Pencil skipping lagging breaking up

This is a question and I think an answer. I looked all over about problems with the pencil skipping (dots in straight lines) or otherwise breaking up my hand writing. I saw lots of posts on iPad Pro about turning off auto zoom. I am using a 'regular' iPad, 6th gen. The turning zoom on/off did not fix the problem for me. I stumbled on the answer by pure dumb luck. I hope this is helpful. When the charger is plugged in to the iPad , the pencil skips. When it is unplugged, it does not. I know that sounds crazy, but it is the same in more than one app. I tried it with both Notable, and the native Notes app. See attached screen shot. First two lines should read "This is with the charger plugged in" and the second line "this is with it unplugged".

iPad (6th gen) WiFi

Posted on Jul 25, 2019 9:44 AM

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Posted on Jul 25, 2019 11:43 AM

Get's even more interesting. It is the power quality of the charging. Like most people, I have a dozen USB ac/dc adaptors floating around, a handful of charging cables, etc. This iPad is being charged via built in USB ports on a power strip. I took the iPad, pulled out a brand new Apple brand charger and cable. Moved to another plug that eliminated the surge protector power strip with build in USB charger, and the problem goes away. How about that? Then I tried using the power strip, but an Apple plug in transformer. Problem still gone. So the problem, of all things, is the built in USB ports on the power strip. I suspect the power is either not clean, or the 2.1 amps is off. Hard to say, but something about this power source is not perfect and I suspect causing the iPad to steel processing power as it is toggling away in the background adjusting for power or trying to compensate for noise in the power line.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 25, 2019 11:43 AM in response to QuickPost

Get's even more interesting. It is the power quality of the charging. Like most people, I have a dozen USB ac/dc adaptors floating around, a handful of charging cables, etc. This iPad is being charged via built in USB ports on a power strip. I took the iPad, pulled out a brand new Apple brand charger and cable. Moved to another plug that eliminated the surge protector power strip with build in USB charger, and the problem goes away. How about that? Then I tried using the power strip, but an Apple plug in transformer. Problem still gone. So the problem, of all things, is the built in USB ports on the power strip. I suspect the power is either not clean, or the 2.1 amps is off. Hard to say, but something about this power source is not perfect and I suspect causing the iPad to steel processing power as it is toggling away in the background adjusting for power or trying to compensate for noise in the power line.


Jul 25, 2019 10:18 AM in response to QuickPost

See full text of posting. I tried it with both Notable, and the native Notes app. Same results. Also, it appears to be related to palm rest. If I am not resting my palm on the glass in a natural writing position, having the charger in/out does not make a difference. In other words, if I hold my hand so that only the pencil touches the glass, it writes fine regardless of whether the charger is plugged into the iPad. The problem is only when 1. charger is plugged in and 2. palm is resting on the glass. For kicks, I just tried it with OneNote as a third app, and it is the same. Same test, same results, across three apps including the native Notes app.


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Pencil skipping lagging breaking up

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