Wacom One: no display signal
“No signal. Press the OSB button to switch the input source”
Sorting this issue was a complete pain in the arse – and it was needlessly so!
I’ve worked in IT since the early 80s, building PCs using barely legible instructions translated from Chinese to Tiawanese to English by people that – it felt – barely spoke their own language. I took it in my stride moving from linking NetWare and Linux over BNC to modern alternative.
But this thing… two days of frustration.
/Reddit had suggestions. They didn’t work. Wasted money on those!
WACOM’s own help page had a guide – that also didn’t help.
I spend hours on chat to WACOM support (below) to find out one fact:
The connection won’t work with a third party 3 in 1 cable
This is the Wacom 3 in 1 cable compatible to your tablet
(For £50, £55 on Amazon)
It might actually work with third party cables and connectors, but it’s more profitable for them to push and vastly overpriced cable. Retail, the parts are under £20, so the cost can easily – EASILY – be swallowed or added to the RRP.
But that’s not the point. This is – in my opinion – just a sleezy way to fleece customers and I will be reporting them to both the Advertising Standards Authority and to Trading Standards, ‘cos this stinks!
This is not necessarily a technical isssue, this is down to terrible decisions by management.
We bought a WACOM One 13 tablet from WACOM’s Amazon page, expecting it to work out the box – as described. It works on phones, it works on laptops, but it doesn’t work on PCs. WACOM’s Amazon page makes no mention of this, nor do the instruction, nor even their website.
In fact is says, and I quote:
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
All models come with everything you need to get started with your creative hobby.
If they do NOT include the 3 in 1 cable, do not even tell people they may need one, much less that it’s over £50 then that’s false advertising. I will be returning the device for a refund, writing a suitably “do not buy” warning and may contact Trading Standards as well. I am utterly disgusted with them. All this for penny pinching.
REALLY DISGUSTED.
If they had’d put the price up and included the cable, fine, but this bullshit is beyond the pale. I wasted two days trying to get this to work!
Here’s the thing, right: Wacom’s page on Amazon state “Everything you need to get started” and is priced accordingly, i.e. £580
Now, if you go to WACOM’s store, it’s, well, messy, but if you add all the parts, it tracks. So:
You buy the tablet: £484
Then add the (overpriced) 3 in 1 cable: £50
Then add the (overpriced) USB C cables: £20
Then you added the (overpriced) power adaptor: £30
(total: £584)
Now, you look on their Amazon page and the price is £580, for “everything”.
But it’s not everything, because they took the ESSENTIAL and seemingly bespoke 3 in 1 connector and want you to pay and extra £56 for it. In my opinion, at best, it’s false advertising and arguably deliberately misleading.
It should be emphasied that it worked instantly with a laptop (integrated graphics) and a smartphone, but because PCs typical have discrete graphics cards (e.g Nvidia 4070), the supplied cable do NOT work – no video connection, hence the need for the connector. Wacom’s Amazon store front (on price) seemingly charges you for this, but doesn’t include it, doesn’t tell you you even need it and, given it took over an hour to support, they won’t even tell you it’s needed unless you push and push and push. It is hardly surprising that Wacoms rating on Trustpilot is only 1.5!
All we actually needed – as PC users – was the tablet (£484) and the 3 in 1 cable (£50), so £534 (verses £636 via Amazon on their own page). I find it impossible to believe they thought that PC used wouldn’t want to buy this unit, so…
We are, of course, sending the thing back as not fit for purpose!
Apologies for the shaky camera work:
Update: Huion Kamvas 13 Pro
After all the wasted time and let downs by Wacom, I remembered Huion, who we were looking at a while back for digitizers, and thought I’d give them another look over. Took me all of a minute to settle on the Kamvas 13 Pro (2.5K) At just £309 it works out better than half the price of the equivalent Wacom device!
Also, apart from a driver issue (the latest (beta) drivers don’t detect the tablet…) Just installed the older, stable drivers and it was sorted.
Unboxed, plugged in and up and running in minutes and ready for calibration.
Wacom: “Everything you need in the box” – Translation: “Except the essential cable, without which your tablet is a brick. Add (£56). Oh, and we’ll be wanting another £45 if you need a stand!”
When you add over a hundred quid for essential “extras” that’s sharp practice in my book!
Huion: “Everything you need in the box” – “Even a drawing glove and a USB power extension cable just in case you need one”.
#NoRegrets
For the more serious artists, their ranges goes up to the 4K UHD Kamvas 27 Pro. This has everything you need in the box, including built in legs and (at present) offers a free Dual Monitor Arm (ST420), normally £pound;119). A desktop arm is also available as an optional extra
Not cheap at £1,799, but the slightly smaller Kamvas 24 Pro is only £949 at present (normally £1,299, stand options extra at £20 to £80). For comparison, Wacom’s 24″ starts at £1,400
“Kamvas Pro 27 accurately covers multiple color gamuts, including sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3, which combine with the 1.07 billion display color to show the professionals more detailed and smooth picture.”