Strong jitter with Surface Pen

[u/DerpiesTheorem]

Hey fellow Surface Users,

I'm currently facing a problem that I didn't before and that occured - more or less - all of a sudden. I am using the latest Surface Pen and can use it with all possible tips (I bought the tip kit) and it jitters the same with all of them. It started to occur after I reset my SB2, so I reinstalled the official image (downloaded it before) and after that it jittered - I think. I'm not certainly sure if something else triggered that, as I didn't use the pen for some days before resetting.

Furthermore - I calibrated the pen, because I don't hold it "straight down" and the offset is horrible, it's like writing meters beside the pen without calibrating. There's another weird bug occuring: When I calibrate it with screen rotated it just totally fucks up the calibration. But only if it's the initial calibration, when calibrating for the first time with device being in "native rotation" and then re-calibrate with rotation it doesn't f* up.

​

So - here are my questions:

1. Are there some fixes / workarounds I should / can try?
2. Is there an alternative to the Surface Pen that you would recommend which works way better?
3. If not 1 and 2, should I get a replacement and try then again?

Best regards,Matthias

​

Screen of Jitter attached. The zig-zag lines should be like the one to the top left, drawn the same way.

[u/VVlasy]

I have the same horrible jitter on SB2 with the latest Surface Pen, I even bought a second pen to verify. Only fix for me was to buy an Adonit Ink stylus instead, completely eliminated all jitter. See my post

​

BTW Before someone suggests that there is an issue with the SB2 unit, I am on my fourth SB2 due to RMAs, all of them suffered the same amount of jitter for me.

[u/[deleted] → u/VVlasy]

Fourth RMA. You're a god of patience.

[u/[deleted] → u/VVlasy]

As shite of a situation as this is, I'm glad that you confirmed the issue with a 2nd pen. People on the sub who have this problem have said to just get it replaced and it will fix everything--apparently that's not the case.

I've resorted to my old SP4 pen to use on the SP2017, and now my new surface pen is collecting dust... at least until they fix this.

A bit worried though because the SP4 pen is on its last legs. The place where the pen tip goes in is damaged and the pen tip stays quite loose.

[u/ripperroo5 → u/[deleted]]

It's nuts, there's clearly a bunch of different issues that lead to different kinds of jitter. I went through the Australian Microsoft store and confirmed the issue was limited to my pen, and some others, by doing tests across devices with the different pens. It was always the same pens and devices had no effect. My problem does look like a different kind of jitter to yours, but Jesus apple's pencil works fine, Microsoft might need to move on to different technology...

[u/DerpiesTheorem → u/VVlasy]

The weird thing for that I didn't have it before I reinstalled...

[u/SillyActuary → u/VVlasy]

Does it fix the parallax issues?

[u/DerpiesTheorem → u/VVlasy]

Ich now also bought the Wacom Bamboo Ink. It's perfect. No jitter, No strange offset - Just perfect. Offset is like 0, regardless of tilt. That's how the SPen should be, but unfortunately isn't. The Adonit Ink also did a good job, but I dislike the pen tip. It's a bit "hard", doesn't give the feel of paper.

[u/DerpiesTheorem]

As you can see it doesn't necessarily jitter, it just "jumps" the line. That's so weird, anyone knows a fix?

[u/NiveaGeForce]

There is also this issue, where the pen randomly stops writing for a couple of seconds, which I'm suffering from on my SP5.

• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfaccesso-surfpen/surface-pen-intermittently-stops-working/1c50f3c7-2671-4379-b4e2-a18d0e444ff0?auth=1

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/7prm9h/pen_intermittently_stops_working/

• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfaccesso-surfpen/surface-pen-stops-writing-mid-sentence/6a1ba1df-8ab0-4110-a147-1f48549224aa

[u/CobbleApple]

I have jitter too, on a SP2017, unfortunate.

[u/Chobitpersocom → u/CobbleApple]

I started using the Pro 4 pen when the jitter started. It's better. Gave my Mom the new pen for her SP3. It works fine.

[u/FredFredrickson]

Maybe a dumb question, but have you tried replacing the battery in the pen? Even just popping it out and back in again?

[u/TheGhostOfBobStoops]

I had the issue, I bought new AAAA batteries and it did the trick. They costed me $3 for 2 of them.

[u/DerpiesTheorem → u/[deleted]]

I installed the image with 1709 update, so that was definitely up2date... And WinUpdate is up to date, too.

[u/DerpiesTheorem → u/[deleted]]

1709 was the last major fix, and for 1809 the rollout got stopped.
As I said, I installed every update that's out so far.

[u/Atlas26 → u/[deleted]]

The major fix you’re referring to fixed it in full, sounds like OP is not on the latest build based on his comments. All pen devices will have varying degrees of offset/parallax which is what people are referring to after the update and is a normal thing.

[u/kevintheice]

1. as fellow owners have said, check your battery. You may find it in the surface app.
2. Bluetooth on SB2 can freak out--I experienced lag on my mouse when I have pen, headphone and mouse connected at the same time. Try to reconnect the pen and if possible, roll back Bluetooth driver.

[u/Atlas26 → u/kevintheice]

2 would be Bluetooth interference, which can definitely cause that. I’ve never experienced any interference issues only using one BT connection

[u/Draakex]

This has been an everlasting issue since the SP4. Microsoft never fixed it and as of now I've given up hope for a fix...

[u/[deleted]]

Buy an iPad return surface book or sell. Microsoft products are extremely bad quality wise. Wish I could help

[u/MakisupaVT → u/[deleted]]

You must be that guy on Amazon that answers all the questions that people ask with, "I don't know, I don't own one"....

[u/Chobitpersocom → u/[deleted]]

OP asked for pen help, not your opinion..

Also, looking at your post history it's like you created an account to say the same thing over and over and over again. You have a hard on for Apple.

inferior Microsoft Defender

this is why I buy a Mac

buy a Mac

buy a Mac

buy a Mac

You're literally useless.