Active Stylus Problems

Me Too!

For several weeks now the Active Stylus has been "temporarily unavailable" on Dell's website. It appears a redesigned stylus is on the way. I'm fairly certain the problem lies with the stylus not the tablet. I have talked to Dell's tech support twice concerning the stylus issues I am having, the last time was about a week ago. They are sending me another new stylus (my third). Dell called me yesterday to informing me the new stylus was on the way and I should receive it in the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to this being the real fix. For me, this will be a great device if the stylus works properly. I will update this post to share the new stylus' performance.

On Wednesday Jan 15, 2014 Dell support called and told me they were sending me a new stylus (my third) and I should receive it in two or three days. This was in response to a two hour tech support call where they made some adjustments to the tablet through remote assistance which didn’t help. Two days after telling me a new stylus was on the way, Friday Jan 17, 2014 Dell support called me again to tell me the stylus wasn’t going to be available for six to eight weeks. Stating they were trying to figure out what was going wrong with the stylus and reintroduce a newly engineered one. They also offered me a refund for the stylus. I bought my Venue 8 Pro from Dell bundled together with the folio case and stylus. I told them this tablet is worthless to me without a working stylus and want them to give me a full refund for the bundled package or get me a working stylus. Monday Jan 20, 2014 I spent another two hours on the phone with Dell getting jockeyed from department to department. After explaining the dispute to six different people and getting handed off again I hung up. At this point Dell has been giving me conflicting information concerning the stylus and they don’t want to give me a refund for the bundled package.

I have 3 Venues, 2 11's (7130 and 5130) and an 8.  I cant get any active stylus to work on any of them.  I don't have the actual Venue stylus but I have Latitude 10 active styli which don't work.  I did the chat thing and the salesperson said that any acvtive stylus should work.  I called support and got put on hold for an hour.  Has anyone tried a non-dell or other dell model stylus?  I am wondering if this is a "special" active stylus.

It's absolutely a special active stylus.  Only the stylus made for the Venue will work with the Venue, as it uses a Synaptics digitizer.  No other device out there uses the same digitizer so it is unique and requires that exact pen.  

It had so many issues Dell is no longer selling it or offering replacements.   For awhile they were replacing bad pens with the same model, and it was really a crapshoot whether you got one that worked well or not.   Even the ones that write well have battery issues.   At this point there are rumors a new pen will be available in February or March sometime, but it's all just rumor at this point.   For all we know, Dell could just abandon the pen altogether.  

Dell has stated in another thread on here they are working to fix the issues, but so far no real communication from them about the issue and what they are actually doing.   A lot of people are losing patience with the whole thing.   This is the main long thread about the stylus: 

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/mobile-devices/f/4586/p/19530352/20506022.aspx

Wow andymac99, that's one seriously facepalm worthy chat session right there.

Check this: http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=15176. In my case, it works perfectly on my Venue 8 pro.

I ordered my stylus on Dec 11, and finally received it today.  I waited patiently, as I was hoping it would work fabulously.  But, either I have no idea how to use it, or it does not work as it should.  I came on here hoping someone could help, as the only directions that came with the stylus are pictures that basically say- put in the battery, and use...

Do I need to calibrate?  Are there special settings in Windows?

The stylus you received is the original and flawed design. Because of the problems with the stylus Dell has removed it from the website and it's currently unavailable. Dell tech support told me they're working on a new design and it should be available in March. I have spent at least 8 hours on the phone with tech support since November. It hasn't been a good experience. Because they couldn't supply me with a stylus that worked I wanted to return the tablet and stylus. I talked to a manager in customer care about this situation and she was extremely rude, she acted like my request was totally unreasonable, and I should be satisfied with this poor design. They will give you a refund for the stylus, but you can only return the tablet to Dell within 30 days.

Please confirm whether or not the label on the stylus package states "REV A01" and "Mfg Date Jan 2014"

Yes, the "instructions" are an insult, and — yes there are Control Panel settings which will allow you to twealk and customize the pen's behavior. However, before undertaking your exploration of the pen's features, you'll need to download and install the several updates intended for your tablet (if you haven't already). Dell's System Auto Detect feature is a reliable way of getting all (and only) the updates intended for your particular model.

@ Computerstuff_Marton: I'm still interested in attempting to help ohgijane — if you haven't already chased them away. Besides, if you were following the matter more-closely you would know that Dell has already been shipping the revised pen to some Venue owners for the better-part of a week...

Sorry to learn of your troubles!