Dell Active Pen Not Working

Hi wamul,

Thanks for posting.

Apologies that the Active Stylus pen is not working as expected.

Here is some information you may find helpful:

http://dell.to/2zc4UUT

My Dell Active Pen not working too. Replaced Battery, reinstalled drivers, reconnected Blue tooth, all the solutions people posted in the support forums, but it's still not working. The button did come on, but pen pointer does not work. 

According to the forum, it does seem like this is not an isolated instant, broadly experienced but multiple users. Would like Dell to make a consolidated response on what is/are the most effective solution. Very frustrating!!!

Dell_User_Michael,

Click my name and private message me the pc service tag number as well as your registered name, email address, and phone number.

Which active pen do you have?

Try this:

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln316213/dell-active-pen-pn579x-not-working-with-supported-inspiron-systems?lang=en

Had exactly the same problem as you. I was about to be very upset with this product but then I remembered I might not be in the correct inking mode. Hope it Helps!

Did you ever get a solution please? I am experiencing this same problem with a different laptop and pen

no solution for me yet. Just tried the pressing both buttons together to change inking mode, but that makes no differrence with my pen.

I am stuck with Active Pen 557W and Latitude 7490.

Have tried to download Active Pen drivers but just get a message "No tablet detected on the system"

I just want to use the pen!!!

Dell PN557w Pen with Latitude 5285. New batteries, uninstall/re-install/update bios/update chip set per Dell agent. Still nothing.

Obviously not the only one having issue.

Suggestions?

Have you tried to switch the pen mode from AES to MPP? 

see in user guide (https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_stylus/dell-active-pen-pn579x_user%27s-guide_en-us.pdf) 

Mode Checking:
• Press briefly on both Bottom Barrel Button and Top Barrel
Button, to indicate the current Inking Mode as follows:
• Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) — Blinks twice
• Wacom Active Electrostatic (AES) — Blinks once
Mode Switching:
• Press and hold for 2 seconds on both Bottom Barrel
Button and Top Barrel Button to trigger Mode Switching.
After completion of mode switching, indicator will show
the current effective Mode as follows:
• MPP — Blinks twice
• AES — Blinks once

Same here. Thanks for sharing this. Switched my inking mode and it's working again! 

This literally saved me!! I had tried everything, new batteries, going on device manager, I just couldn't fix it. Was driving me crazy and I'd never even though about the ink mode.

Same issue for me, model pn556w. I read many posts about defective design of the case and tried to fix it as shown on the picture. I inserted M3 screw nut to the bottom of the AAAA case since it fitted well and its height allows to have a permanent contact to the '+' of AAAA battery. Also very important is to fix the nut so it doesn't move up thanks to a piece of black plastic preventing a short circuit! Be careful!

contact fix PN556W

Works well so far.

Hi,

I had similar problems with the active pen and my Latitude 7389.  The pen constantly cut out, and would require jogging by pressing all of the buttons at least a few times a minute, and the taking out and putting back in of one or both of the two extremely niche types of battery that this thing requires during the course of each hour-long lecture.  On a good day it was merely very bad, on a bad day it was unusable.  All very vexing!

Here's what finally worked for me, in case it helps you too: I threw both the pen and the laptop as hard as I could against a solid wall (external, brick) and purchased an ipad to go with my macbook, which is a laptop that functions correctly.  Hope this works for you!