Pen works fine when only the pen is making contact with the screen. However, when my palm is resting on the screen, the pressure detection of the pen becomes extremely inaccurate. As soon as skin (palm, fingers, etc) makes contact with the screen, the pressure curve of the pen becomes a staircase, as if the pen could only detect 5-20 levels of pressure, instead of 4096 like it's supposed to. Here's a screenshot from the Surface app: ![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/cdc3b0c5-bfcc-4409-b0a1-318885287f48?platform=QnA And here is how it looks like when drawing: Is this normal? How can I fix it? Device : Surface Pro 7 Model 1866 i5 (8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) OS : Windows 10 Home Version 1903 build 18362.449 (edit: I've since updated to 1909 build 18363.628, issue persists) Pen : Microsoft Surface Pen Model 1776 (Burgundy) I have: paired my pen unpaired and repaired the pen via Bluetooth options rebooted the Surface Pro soft reset the Surface Pro (volume+ and power buttons down for 15 seconds) removed and reinserted the battery into the pen (only way I could think of turning it off and on again) checked Windows Updates checked for app updates via Windows Store run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit, no problems detected tried with and without Settings → Devices → Pen & Windows Ink → Ignore touch input when I'm using my pen set the correct hand I'm using from pen settings tried in multiple different apps, including Surface app, Adobe Photoshop, Krita, Sketchable, Autodesk SketchBook and others — same problem everywhere tried calibrating the pen (search "calibrate" from start menu and choose pen calibration), a dialog opens after choosing "Calibrate..." → "Pen input", asks for permission, and just makes a sound and closes after I grant permission, so I'm not sure if it's not working correctly, but nothing changed either way — tried to do this multiple times, rebooting in between, but doesn't seem to do anything

Great find! looks like you have to be on the Windows Insider program, but at least it's addressed finally. There is nothing worse than a touch device/pen not working properly.

As of September 29, the problem has officially been fixed on both the surface pro 7 and surface pro X (no words on surface laptop 3 but I hope they will eventually fix it, and there are now no more pressure staircasing whether the hand is on the screen or not. Please check for updates on your surface. Here is the link to the update documentation, note the "improved inking when palm is on screen". https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4526363/surface-pro-7-update-history#:~:text=July%2031%20release%20%20%20Windows%20Update%20History,RF%20%20...%20%203%20more%20rows%20 Unfortunately they still have not fixed the accuracy issue related to palm rejection on the surface book 2. The problem occured on both the book 2 and the surface pro 5, but they only fixed it for the pro 5 but not the book2. I hope this time they will fix it for the surface laptop 3 too instead of only satisfying a larger user base and neglecting a less popular machine even though the fix should be easy to apply on all models.

Surface Pro 7 pen pressure issues with palm rejection

Anonymous

Pen works fine when only the pen is making contact with the screen. However, when my palm is resting on the screen, the pressure detection of the pen becomes extremely inaccurate. As soon as skin (palm, fingers, etc) makes contact with the screen, the pressure curve of the pen becomes a staircase, as if the pen could only detect 5-20 levels of pressure, instead of 4096 like it's supposed to. Here's a screenshot from the Surface app:![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/cdc3b0c5-bfcc-4409-b0a1-318885287f48?platform=QnAAnd here is how it looks like when drawing:

Is this normal? How can I fix it?

Device: Surface Pro 7 Model 1866 i5 (8GB RAM, 128GB SSD)

OS: Windows 10 Home Version 1903 build 18362.449 (edit: I've since updated to 1909 build 18363.628, issue persists)

Pen: Microsoft Surface Pen Model 1776 (Burgundy)

I have:

paired my pen
unpaired and repaired the pen via Bluetooth options
rebooted the Surface Pro
soft reset the Surface Pro (volume+ and power buttons down for 15 seconds)
removed and reinserted the battery into the pen (only way I could think of turning it off and on again)
checked Windows Updates
checked for app updates via Windows Store
run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit, no problems detected
tried with and without Settings → Devices → Pen & Windows Ink → Ignore touch input when I'm using my pen
set the correct hand I'm using from pen settings
tried in multiple different apps, including Surface app, Adobe Photoshop, Krita, Sketchable, Autodesk SketchBook and others — same problem everywhere
tried calibrating the pen (search "calibrate" from start menu and choose pen calibration), a dialog opens after choosing "Calibrate..." → "Pen input", asks for permission, and just makes a sound and closes after I grant permission, so I'm not sure if it's not working correctly, but nothing changed either way — tried to do this multiple times, rebooting in between, but doesn't seem to do anything

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87 answers

Anonymous

2020-10-06T09:39:49+00:00

Great find!

looks like you have to be on the Windows Insider program, but at least it's addressed finally. There is nothing worse than a touch device/pen not working properly.
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Anonymous

2020-10-06T18:15:23+00:00

As of September 29, the problem has officially been fixed on both the surface pro 7 and surface pro X (no words on surface laptop 3 but I hope they will eventually fix it, and there are now no more pressure staircasing whether the hand is on the screen or not. Please check for updates on your surface. Here is the link to the update documentation, note the "improved inking when palm is on screen".

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4526363/surface-pro-7-update-history#:~:text=July%2031%20release%20%20%20Windows%20Update%20History,RF%20%20...%20%203%20more%20rows%20

Unfortunately they still have not fixed the accuracy issue related to palm rejection on the surface book 2. The problem occured on both the book 2 and the surface pro 5, but they only fixed it for the pro 5 but not the book2. I hope this time they will fix it for the surface laptop 3 too instead of only satisfying a larger user base and neglecting a less popular machine even though the fix should be easy to apply on all models.
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4 people found this answer helpful.

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