yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Microsoft Surface] petersteier:
Some improvements and instructions

Congratulations! Very helpful. I was on the verge of sending my Samsung Ativ Smart PC pro back...

I optimized the solution for needs:

tabcal devicekind=pen lincal novalidate XGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,650,945,1240,1540,1740,1840,1890,1919 YGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,630,830,1030,1050,1079

I think that for most users this 130 points should suffice.

Additionally, I correct the problem of the "dead border" of my device: the touch region seems to be about 10 points smaller athen the screen at every edge. Thus, I add the very edge coordinates to the list; during calibration, I cannot click them, but I can click about 15 points inside. The mapping enures that any point closer than 15 to the edge is then mapped to the edge. This in in fact a strong non-non-linearity at the outmost 30 points, but this allows me to reach slide-in menus, etc., and I rarely write anything there.

To make the best calibration, you should for this command, which establishes a linearity correction for the hardware, hold the pen perfectly perpenticular to the screen. After this is done, you should make a regular 4-point calibration through the control panel, once in landscape and once in portrait, while holding the pen in your convenient writing position. This is apparently applied on top of the linearity correction, and corrects mainly for your pen tilt, apparently separately for screen orientation.

Note: you have to rename the LinearityData in regedit every time before you can start tabcal again, otherwise you get an error message.

2nd note: SAMSUNG should do a 100 point linearity correction in the factory already.

3rd note: hope the linearity does not drift too much...
[Microsoft Surface] mastamind518:
Thanks, this worked great! Is there anyway to have multiple calibrations for different orientations? I calibrated in landscape but in portrait mode some of the corner are still off
[Microsoft Surface] eallan:
This doesn't seem to work on 8.1, or am I crazy?
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
So if i have the wacom drivers I cant use this calibration fix?

I dont believe theres no way to bypass this.

I tried running the command but the error keeps poping up no matter how many times i reset the calibration via control panel.

Theres no linearity entry at all in my registry too.

Solutions anyone?
[Microsoft Surface] Kraize:
Uninstall drivers. Do calibration. Reinstall drivers.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
But I thought wacom drivers would overwrite the default windows configs, am I wrong?
[Microsoft Surface] Kraize:
I don't believe that they do. My config stays after I reinstalled the drivers.
[Microsoft Surface] lxxxxl:
I'm using the Surface Pro with the newest Wacom driver (ver 7.1.1-16).

What I did:

1. Uninstalled the Wacom driver. Restart.

2. Reset Calibration via Control Panel > Tablet PC Settings.

3. Run the 273 point tabcal command.

4. Do 4-pt calibration again via Tablet PC Settings. Restart.

Up till this point, the calibration at the corners did improve considerably. But subsequently, when I installed wacom's driver and restarted, the drift came back, somehow invalidating the 273 pt calibration.

My thoughts/queries at this point:

a. Maybe I didn't do things in the correct order?

b. Should I use an older driver instead?

c. Should I calibrate via wacom's settings panel? (Or should I focus exclusively on calibration via Tablet PC Settings?)

Note: I have not applied any registry edit, as mentioned in the 1st post. Do I need to do that to make the calibration 'stick'?
[Microsoft Surface] lxxxxl:
After multiple attempts and reinstalls....my current conclusion is that, the moment you install Wacom's feel driver, it intercepts and invalidates the calibration from the Windows Tabletpc Settings, including the 273pt and 130pt methods mentioned here. At least on the Surface Pro.

If you do not use wintab software nor use wacom's driver, then the 273pt / 130pt methods should help.

Anyone have a way to 'hack' Wacom's calibration? And increase calibration points, AFTER wacom's feel driver is installed?
[Microsoft Surface] demandarin:
I just use Waocom 4 point calibration..lol works fine for me.

Has anyone noticed every now and then the pen cursor will act funny and stick to top left corner of screen no matter where you have pen at?
[Microsoft Surface] Trig0r:
Yup I got this loads with 8.1Preview, I'm back on 8 now and havent had it happen since, nor have i had any network/wifi issues, which was the main reason I went back to 8 from 8.1..
[Microsoft Surface] FHSPSU67:
Yes! I was trying to show off the Pro's pen capability, at my local watering hole, a couple nights ago and this anomaly popped up. Haven't figured out how to fix it, but turning the Pro off and back on seems to work.

4-point calibration works fine for me, too.
[Microsoft Surface] code72:
I ran many times in that issue with wacom drivers under win 8 Now i'm on Win 8.1 (upgraded from 8 ) and i'm very happy with it, all works fawlessy but i don't install wacom drivers (previously uninstalled)
[Microsoft Surface] gobmonster:
Not to reincarnate this thread lol

The bolded is true. I've done the testing enough to find out for sure. In windows 8 you can disable wacom from intercepting the calibration though. Just windows search services, find wacom isd service, and stop it. This will allow you to use windows standard linearity calibration. Start it back once you're done.

Now the thing is, if you want to use the ones that allow more than windows points from the run option (16+ points) you'll have to erase linearity data because windows sometimes doesnt do it correctly. Search regedit for linearity and it should be directly in tablet PC.

If that doesnt help you get rid of the old calibration data, you'll have to reinstall the ISD driver. A couple combinations seemed to do the trick, but i dont really have a working sequence, its real inconsistent but it works to wipe out the old settings. If you keep trying / restarting
[Microsoft Surface] Jorlin:
Just wanted to let you know that this worked just fine on my Surface Pro 2. :highfive:
[Microsoft Surface] Nitemare3219:
Did you install Wacom drivers, or do anything different from the OP? My stock calibration is fairly decent, just the top left corner is off.
[Microsoft Surface] gobmonster:
The windows 8.1 driver works well, but i couldn't get it to cooperate with photoshop. I had to install the wacom driver which brought back calibration issues
[Microsoft Surface] Nitemare3219:
Is that automatically installed through update, or are you talking about the one that came with the device? I did a custom calibration of probably 40 points, and it's pretty good, except for the top left corner still.

I also can't find the bit in the registry to reset it later if I need to.
[Microsoft Surface] nigew:
strange thing with the keyboard

I originally ran the 100 point calibration with varying success. I have been trying to run the 273 point calibration but kept running in to the reset the calibration message. It would not let me reset the calibration. I have now read about and tried unplugging the Keyboard, it will now let me run the 273 calibration! Very strange. There is also a problem with calibration retention. :( I do not seem to have the Wacom driver installed. I take it this is not installed as standard on the Pro 2?

Update: I did the 273 but with an intentional error in the central part of the screen. When the calibration was complete could verify that the calibration I had just done was in effect by observing the bad area in the centre. When I attached the keyboard the error disappeared and it reverted to a different calibration that I had miss -calibrated earlier in the bottom right hand corner.

The only alteration I have to this machine is renaming the registry key adding "User" before 'LinearityData'. I don't know if this registry change has any bearing on this scenario.

---------- Post added at 01:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 AM ----------

Update: I did the 273 but with an intentional error in the central part of the screen. When the calibration was complete could verify that the calibration I had just done was in effect by observing the bad area in the centre. When I attached the keyboard the error disappeared and it reverted to a different calibration that I had miss -calibrated earlier in the bottom right hand corner.

The only alteration I have to this machine is renaming the registry key adding "User" before 'LinearityData'. I don't know if this registry change has any bearing on this scenario.
[Microsoft Surface] tallshorty:
Wacom and 273 point calibration

Has anyone found a solution to using the Wacom Feel driver on the SP2 and using the 273 point calibration? I just tried it and the Wacom driver overrides the calibration. Btw, the 273 point calibration gives me a perfect pen accuracy. Thank you!
[Microsoft Surface] jcsammut:
Wacom response

Hi,

I have also been looking in to this and came upon another thread (cannot post link unfortunately, google: can-you-help-solve-this-surface-pro-2-wacom-driver-mystery) with an update from Wacom. Basically, the Wacom calibration does indeed remove/overwrite the Windows calibration:-

"Its probably due to the fact that when the Wacom driver is installed we clear the 16 point calibration (the MS one that specifically accounts for corner & edge performance) and only allow the 4 point. The 16 point calibration interferes with Wintab accuracy across the whole screen, so we do sacrifice some corner accuracy. It does look like that is in our buglist as a feature enhancement (re-allowing 16 point or replacing the functionality, we do have a way to do it that will at least fix the edge performance in non-wintab applications, but we'd like to find a way to fix it for all use cases).

I'll get back to you once we have firmed up our schedule for our next release. 7.1.3-X should be out before the end of the year."

So hopefully this issue will be corrected when their next driver is released before the end of the year.

HTH.

Thanks,

Jason.
[Microsoft Surface] Nfinity:
Thanks a bunch!

This calibration has worked wonders for me.

After removing the newest Wacom drivers, the calibration worked. Now I have to get used to writing normally again instead of a few mm off.

Originally, when I removed the drivers, my pen stopped working completely. A simple windows update fixed that.
[Microsoft Surface] SuperKerp:
I was wondering if people could help me. I ran the calibration and it worked great and then the right side of my screen got WAY off calibration wise. I reset and when I go and try to run the calibration program again it gives me an error and says Linerity calibration data is already presnt. Please use the "reset button" in the tablet pc settings control panel applet to remove the data.

However, I already did.

Also, is when I did my registry search, I did not find LinearityData, but I had already had a file called UserLineraityData. Is that ok?

Is there something I can do short of a reinstall of things?
[Microsoft Surface] Dosentod:
THANKS A LOT! :good:

I actually have a Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga, but it's working fine here aswell :)

Additionally for some more accurancy on the edges I added some coordinates

tabcal devicekind=pen lincal novalidate XGridPts=10,30,60,90,110,135,160,260,360,460,560,660,810,960,1110,1260,1360,1460,1560,1660,1760,1785,1810,1830,1860,1890,1910 YGridPts=10,30,60,85,110,135,160,250,400,540,680,830,920,945,970,995,1020,1050,1070

And by the way, if you're having trouble, that tabcal couldn't be found, try to open cmd.exe as an administrator ;)

Greetz

Edit: for some reason, my overkill coordinates won't get accepted... maybe a little too much for the poor PC :D
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
I find a cure.

Good news: I have found a solution to enable us to calibrate stylus with user-defined grid when Wacom feel driver has installed on your surface pro.

The trick is to edit the registry and no risk at all if you do it properly. Most of surface pro users experience LinearityData error when run the script:

tabcal lincal novalidate XGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,650,945,1240,1540,1740,1840,1890,1919 YGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,630,830,1030,1050,1079.

Note that delete 'devicekind=pen' in the script(the script above is an example) does not solve the problem most of the time.

The solution is to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_045E&PID_0799&MI_01&Col03\8&2d6be41e&3&0002\Device Parameters], [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TabletPC\LinearityData] and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TabletPC\UserLinearityData] using your registry editor.

Note that the id "VID_045E&PID_0799&MI_01&Col03\8&2d6be41e&3&0002" of the first key's name could be different on your device. A search in registry for LinearityData is suffice to find it.

Then you are able to run the 'tabcal lincal novalidate XGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,650,945,1240,1540,1740,1840,1890,1919 YGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,630,830,1030,1050,1079' script.

In this step, the values in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_045E&PID_0799&MI_01&Col03\8&2d6be41e&3&0002\Device Parameters], [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TabletPC\LinearityData] and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_045E&PID_0799&MI_01&Col03\8&2d6be41e&3&0002\Device Parameters] are updated.

Bingo! You get the same accuracy in the corners as the one without Wacom driver.

To backup the linearityData, use the registry editor to export these three folders(the first one is the most important). You can recovery to this profile whenever you want. Is that nice?

Now you can also calibrate your pen using the default 4 points calibration tool in control panel. It will add a secondary correction, which is good in some cases. And the corner accuracy will not be jeopardized by this 4 points calibration.

Enjoy!
[Microsoft Surface] R3b00t369:
Doesn't work for me, after entering 'tabcal lincal novalidate XGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,650,945,1240,1540,1740,1840,1890,1919 YGridPts=0,30,50,150,350,630,830,1030,1050,1079' I get a command-syntax error.. :eek:
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
There is an extra space in "18 40". Delete the space, then I think it will work.
[Microsoft Surface] R3b00t369:
Okay, now everything is fine, kalibration is still there after rebooting several times. But I took the grid, mentioned in the first post. It gives me a better corner behaviour. Thanks for the fix!:good:
[Microsoft Surface] oddbot91:
I get way better accuracy with only wacom drivers and no 273.
[Microsoft Surface] spaceprobe:
is there a way to have different calibration for different screen orientations?
[Microsoft Surface] nagi603:
Just adding a thanks and a tip: if you have just uninstalled wacom for this fix, don't forget to reboot before the command. :)
[Microsoft Surface] milestone2mod:
Any news about the Wacom-Driver? There's no new version out there....
[Microsoft Surface] shubfm:
Maximum Points? Tabcal.exe

Hello everybody! I'm new here :)

I have some questions about tabcal, maybe someone with a little more experience knows the answers..

I did the 273 point calibration with success and did some different calibrations after to get more precision. To do that I added some points, but somewhere there's a limit, is that right? If true, what's the limit?What's the max of possible points to choose?

If not, are there certain coordinates that won't work?

There's very poor documentation to find about tabcal.exe..

My screen has 1920x1080 resolution and plz don't mention the points OUTSIDE ;) - just the points inside

With more points I get "digitizer could not be opened" (translated from german) ... might be different in english windöws

The syntax is correct, I double-triple-checked that, no extra spaces etc...

greez shubfm
[Microsoft Surface] Ricochet90:
How to add more calibration points?

Hi I'm new here too.

I followed the guide in the OP and it certainly helped with the accuracy of the pen in my SP2.

The problem is that the center of the screen and the bottom (where the taskbar is) are less accurate now.

anyone can please explain me how can I add more calibration points in those zones?

thanks!
[Microsoft Surface] shubfm:
get the command line code and add coordinates...

take a look at your screen resolution. if it's 1920 x 1080 (may be different) then the highest value for XGridPts is 1920 and for the YGridPts 1080 ..

then you simply add your points. they start in the upper left corner of your screen with point (0,0) ... XGridPts 0 / YGridPts 0 ...

the lower right corner then is (1920,1080)...

get the code:

tabcal devicekind=pen lincal novalidate XGridPts=10,60,110,160,260,360,460,560,660,810,960,1110,1260,1360,1460,1560,1660,1760,1810,1860,1910 YGridPts=10,60,110,160,250,400,540,680,830,920,970,1020,1070

add points:

tabcal devicekind=pen lincal novalidate

XGridPts=10,60,110,160,260,360,460,560,660,735,810,885,960,1035,1110,1260,1360,1460,1560,1660,1760,1810,1860,1910

YGridPts=10,60,110,160,250,400,470,540,610,680,830,920,970,1020,1070,1075

the last value would be an extra line in the taskbar region ...
[Microsoft Surface] Ricochet90:
I tried adding my own coordinates but the message "error trying to open the calibration tool" appeared every time.

and I tried many times in different ways.

Anyone who knows how to do this properly can please give me the coordinates to get something like the pic in the attachment?

I know its a bit overkill but for my work I need extreme accuracy and every time I tried the 273 point calibration the accuracy was great in some parts and awful in others.

Anyone can help me?

I would be happy to report if it really works.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Doesnt work bro.

"Failed to open digitizer device".

surface pro 2.
[Microsoft Surface] llyehaa:
help

Please excuse my ignorance but i need some help.

I'm trying to calibrate my pen on my surface pro.

I found this :

"Reset any existing calibration in Tablet PC settings.

Press Win key, type "Run"

Copy and paste the following into the Run window:

tabcal lincal novalidate XGridPts=10,60,110,360,660,960,1260,1560,1860,1910 YGridPts=10,60,170,330,490,650,810,970,1020,1070

Run the command, allow permissions, go through the calibration."

on reddit and it worked, but then i reset it through the calibration setting in Tablet PC settings ( i think)

then i went to run the reddit script again and it wouldn't work, it told me to reset my settings in calibration setting in Tablet PC settings and i did but it still wouldn't run again.

I then traced the reddit post back to this one, and i changed the registry folder name to userlinearitydate (i just hit rename and typed user in front) like you said (first time i've touched a registry, did i do that right?)

now it won't recognize the pen at all

HELP!

Cheers,

Llyehaa
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
when do you get this error?

I searched your error message, it turns out that you might haven't installed Wacom driver yet.

Here is the reference:

Running either of those commands (in the corresponding orientation) currently ALWAYS results in an error message stating "Failed to open digitizer device". Any idea what's wrong? I don't have the Wacom pen drivers installed, with thosse installed, it was showing an error message stating that there's already calibration data in place. According to what I've read online, I can add as much calibration points as I want and the more I add, the more accurate the utilization of the stylus will be; is there actually a limitation?

A guy has replied me that it worked for him, so I think this method should be ok.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Im 101% I have the wacom drivers installed. I have pressure sensitivity on photoshop and I can assign functions for the sideswitch.

If I have the default wacom driver settings without removing the registry entries, I get the LINEARITY error thing. I followed the steps you posted and after removing the registry stuff I get the new error message about the failed digitizer device.

I might try to re-install the feel drivers again, see if anything changes but Im not optimistic.
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
Then the thing will be pretty complicated.

Reinstall is a possible way to do it. Maybe reset the calibration in Tablet PC setting in control panel can be helpful. Moreover, delete "C:\Users\[yourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\WTablet\ISD_Tablet.dat" is also worth trying.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Kk, but before I do all of that, did you really feel a difference between 4 point vs 100 points with the feel drivers?? I heard some reports of people saying that no matter what, feel drivers would overwrite any other kind of calibration and even though we would've calibrated for more points, the actual accuracy would be the same of a 4 point one.
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
Definitely a noticeable difference

If you can successfully done the things in my post, you can feel the difference. I had tested the difference by backing up several profiles of calibration data (registry and the ISD_Tablet.dat) and restore them one by one. The difference is pretty apparent. While I can get high accuracy in 95% area of the screen, I cannot get the edge (4mm width) accuracy, which is definitely enough for me. In contrast, in the best case of 4 points calibration, the edge inaccurate width can be 10mm or more. Hope you can make it.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Awesome, that seems a big improvement!

Do you think 100 points is enough or 273 is the way to go? And do you calibrate it twice, being one upside down or just one time in the regular orientation (landscape specifically, not talking about portrait at all).
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
I did both, but the final configuration I use is 100 points one. Since 273 points one seems to be also unable to get high edge accuracy. It is simply a problem of Wacom tech, you know.

And I only did the landscape one. I find it more easy to write things down in landscape, since you can rest your palm on the screen.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Ok. Have you tried the one with these points by the way?

10, 60, 110, 360, 660, 960, 1260, 1560, 1860, 1910

10, 60, 170, 330, 490, 650, 810, 970, 1020, 1070

Or should I stick with the one you posted?

0, 30, 50, 150, 350, 650, 945, 1240, 1540, 1740, 1840, 1890, 1919

0, 30, 50, 150, 350, 630, 830, 1030, 1050, 1079
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
I think both are ok. They should not make a big difference.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Hey Ive managed to make the calibration work with the wacom drivers :)

Unfortunately both upper left and right corners are still causing the cursor to jump like crazy. Off by 5mm +-, still bloody impossible to hit toolbar buttons on photoshop haha.

Also, why would I calibrate with the stock wacom utility again after that 100+ points power calibration? You said it might be good but in which cases? And why would it not overwrite or mess with the first calibration?
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
l

You are right, you need to do the stock calibration. That's why I said I backed up both registry and .dat file, which contains data about the stock calibration. It won't harm the 100 points calibration, don't worry. However, my upper left corner accuracy is not that good. My habit is put taskbar in the left side of the screen, to get the screen become somewhat 16:10. I think you can try it.
[Microsoft Surface] sneak3:
Listen I know you are asian and stuff so your level of insight is way higher than mine but let's go step by step cause I got very confused here.

I reset all the calibration data I had, then I reinstalled the feel drivers.

So

1- edit the registry.

2- Run the custom calibration

3- Backup the registry/data file which contains the info for the custom calibration.

4- Run 4 point calibration through wacom properties.

5- Replace the data file/registry again with the stuff that I had backed up? Do another registry/data file backup? Dont touch anything else?
[Microsoft Surface] xiaohang.07:
Sorry about the poor grammar, haha.

1- edit the registry.

2- Run the custom calibration

3- Run 4 point calibration through wacom properties.

done

4- Backup the registry/data file which contains the info for the custom calibration.

That's it.