hinge/clasp that attaches the stand to the machine. It’s so utterly weak it can barely hold the weight of the device itself. It is also designed in a way that has the plate where the hinge is located wiggle back and forth if the machine moves, this causes the plate to press against the back of the unit if you push at it in the right angle, which can happen with regular use, or if you move the device without lifting it, which in turn causes the hinge to be pushed out of the clasp. This makes the stand fall off and the machine to fall to the table, scraping against the stand while doing so. I actually bought two of these machines and two stands, I also replaced the clasps as you get extra with the stand to see if that would help and guess what? The problem is there on both stands/machines as well as all original and replacement clasps. So, you have the crap stand already and you intend to use it, dammit! Then you can read the following segment. These are ideas and I have only tested the first suggestion so far and if it holds up over time remains to be seen. The last two is probably better avoided unless you really know what you're doing or have smarter ideas than me. Fix stand falling off in use due to poor construction and engineering: Idea 1, reversible: Buy some industrial strength adhesive pads certified for being sticky, sticky even on metals and cleaning alcohol. Remove the rubber buffer on the bottom attachment plate as the adhesive won't stick to oily plastics or rubber. Wash both the pad and the connecting surface with alcohol to remove any skin oils or dirt, cut the pad so you cover as much of the plates area around the ridiculously thin metal rod as possible, then firmly click the stand in place, making sure the pads make good contact with the body of the machine. Idea 2, possibly reversible: Find a suitable adhesive and fix the bottom plate in place on the back of the machine. Take care not to fix the pin in place as that is also your hinge. Idea 3, non-reversible: Do what Wacom should have done from the beginning and drill some holes through the base plate of the stand and the back of the machine and thread them, fasten with screws. This may obviously hurt your device if done improperly and may void warranty but that stand will never fall off unintentionally ever again. Fix your shit Wacom, seriously. 2 cheap screws and this problem wouldn’t exist and you wouldn’t even need to re-design anything, even though you probably should. And why not just use a standard VESA mount? It has the space for it, it would make it attachable to any display stand or arm and be sturdy as all hell. Win, win. Fix the back plate possibly sustaining damage and scratches from the stand constantly falling off and scraping against the computer: Simply cover all metal surfaces on the inside of the stand with black duct tape or any other soft material. The stand can and will fall off, often. Plastic and rubber parts can be left uncovered as the basic rules of scratching is that a softer material can't scratch a harder one and the anodizing of the machine is harder than those materials. And here I thought my blacksmithing days was a waste of time, funny how things turn out, huh? Fix bottom rim possibly getting scraped and damaged using the stand as it is in contact with the table: Put some replaceable protective tape/leather/rubber covering the bottom rim. This will also add some extra friction, preventing the base from moving and the stand to fall off as a result due to the previously mentioned reasons. Aluminum and anodizing may be hard but dirt, sand and dust made from stone particles are usually harder and will grind through over time. This is why your phone goes all post-apocalypse eventually, even if you’ve never dropped it. Woo! You are all set!... Until Microsoft or Wacom breaks something else. And you didn’t need all that swag anyway, if you were afraid of some tape on your device or struggling with “better” drivers that make things stop working instead of improving them you should have, as they say, bought a Mac and never have had the need to fix any of this in the first place (you know, along with the inability to change anything at all). But shhh, lets not give those guys any ground, not even when they’ve earned it. At least your device is working fine now and hopefully it took you less time to get there than it did for me.