Bad wacom tablet

[Prometheus|ANJ]

I ordered a new Wacom Intous 3 A5 Wide for my new iMac.
My old Intous 1 was A4 (slightly lager) but I figured it was
time for an upgrade.

The new tablet worked fine, although I didn't use it much
because I was busy migrating to Mac. There was what looked
like a tiny scratch on near the button panel, but I was willing
to let that slide.

But it may be a stress crack, because I just noticed that the
left side of the tablet is bulging, from something being pinned
inside, perhaps. There's a 2 millimeter slit on the left side,
and I can't squeeze it shut.

I'm thinking maybe someone snuck a refurbished tablet,
or a 'second sort/reject' like they do with art glass.

I bought it from a Swedish online store called Misco, the tablet
was supposed to be new. According to their return guidelines I
have to pay shipment and possibly some fee if it's deemed that
I'm wasting their time.


Anyways, is there anyone else with the same tablet out there?
I don't think mine is quite normal. I see now that there's also a
scratch/stress crack on the right side as well, completely
symmetrical to the left one.

Not sure if I should hassle with returns, but I'm worried that,
although the tablet seems to be working now, it might stop
because of the open side, or damaged parts inside. I've had
it for just less than a month now (it was like this when I got it).
The Warranty is 2 wears, afaik, and I registered it with
Wacom right away.

[Farsh]

Looks like bad fitting to me. Get a replacement if you can. Check this out, http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=506117, others may be having the same prob.

[Arshes Nei]

Some of it is and isn't normal Prom, The light "stress" crack is on my intuos 3. I have gone through 3 intuos 3 tablets. (I'll explain...)

I had a 4x5 - works fine, gave that one to a friend
I switched the 4x5 for a 4x6 because I wanted the wide screen real estate - this is my travel tablet - helpful to just plug and play when at work or elsewhere instead of lugging my other one.
I have a 6x8 - this is my home tablet.

the "stress crack" (it's more like a scratch to be honest...cosmetic) on the keys, I have a light version of it at least on my intuos 4x6 and believe I remember seeing it on my home tablet (I have to check)

The bulging on the other hand is not normal. Mine is perfectly flat. I do have to say though, it's easy to get dirt chunks between the separation of the front and back of the tablet. Intuos 3 tablets love skin flakes...ewwww

I did have one problem with the 6x8 where it looks like some random plastic (like from clear plastic bags) got under the one of the rubber stoppers during manufacturing and it stretched a bit, but it's really minor.

[CGMonkey]

I have the same thing on my Wacom Intuos3 A4 -- but I ordered from Wacom.com with UPS devliery. I've lived with it for 3 years now, works fine.

Never really investigated it further.

[The7Artist7]

Ok Prometheus - I can help you here (no sorry I'm not from Wacom!).

V quick explaination of my experience: 6 months ago I decided, like you, to upgrade my old tablet to a new shiny inuos3... 3 replacements and hours of calls to the shop, the supplier, Wacom tech support going through tests with them, plus many long calls to 2 guys from the UK Wacom office, highly detailed emails including quite a few macro pics taken and not to forget the large amount of posts on the Wacom forum regarding these issues and last but not least quite a bit of web searching for later... I know way more than I care to about problems with Wacom tablets - I've also more importantly had experience of getting replacements re advice from Wacom peoples.

1 - the symetrical 'stress marks' under the buttons are completely normal - UK Wacom guy actually made the point of mentioning these to me during one call - they are in fact from the manufacturing process (yes all my tablets had them too)

2 - the rough bit in your 'top/front' pic is amazingly also completely normal and part of the manufacturing process - almost all intuos3 tablets will have it to some degree - it's where the upper body is 'snapped' off of a connecting piece of plastic (yep all mine had it too)

3 - the lack of a screw on the left-hand side is perfectly normal with intuos3 (A5 at least) ..but! all of mine had a plastic 'clip' in place of the screw, it wasn't just left to go all 'gappy' due to there being no hole for the clip to go through (why you have a bulge) - this is a major cause for concern despite it working ok (for now) I would advise getting on the phone to Wacom tech support asap (you can find the relevant contact details here: http://www.wacom.com/companyinfo/contact.cfm)

Important! - make sure you contact Wacom and let them know in as much detail as you can what defects and any other issues you have - one that I've had (and surprisingly many don't notice) is a small even raised ridge around the drawing area that can catch the underside of the mouse and make your hand sore. I checked with Wacom and it's a manufacturing fault - see these pics: http://www.lordart.co.uk/filedump/small-raised-ridge.jpg and http://www.lordart.co.uk/filedump/intuos-ridge-comparison.jpg

Once you have contacted Wacom tech support and told them (this also 'logs' your tablet issues with them so is very useful) I would ask for a replacement and how best to go about getting it - this will most likely be through the shop you bought it from. You should also call the shop to explain briefly what you've discussed with Wacom and I would also ask them (if they don't offer) to arrange a courier to pick up your old tablet and / or pay all or part of the postage.

I hope this is helpful - any questions at all please ask :) :lounge:

All the best!

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Thanks for the replies! I'm guessing:

Since there's no screw on the open side, there's a little snap-in thing instead, and it missed, possibly prying the tablet open. I don't want to open it up since that might void the warranty.

The symmetrical cracks/scratches might me stretch marks from the assembly snap-in-place. Mold lines don't look like that and aren't placed like that. It also seems very odd to place an injection point on the front. I've assembled enough plastic kits to know how to disguise mold lines and injection points cleverly. Seems kinda cheap. I'm not too keen on the black gloss plastic either, the dirt shows up right away.

( Remember when hardware looked like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Atari2600a.JPG)? A wood-metal tablet would make me so hoorney.)

I don't have the raised sharp edge around the drawing area. It seems odd to have one there. Usually sharp edges are difficult/expensive to do in molding unless you have a separation line, (although this one is not concave corner). It seems kinda pointless to have one there too, given the gap to the grey film, which is needle/nail wide on mine.

[The7Artist7]

Thanks for the replies! I'm guessing:

Since there's no screw on the open side, there's a little snap-in thing instead, and it missed, possibly prying the tablet open. I don't want to open it up since that might void the warranty.

With mine the 'snap-in' thing actually has a hole to clip through that's viewable from the outside - seriously call Wacom or contact them via email attaching a pic of the problem. You need to find out if it is very faulty or just assembled badly - whichever way you should get it fixed or replaced for free as it's within it warranty.

The symmetrical cracks/scratches might me stretch marks from the assembly snap-in-place. Mold lines don't look like that and aren't placed like that...

You will find them on every intuos3 - Wacom themselves explained to me they are from the machines during manufacture and are nothing to worry about - why they leave it like that beats me. :shrug:

( Remember when hardware looked like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Atari2600a.JPG)? A wood-metal tablet would make me so hoorney.)

Lol

I don't have the raised sharp edge around the drawing area. It seems odd to have one there, usually sharp edges are difficult/expensive to do in molding unless you have a separation line. It seems kinda pointless to have one there too, given the gap to the grey film, which is needle/nail wide on mine.

That's cool you don't have the lil raised ridges - I explained it's a defect found in quite a few tablets that isn't supposed to be there. Who knows how it got there but Wacom were certain with me that it wasn't part of the design.

Let us know how things go with getting it sorted - all the best! :)