Incompetent design of Active Pen or just faulty software?

[EvilRacehorse]

Hello everyone. I own an HP Spectre convertible Laptop from Late 2015 along with is active stylus (HP Active Pen)
To this day, I have failed to get a single minute reasonable writing with this pen.
So, the pen is "supposed" to work simply by making a physical contact with the screen and applying slight pressure. If the pen is within half an inch of the screen while not making contact, it will act as a cursor but still (or should) not write whatsoever.
But the problem is that when I am holding the pen around the maximum range from which it can be recognized by the screen and be shown as a cursor, it jumps around, A LOT, to the point that it will even draw lines, usually perfectly vertical ones in a blink of a second even though the pen is not moving at all. But if I bring the pen closer to the screen, this random "oscillation" will get smaller. So, in short it will make a nice scribble here and there when the pen is just not moving at all. Since this is an active stylus, it works in a different way than my fingers would. Thus, there is no outside interference to the pen at all.
In short, I cannot hope to get by even 10 seconds of writing without the cursor suddenly jumping and making an irrelevant line somewhere off.

Why is the pen doing is? It is not supposed to write at all unless the pen is touching AND making pressure simultaneously.
Is there a way I can change some driver settings or something similar to make the pen NOT write and jump around at all unless under the intended circumstances (touching with slight pressure)?

Here's the video footage of the issue:

https://streamable.com/mpu2c

[Echo_Lake]

@EvilRacehorse

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Community.

• Have you tried replacing the pen tip? Is there any damage?
• Have you tried replacing the battery?

The touchscreen might not be configured for pen input. Let's calibrate the touchscreen completely using the Digitizer Calibration Tool:

1. Type calibrate in the Windows search field and then click Calibrate the screen for pen or touch input.

   

2. Click Calibrate.

   

3. Select Pen Input.

   

4. Follow the instructions on the screen. For best results, quickly tap all the cross-hairs on the screen before the pen deactivates.

   

5. In the Digitizer Calibration Tool dialog box, click Yes to save the calibration.

   

Note: The pen is pressure-sensitive so to increase the thickness you should press a bit harder on the tip while using the pen. Apply less pressure to produce a thinner line.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[EvilRacehorse]

@Echo_Lake

Thank you for your reply,
1) There is no damage whatsoever to the pen tip, the pen does NOT have reduced functionality, on the contrary, it has increased functionality. When it is in contact with the screen or very close, it works alright. Once it has been moved a little further from the screen, the crazy behaviour of the pen sets in. 
2) I have no idea idea why this is even an option, but I did recharge the batteries fully. If batteries were the problem, the pen would have had a problem with writing, but it is exactly the opposite.
3) I did the calibration exactly as you suggested and hit all those crosshairs almost perfectly. Needless to say, it did nothing.

As I mentioned earlier, the closer the pen tip is to the maximum recognizable range from the screen, these "oscillations" become stronger.
If I kept the pen tip almost touching the screen, this rarely, if at all happens.
The point is that, whether calibrated or uncalibrated, the pen SHOULD NOT WRITE unless it is touching the screen with some pressure applied.
What can I do in this case? I have done all the generic precautions like restarting my computer, updating drivers, etc.
But this is just beyond unacceptable.
Please watch this short video to get the extent of the issue: https://streamable.com/mpu2c

[Echo_Lake]

@EvilRacehorse
I appreciate your efforts to try and resolve the issue.

This sounds like hardware related issue with the HP Pen. Hence, I would request you to contact our Support and our Support Engineers should be able to sort this out. HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: www.hp.com/contacthp/

Please feel free to contact us here anytime you need any further assistance. Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[EvilRacehorse]

@Echo_Lake, thank you very much for the link. However, it kind of seems like I cannot go further with the link without giving out the serial number. As I pointed out there doesn't seem to be any serial number with this HP Active Pen.
I bought it on November of 2017 and I do not recall any serial number that was on the packaging. Otherwise, I probably would have kept the original packaging. On the pen itself, there is "PN" and "SPS PN" which are not accepted as a serial number, unfortunately. Is there a way HP can still look at my problem?

Also, when I search for "HP Active Pen" I get a different pen than the one I have. But on this link - https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c05166879, my pen is listed as "HP Active Pen (synaptics), which doesn't show up when I look for a product by its name...

Thanks again