[IT Dept]

On at least 3 ActivBoards we are experiencing problems with pen input which is making day-to-day use for our teachers difficult. This has only occurred in the last couple of months which makes me think it could a software or setting issue. That said, maybe the boards are developing faults?

When you write on the board with a pen (in ActivInspire) occasionally the right-click menu will be triggered despite the button definitely not being pressed on the pen.

I’ve updated the driver to the latest and tried new pens but there is no change.

NAME                  
DESCRIPTION    
FIRMWARE        
CONNECTION    DRIVER VERSION             
ID            SERIAL
NUMBER

Nadine
               
ActivBoard          V3.67 Build
1      USB                       
v5.8.46.3             
               
1             
0e44b861

Ben                       
ActivBoard          V3.67 Build
1      USB                       
V5.8.46.3                            
1             
0e1ce05a

Cob07                  
ActivBoard          V3.67 Build
1      Serial                    
v5.5.37.1                             
1             
0e2a14b8

 

Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit)

ActivInspire Suite 2.4.66096

Adobe Flash Player 20.0.0.306

I’ve also tried disabling touch input in ActivInspire (where applicable) –

Start ACTIVEINSPIRE

FILE – SETTINGS (or EDIT – DESIGN MODE SETTINGS)

SETTINGS tab (should already be activated)

DUAL MODE ACTIVBOARDS –

TOUCH INPUT HANDLING: set to IGNORE
TOUCH

Optional: DEFAULT TOOL FOR
TOUCH: set to PEN

DONE

Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thank you for your post.

We will send you an email with some more information and files to upgrade the firmware.

Thank you

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

I encountered this issue today as well with another teachers activboard.  The slate works fine, the pen seems to be recognized (the logo in the top left corner lights up correctly), but the cursor doesn’t follow the pen and only occasionally does anything; when it does it seems to be triggering the right-click action.  Please advise.

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike,

Do you have the same issue with other pens?
What is the colour of the LED on the top left corner of the board?
And could you provide the model of your board, please? (do not provide the serial number)

Thank you

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

I am also having the same issue. The logo in the left hand corner recognizes the pen and turns from white to blue when I hover the pen. However, the board will not respond when trying to write with the pen.

When trying to install the new driver for 10.8-10.11, I get this error. There has been an error***unknown variable msg(app version.error) 

Thank you, 
Laura Hall
RI Instructional Technologist

[Anonymous]

I am having a related issue that just started this week on an ActivBoard 6 Touch.  When the teacher tries to use the pen feature either in ActivInspire or Annotate Over Desktop, the pen only will try and draw a shape feature in grey scale with dotted lines around the shape.  It will not work to write at all even with the pen tool turned on.  The shape tool is not even on her toolbox to use, but I did make sure that it was not selected.  I have tried uninstalling the software and reinstalled with the same issue.  Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Melissa

[Anonymous]

FYI, I received this message today from the teacher:

“I unplugged and replugged & changed USB ports and
calibrated from

The keyboard and FINALLY got it to work!!”

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Unfortunately I’ve not received an email from you.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have re-sent the email.

Please check your junk folder.

Thanks,

Craig
Promethean Tech Support.

[Anonymous]

Hello Laura,

Thank you for your post.

Can you please ensure you have removed your current driver and disconnected the ActivBoard before you install the latest driver. I have provided a link below for the latest driver –

– https://support.prometheanworld.com/help-library/?t=3&t=1&t=2&t=4&t=5&q=10902&page=0

Please let us know if the issue persists.

Craig

[Anonymous]

I had removed the old drive and tried to install the new one. I have done this several times through out our district. 

Laura Hall

[Anonymous]

When we have encountered that error message previously (There has been an error***unknown variable msg(app version.error), we have been able to correct that by removing a hidden file called promethean-activdriver.ini from the Mac’s /etc folder.

To view hidden files on the computer you will need to open the Terminal application located in /Applications/Utilities, then type the below commands as they are written:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

killall Finder

(to undo this, use the same commands but replace YES with NO)

In a Finder window, choose the Mac’s hard drive; the etc folder will be visible, but faded slightly. Within that folder is the promethean-activdriver.ini file to delete.

After deleting that file, you should be able to install the updated 5.12 ActivDriver without encountering that error.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Firmware updated on two of our boards, one currently untested and the other still has the same issue. Do you have any other recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Please try the below:
1 – do a power reset on the board as per steps below:
– Disconnect the USB cable from the laptop
– Switch off the stand by button on the left hand side of the board so it goes red
– Switch off the projector and wait until the fans stop spinning
– Disconnect the system from the mains socket on the wall and wait for about 1 minute
– Connect the mains again
– Connect the USB cable to the laptop and check if the LED on the top left corner comes on
– Then switch on the stand by button on the left handside
– Test the board

2 – try another pen of the same model
3 – try in another program such as Microsoft Paint
4 – try with the USB cable connected to another USB port on the computer
5 – calibrate the board – does that work?
6 – try with another computer/laptop connected to this board

Thank you

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

On our networked iMac machine, the driver was installed using the local
admin and everything works fine but when logged out and another user
logs in with his/her credentials the error “There has been an error (***
unknown variable msg appversion.error ***)” appears. The user account
is a network account binded to our active directory server.

What is wrong?

With
all your previous drivers I never had these problems. It is only with
this new version for El Capitan that these problems are happening.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jojo,

Did you follow Jarrads note regarding this issue? 
Once the .ini file is deleted from the computer please ensure that you restart your computer before installing the latest ActivDriver.

Kind regards,
Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Yes I did this. It works but only as far as the local account that was used to install it but when I log the local admin account out and ask a teacher to log in with their network account, the driver icon is crossed out.

[Anonymous]

1 – do a power reset on the board as per steps below:
– Disconnect the USB cable from the laptop
– Switch off the stand by button on the left hand side of the board so it goes red
– Switch off the projector and wait until the fans stop spinning
– Disconnect the system from the mains socket on the wall and wait for about 1 minute
– Connect the mains again
– Connect the USB cable to the laptop and check if the LED on the top left corner comes on
– Then switch on the stand by button on the left handside
– Test the board

2 – try another pen of the same model
3 – try in another program such as Microsoft Paint
4 – try with the USB cable connected to another USB port on the computer
5 – calibrate the board – does that work?
6 – try with another computer/laptop connected to this board

[Anonymous]

ActivBoard/ActivInspire – pen use intermittently triggers right-click menu

[Anonymous]

i really need the pen works and calibration is not working ether

[Anonymous]

never mind i fixed the issue.

[Anonymous]

We experimented and discovered on one of our imacs  that if activdriver is installed on a mac that has been NEWLY formatted and installed with El Capitan, the driver works properly on both local and network accounts. However, if the computer has been upgraded to El Capitan from Yosemite, these problems occur where it works only with the local account that was used during the install and doesn’t work with any other account whether local or network. I do not know what causes this. Perhaps you might have an insight and know what might be causing this so we can fix this? We have roughly 800+ imacs scattered in our school originally on Yosemite. A few were updated to El Capitan by some of our computer-literate teachers while the rest are still on Yosemite. It would be a nightmare for us to have to reformat all these machines and reinstall El Capitan just to accomodate the new activdriver that is why it is a major issue that we find a way to get the driver to work properly for upgraded  iMacs.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Please ensure the permissions on the following folders are as follows:

/Applications/Promethean
System – R & W
Admin – R & W
Everyone – Read only

/usr/local/share/promethean
System – R & W
Everyone – Read only

/Library/LaunchAgents
System – R & W
Everyone – Read only

/usr/local/lib
System – Read & Write
Everyone – Read only

Please let us know the outcome.

Thank you

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

I checked the permissions and discovered:

/usr/local/lib

System – Read & Write

Everyone – Read only <- this was set to no access

when I changed this to read only, then activdriver finally worked and was recognized by any user who logged in.

strange for some reason why the permission got changed on imacs that were upgraded to el capitan from yosemite

it
appears that for computers that got upgraded from yosemite to el
capitan this was the case. This behavior was observed to be consistent
on ALL imacs whose OS had been upgraded.

irregardless of
whether the older driver was present/installed or not, as long as it was
an OS upgrade from yosemite this problem occurred.

on computers that were formatted and with freshly installed el capitan, the driver had no issues.

perhaps you might need to do some adjusting on the installer for your activdriver to set the permissions correctly.

thanks.

=================
On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 5:32 PM, Promethean Support Community wrote:

Promethean Support Community

Miguel Silva (Tech Support) replied to this problem:

ActivBoard/ActivInspire – pen use intermittently triggers right-click menu

Hi,

Please ensure the permissions on the following folders are as follows:

/Applications/Promethean

System – R & W

Admin – R & W

Everyone – Read only

/usr/local/share/promethean

System – R & W

Everyone – Read only

/Library/LaunchAgents

System – R & W

Everyone – Read only

/usr/local/lib

System – Read & Write

Everyone – Read only

Please let us know the outcome.

Thank you

Miguel

Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thanks for letting us know. I will pass this on to our software team.

We are pleased that you have found the source of the issue and everything is now working as it should be.

If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to get back in touch.

Kind Regards,
Paul

Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

I am having the same problem with a board. I have a teacher on a windows 10  64 bit machine. On a Activeboard 387 pro. Where when writing the pen will intermittently go into right click mode. He then takes care of this and it works. This behavior is happening in SmartNotebook. Could SmarNotebook be the cause? He is an older teacher and all of his stuff is in SmartNotebook and hasn’t had a problem up  to this year. I have also updated the driver which he said has calmed the behavior to more infrequent right clicks but it still does it. i have changed the setting to tablet mode to see what that does. I am also going to try to help him convert a lesson over to activinspire. But, my question I guess is could Smartnotebook be the problem or firmware??

[Anonymous]

Hi msmith11,

Thanks for posting.

Does the issue happen only within the Smart Notebook software?
Does this happen whilst in use on other applications such as Microsoft Paint, Chrome, etc?

To ensure that it’s not the pen thats at fault, have you tested another known working pen with this ActivBoard to see if the same issue occurs?

Kind regards,
Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Author]

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