Board not "seeing" the pen

[cullen.laura]

We have just gotten some new Promethean boards in our school (with nobody trained or available to maintain them!) and the same problem seems to be occuring with most of them. After a few uses the pens are becoming useless essentially.

The projector is still projecting the computer screen images but the pen cannot be used at all. When I open Activstudio on the PC I am getting a message basically saying "Hardware Not Present" I don't know what they are talking about because all hardware is present and is connected correctly. If I try to callibrate the board, it also tells me the board is not connected so callibration is not even an option. The board however is connected like always. This problem seems to have happened overnight and is happening to more and more of the boards as time goes on. (Not sure if the Hardware Not Present msg is coming up on all of them but I presume it is as it's the same problem on all)

ANy ideas??

[LisaD]

Hi Laura,

It sounds to me that there could be an issue with your "drivers." What country are you from? I can get you the tech support number and I'm sure they can help you with it!

They will likely want to know:

• what driver you are currently using.
• what operating system you are using (Mac, XP, Vista...)
• how are you connected: (USB, Serial, bluetooth...)

Lisa

[lsmith2]

I recently had the same problem and it was indeed a driver issue. I would suggest calling tech support. Hope you get it resolved soon.

[APanz]

Originally Posted by cullen.laura

We have just gotten some new Promethean boards in our school (with nobody trained or available to maintain them!) and the same problem seems to be occuring with most of them. After a few uses the pens are becoming useless essentially.

The projector is still projecting the computer screen images but the pen cannot be used at all. When I open Activstudio on the PC I am getting a message basically saying "Hardware Not Present" I don't know what they are talking about because all hardware is present and is connected correctly. If I try to callibrate the board, it also tells me the board is not connected so callibration is not even an option. The board however is connected like always. This problem seems to have happened overnight and is happening to more and more of the boards as time goes on. (Not sure if the Hardware Not Present msg is coming up on all of them but I presume it is as it's the same problem on all)

ANy ideas??

As Lisa said, it maybe an issue with the driver. But as a quick tip, please deactivate the energy settings of windows of the Harddisk and standby mode. This could be a problem too, because if you let the harddisk "shut down" after some minutes you cant work with the Activboard.

[rizkmahrous2004]

Hi Laura,
I had the same problem last week. I contacted the support tech people and advised me to upgrade my driver to the latest edition 1.14.It worked fine after I had upgraded the driver. Unfortunately, when I had this same problem today and I tried more than 5 times uninstalling and reinstalling the driver or unplugging and replugging the power, nothing happend and my board went dead again. Any suggestions!
Rezk Marey
Aramco Oil Company
Sadui Arabia

[srchlc]

Are you unplugging the computer or the board? I would try unplugging the board. When we first had our boards, there was a problem with the firmware to the boards and we had to keep unplugging the USB cord to the computer and then the pen would work again.

Holli

[Westlake]

Originally Posted by srchlc

Are you unplugging the computer or the board? I would try unplugging the board. When we first had our boards, there was a problem with the firmware to the boards and we had to keep unplugging the USB cord to the computer and then the pen would work again.

Holli

Do you still have to unplug and re-connect Holli?
Or have you solved the problem some other way... You imply there was a firmware issue, so I am wondering if you upgraded the firmware - and if this solved the problem?
Hilary

[Margaret Allen]

Hi everyone,

I love the way everyone wants to help - such a cool Forum!!!

BUT can I just add my suggestion - technology is wonderful when it is working, but is sooooooooooo frustrating when it isn't and actually in my experience when it isn't working its almost like our brains go into "outta world experience" mode to try and solve it because it seems so ridiculous that for no apparent reason it doesn't work.....

MY ADVICE EVERY TIME on this type of thing is to ring Technical Support. There are so many reasons why this could be happening. The fact that it is happening to every board suggests that it will be easy to solve in Laura's case, but in Rezh's case I would think it is something specific with that scenario, board, laptop, driver, firmware, - strange that it just stopped again.

The reason I mention this is that one of the strengths of this forum is the international nature of it and the strengths of people's teaching/cultures/opinions vary but enhance the teaching environment, however when it comes to technical stuff, drivers, firmware, versions of software vary greatly and so it is perhaps not so helpful to compare like for like.

If you go here Hope that helps

[srchlc]

Margaret is sooo right about Tech Support. They walk on water in my opinion! In answer to the question though, my firmware was updated by my reseller and my problem was healed. I was plugging and unplugging that thing for a while and even my students knew which cord to use!

Holli

[cullen.laura]

Hey guys

Thanks so much for all the help. I'm in Ireland and I don't think we have a Tech Support number here. Well I couldn't find one at any rate. Not sure what driver we're using but the bords are all brand new (only installed in July) so I would presume whoever put them in and installed all the software would have ensured things were up to date.

I will try the other suggestions when I get back into the classroom tomorrow.

Thanks again and I will keep ye posted!!
Laura