Smart Notebook inking issues

[Oaktech]

We've got an issue appearing like whack-a-mole at the moment where inking in the notebook app appears randomly offset from the pen or finger location.

 

Sometimes it's a couple of inches away, sometimes crunched up on the right hand side of the screen. It's always offset to the right and down, how far varies.

 

We have a mix of Smartboard MX, GX and 4065 (due for replacement in a few weeks) boards, so all genuine Smart. The issue doesn't seem to occur on the GX boards, but does on the MX and 4065.

 

What is weird is that it's just inking directly in Notebook.

 

Smart-Ink in Office apps is fine, touch is accurate to drive the interface.

 

Sometimes restarting the Smart board cures it, sometimes restarting the PC cures it, sometimes restarting the smartboard service fixes it, sometimes it seems to be linked to the document and others are fine...

 

Anyone got more of a clue?

[hallb15]

We've got an issue appearing like whack-a-mole at the moment where inking in the notebook app appears randomly offset from the pen or finger location.

 

Sometimes it's a couple of inches away, sometimes crunched up on the right hand side of the screen. It's always offset to the right and down, how far varies.

 

We have a mix of Smartboard MX, GX and 4065 (due for replacement in a few weeks) boards, so all genuine Smart. The issue doesn't seem to occur on the GX boards, but does on the MX and 4065.

 

What is weird is that it's just inking directly in Notebook.

 

Smart-Ink in Office apps is fine, touch is accurate to drive the interface.

 

Sometimes restarting the Smart board cures it, sometimes restarting the PC cures it, sometimes restarting the smartboard service fixes it, sometimes it seems to be linked to the document and others are fine...

 

Anyone got more of a clue?

 

I've never seen alignment issues that only affect Notebook app, and not SMART-ink.

I've had a similar issue in the past with a board that was connected through VGA cable via a DisplayPort to VGA adaptor. The refresh rate was set automatically to 60.01Hz (why? how?). When I changed it to 60Hz, everything was fine. BUT that affected all apps, not just Notebook.

 

Does CTRL+Windows+Shift+B to refresh the display have any effect?

[atcoates]

Smart Notebook 23.1 is out now. Is your issue specific to a version number, or random versions?

[Oaktech]

These are all connected via HDMI at 60hz.

 

I'll try a display reset.

[Oaktech]

This is all smart 22. We have smart 23.1 packaged and ready to go over half term.

[Oaktech]

Interestingly if I move to different boards without shutting down, the issue moves further and further across until its just writing squashed into a 4 inch wide strip down the left of the board. Touch and smart ink on other apps is unaffected.

[Cat_Jam148]

I've had a similar issue to this but with PowerPoint while using a SMART Interactive Display. The touch was always a few inches offset, and tended to get worse over time.

 

For us the fix turned out to be turning off the "Fix scaling for apps" option in advanced scaling settings in the Windows 10 settings control panel. Give the machine a restart after turning off the toggle. We've since used a registry edit to disable it for all machines connected to the SMART panels.

 

Not sure if it'll help but might be worth a try?

Edited October 5, 2023 by Cat_Jam148

[Oaktech]

I've had a similar issue to this but with PowerPoint while using a SMART Interactive Display. The touch was always a few inches offset, and tended to get worse over time.

 

For us the fix turned out to be turning off the "Fix scaling for apps" option in advanced scaling settings in the Windows 10 settings control panel. Give the machine a restart after turning off the toggle. We've since used a registry edit to disable it for all machines connected to the SMART panels.

 

Not sure if it'll help but might be worth a try?

 

Can now confirm this does not make a difference in this case...

[hemistry7]

We had a very similar issue at the start if the new term, teacher laptops had version 23 of smart installed.

View > Open Smart Notebook 2023 fixed the problem

[Oaktech]

We had a very similar issue at the start if the new term, teacher laptops had version 23 of smart installed.

View > Open Smart Notebook 2023 fixed the problem

 

That's interesting... I'll give it a look.

[hemistry7]

We had a very similar issue at the start if the new term, teacher laptops had version 23 of smart installed.

View > Open Smart Notebook 2023 fixed the problem

 

Correction: View > Open Smart Notebook 22 fixed the problem

[Oaktech]

OK, so having talked to staff during briefing it only appears on laptops - any wired desktops connected to smartboards seems unaffected, which led me to wonder if it was something to do with the docks as all devices run a consistent software image.

 

So far what appears to fix it is:

Disconnect the laptop from the dock,

Turn the board off on the switch,

Disconnect the board USB from the dock,

Reboot the dock,

Turn the board back on disconnected from the dock,

Reconnect the board to the dock,

Reconnect the dock to the laptop.

 

If any one of those steps is missed or done in a different order it doesn't fix it.

 

Freaking weird.

 

FWIW I do not recommend Dell Superspeed USB3 docks. They have way too many quirks. We had to go USB3 for backward compatibility.

 

Our favourite quirk so far is dock holding on to it's last image so staff think it's working, because there is a picture, but it's the last thing it saw before it was disconnected.

[CHiLL]

Correction: View > Open Smart Notebook 22 fixed the problem

This is how we get the maths toolkit and other licensed features like transparency mode to work. All the maths options are missing in v23 despite the license being active, but show and work when opened when you do View > Open in SMART Notebook 22.