Designer Nick Chubarov & illustrator Marina Smiian

Solution to problems with drivers for Wacom Intuos 5 graphics tablets (and new Pro models)

I have already described the solution to the driver problem that occurs on the Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet, today I will write about how to overcome a similar issue in professional-grade tablets — the Wacom Intuos 5 (4) or their updated versions, which are called Intuos Pro.

(I will refer to and copy some points from my old article, as some steps
are similar, but as we know, the main thing is the result.)

For a very long time now, all owners of Wacom products have been hating the «faulty» drivers of graphic tablets, which fail for many people, and with driver updates, this problem has not disappeared.

There are several solutions — reinstalling the driver (but it takes a lot of time each time), rebooting the computer (with the hope that the driver won’t fail again), and restarting the Wacom Intuos tablet service.

I chose to restart the Wacom Intuos tablet driver service, as it is the fastest solution to the problem. Let’s get started.

So here we are, once again turning on our computer and seeing the sad message from the tablet driver — «Failed to start the graphics tablet driver»:

Не удается запустить драйвер графического планшета. Can't start the graphics tablet driver

At the same time, the Intuos tablet is recognized as a touch screen and does not allow you to work properly with the pen, not responding to pressure, tilt, and additional buttons.

When attempting to enter the tablet settings (via the Control Panel), «Wacom Tablet Properties» (on the new version of the tablet — Intuos Pro, the name may be different), we get an error message — «Driver not found»:

ОШИБКА! «Драйвер планшета не найден» . ERROR! "Tablet driver not found".

Solution for Wacom Intuos driver error:

Restarting the computer takes a long time, and there’s no guarantee that everything will work this time. We decide to solve the problem of the tablet driver failure by restarting the service. To do this, you need to take the following steps:

  1. Open Task Manager (you can do this by right-clicking on the taskbar).
  2. Click on the Services tab.
  3. In the bottom-right corner of the window, click on the «Services» link.
  4. In the list of services, find «WTabletServicePro» (or «WTabletServiceCon» for Bamboo tablets).
  5. Right-click on it and select «Restart».
  6. Wait for the service to restart.
  7. To check if the service has restarted successfully, go to the Start menu and find the Wacom tablet properties section. Click on it.
  8. If everything was done correctly, the Wacom tablet settings program will launch, indicating that the tablet is now working properly.
перезапуском службы ваком, by restarting the wacom service

Automating service restart:

I can quickly create an executable file that will restart the Wacom Intuos driver service (the service for new Wacom Intuos Pro graphic tablets is named similarly).

The ‘script’ looks like this:
Net stop WTabletServicePro
Net start WTabletServicePro

It’s easy, «WTabletServicePro» is our service, «Net stop» — stops the service, «Net start» — starts the service.

To create a file — I create a simple text document in Notepad, paste our lines, save it, rename the file extension to «cmd» (command file).

I name it and get the file «Restart Wacom Intuos.cmd».

We test our «script» — right-click on the file — «run as administrator» — confirm the changes and admire the restart.

Перезапуск Перезапуск wacom Инт.cmd , Restart Restarting wacom Int.cmd

Let’s try launching the tablet settings, everything should work now, let’s enjoy it!

свойства планшета wacom , wacom tablet features

Great! I’m glad to hear that the problem with the Wacom Intuos driver has been solved and everything can be done quickly without unnecessary hassle or having to disconnect the tablet.

I’m attaching a file in an archive to restart drivers. Unzip and run it as an administrator. Script link.

Update and comments from people who have encountered this issue:

In Windows 8+, my method works partially, because something has changed in the management of services there. I tried to reproduce the driver error through a virtual machine with Win 8 installed, but I didn’t encounter the driver error.

It was also determined that the error often occurs on weak computers or «cluttered» systems, and buying an SSD often solves the problem.

Comments from people:
(text of comments without editing)

  • It didn’t work… It’s throwing an error message ‘The operation could not be completed. Access is denied.’ — It requires running with administrator privileges.

  • «By the way, I have this issue when Wacom releases an update. It’s a nightmare, really frustrating…

  • «Hello. When I go to ‘Task Manager’, then click on ‘Services’, I can’t seem to find (WTabletServicePro). What should I do? — You need to look for something related to Wacom services and rewrite the script for this service.

  • «Thanks. I managed to fix the Wacom ET-0404a-U driver crash on Win 8. The service name was TabletServiceWacom.

  • «This was very helpful! It worked on my Intuos Draw tablet. I thought I would have to reboot my computer for eternity, but this is magic. Thank you to the author.»

  • I had the same problem, but this method didn’t work because the tablet driver wasn’t initially launched, which can be seen in the task manager (there should be a process named Wacom_Table.exe, as well as other related files), but the device itself is displayed normally in the device manager, and the WTabletServicePro service is running.

The installation file has a hardcoded installation address for the «drivers» to be installed in the «Program Files» folder. By default, Windows uses the same «Program Files» folder to install programs, but sometimes it is intentionally or arbitrarily changed to another location. You can change or check this using the registry editor.

Find the «ProgramFilesDir» parameter at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and change its value to «C:\Program Files».

Uninstall the driver, restart the computer, reinstall the driver, and restart again. Enjoy.

  • This method helped me with my Wacom Intuos Pro M. Respect!

  • I tried it for the Intuos Photo, and everything worked, except that the service name for it is Wacom Professional Service.

  • This script worked for my Wacom Draw Pen S. I didn’t have to change anything. At least, it worked for me.

  • Solution to the Wacom driver problem for Mac operating systems: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6602507?tstart=0 (see screenshots).

  • The method worked for me on Windows 8.1! Thank you, author! It also seems to me that in the past, installing the old, possibly the first version of the driver, instead of the new one, helped, but I don’t remember for sure. Haven’t tried it on a new laptop yet.

  • I struggled with this problem for three and a half hours. It would have been fine if reinstalling the driver had at least helped. But the «Driver not found» error didn’t go away. I didn’t find a solution until I installed the previous version of the driver. Thank you!

  • For those who don’t have the «WTabletServiceCon» service, look for the «Wacom Consumer Service» line. It’s the same thing, just the displayed name differs from the service name. If access is denied, open it as an administrator (or in the name of the Emperor) =)

  • I found out through trial and error that if a simple restart doesn’t help, you need to kill all Wacom processes (WacomHost.exe, Wacom_TouchUser.exe, Wacom_TabletUser.exe, Wacom_Tablet.exe) through the task manager before restarting the service.

  • The only thing that helped was to uninstall all versions of the driver, then disable the service and clean the tablet settings through the utility on the disk that came with it. All actions separately did not give a result. Model BAMBOO PEN HV4-CTL460(B) or simply CTL-460.

 

Thanks to the artists for additional solutions.

Thanks!