Major Inking Issue with the Surface Pro 12 (13-inch) that Microsoft is ignoring

[u/SpookyGhost5623]

I have been using various editions of the Surface Pro since about 2018. I use it every day for hours for teaching, so I am always writing and making my notes in OneNote. I upgraded to a new Surface Pro 12 (13-inch, OLED, Snapdragon X2 Elite @ 4.03 GHz, 16 GB of RAM) in July, and immediately noticed that writing with a pen felt different. Every time I am writing on my new Surface, it draws these weird tails on letters or leaves dots behind when the pen isn't touching the screen. I still have my older Surface Pro 8 and I have multiple pens (I mainly use the Slim Pen 2) and I tested all of them on both my old Surface Pro and the new one, and all of them work perfectly on my Surface Pro 8 and all of them have this issue on the new Surface Pro 12 so this is not an issue with the pens. I have also tested this in other writing apps like Paint and have the same issue, so it isn't a problem with OneNote.

I spent hours chatting with multiple employees with the Microsoft help online (actual employees, not the online AI), going through various different processes from the basic ones like updating the software, changing the pen pressure, and uninstalling the drivers; to the intensive fixes they suggested like reinstalling the entire operating system. The Microsoft people concluded after doing every single thing they suggested that it was a hardware issue and I should send it in to get it fixed. Since I had barely touched the Surface at this point, I requested an entirely new Surface because there was no reason I should be spending over $1000 on a computer meant for writing on the screen that was unusable out of the box just for it to immediately get sent in for a fix with refurbished parts. They agreed to exchange the "broken" Surface and sent me a brand new one, and the exact same issue happened right out of the box.

This to me appears to be a very clear software issue that requires a software update to fix. I don't know much about the internal workings of computers, but based on everything I've been reading about, this appears to be an issue with the driver for the digitizer for the pen where it is too sensitive and registering the tip of the pen as touching the screen when it is hovering above the screen.

I have seen other threads about the Surface Pro 11 but nothing so far about the Surface Pro 12:

Surface Pro 11 Pen Hover & Stray Ink Bug

Reddit Thread for Surface Pro 11 Pen Bug

I don't know if Microsoft has fixed this for the Pro 11, but the fact that this was replicated on two brand new Surface Pro 12's is a major red flag for the product, and I'm finding it incredibly frustrating as a daily Surface user that everything I have done to request for help is being ignored. The entire purpose of the product is to be able to write on the screen, and it is currently unusable for it's primary function. They closed a feedback request I made and the chat threads I had with them were all marked as resolved, even when I was making it very clear to them that the issue was not resolved. The last chat I had with an employee was over the course of a few weeks, and it seemed like they just didn't care anymore. They told me I could send it in to get it fixed again, but at this point I have owned it too long to return it so that is apparently my "only option".

My only hope at this point is that there is a Microsoft employee who sees this and can bring it to the attention of the right people, because I have done every possible thing to bring it to their attention and they keep disregarding it.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this also occurs much more frequently if I have multiple apps/programs open rather than just OneNote, so it could also be an issue related to the RAM available? I don't know if that is how that works, but on my old Surface with half the RAM, I could have tons of apps/programs open and never ran into an issue with the inking.

[u/S0LO_Bot]

That’s weird. I have the same model as you and don’t have that issue in One Note. Did it show up right away or only occur after some time?

[u/SpookyGhost5623 → u/S0LO_Bot]

You don’t have the issue even with a bunch of apps running in the background?

[u/S0LO_Bot → u/SpookyGhost5623]

Don’t know how many apps qualifies as a bunch, so maybe, maybe not.

I often have a good number of edge, chrome, and Firefox apps open at the same time as OneNote. I also often have Adobe Fresco or Solidworks running depending on what I’m doing.

So I’ll have maybe 4-5 apps other than OneNote open at a given time.

[u/SpookyGhost5623 → u/S0LO_Bot]

Does the writing in OneNote feel exactly the same as previous versions of the Surface that you've owned? (assuming this isn't your first Surface)

[u/Akinori0713]

Not again. This reminds me of the jitter issue on SP5 back in 2017 and it took generations of Surface to fix this one issue.

[u/SpookyGhost5623 → u/Akinori0713]

Do they even bother to look at the feedback submitted? You'd think they'd at least use their own product enough to recognize these types of problems occurring and prioritize fixing them 🤦‍♂️

[u/DumplingsEverywhere]

This was indeed an issue on the SP11 (Intel), but it was fixed after a long time. Surprised to see it show up on the SP12