I have an HP Laptop (Spectre X360 to be exact, from late 2015) with Windows 10 64-bit installed and a resistive stylus that is specifically made for that series of laptops. Normally, if the tip of the stylus is brought closer to the screen, it acts as a cursor. In order to create input with it, one needs to touch it to the screen and apply some amount of pressure.
The problem is that from time to time, I get this weird problem with the stylus where it creates input without touching the screen whatsoever. I just hold it static without touching the screen (of course still close enough so the screen detects it) and it creates random lines, as if someone is shaking the pen superhumanly fast. In the video, you can see exactly what I am talking about - https://streamable.com/qgio08
This stylus came with no drivers or any kind of installation media. So far, I have tried to "uninstall" the device from the device manager and restart the computer hoping it would fix it, none of which worked. Interestingly enough, if I lock the computer with Win+L combination, it behaves normally there. So, at this point I am fairly positive that it is a software-related issue. But I have no software that could remotely be interfering with the stylus operation whatsoever. My touchscreen is also disabled and even if it didn't it should not be interfering with the stylus anyway since they work on different principles.
The only "fix" to this issue is either going back to the restore point I created earlier but this sometimes doesn't work either. Another way (which has always worked the few times I tried it) is "Resetting" the PC which removes all the software.
Am I right in assuming that there must be a certain folder somewhere that has files controlling stylus behaviour. My interaction with HP Tech Support was egregious as they stated firmly that there is no such folder, some agents even went so far as to claim that some device my neighbours may be using could interfere with the stylus.
For now the only option I have when this problem occurs is to reset windows apps and settings to defaul while keeping personal files. This means that I lose all the registries and the software that has to be installed to the C: drive When I do reset Windows without deleting apps and settings, the problem persists. So far, a few times I reset Windows including the apps and settings the problem seems to be gone. All of which to me suggests that this is not a problem with the stylus itself (as HP tech support would have liked me to believe)
I created a new local user account and tried the stylus behaviour there. Interestingly, inside OneNote it behaves normally, but outside of it it goes berserk again. It seems the pen "chooses" to "misbehave"s on certain settings... So far that I have tried, there are a few "mediums" that pen starts acting normally. On the lock/welcome screen and the "Sticky Notes" app that comes with Windows 10.
In short, I am hoping to find the folder that contains files affecting stylus performance and reset that specifically instead of the whole system. Uninstalling the "HID Compliant Pen" with the "Device Manager" and restarting didn't help so far.
Update: I have reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch and the issue seems to be gone for now. I went to device Manager to check the version of the "HID Compliant Pen" and this is what I got:
Device Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 21.06.2006
Driver Version: 10.0.10586.420
Digital Singer: Microsoft Windows
But this was the version of Windows 10 that was a few years old. So, after upgrading it to the current version of Windows 10, the driver version changed to:
Device Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 21.06.2006
Driver Version: 10.0.18362.1
Digital Singer: Microsoft Windows
HP Customer service keeps telling me that there is no associated driver for this Pen, even though it picks up a different version through Windows Update. Is there a way to somehow acquire both of these drivers as an archive so I can manually load them when Windows Update messes it up? Till then, I will disable Windows Update just to be safe.
UPDATE: As of 06.09.2020, the problem came up again only 5 days after the fresh reinstall of Windows. I did pick up something new though. If the tip of the pen is pressed (it retracts when pressure is applied) without touching the screen, the pen starts to go into the crazy mode and jumps up and down. I speculated that maybe the tip of the pen is being blocked something and decided to clean both the screen and the tip of the pen with a 70% ethanol solution. After the restart, the problem seems to be gone. Hopefully for good this time. Although this still doesn't explain how the problem was gone after the reinstall, I am glad that the pen is functional again.
