[B3NN3TT]

I'm trying to use an older Wacom Graphire (ET) with my Mac Mini (Core 2 Duo 1.83, Snow Leopard).

Ever since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I've been having issues with the Wacom control panel. When I start up Photoshop, or Painter, or what have you, the pen sensitivity settings are absent. So when I go to the pref pane to check on it, upon clicking "Wacom Tablet", I get the alert:

"To use the "Wacom Tablet" preferences pane, System Preferences must quit and re-open", with an OK button.

Clicking OK results in a restart of system prefs, and the Wacom panel loads correctly, only it's labeled "Wacom Tablet (32-bit)". From that point on, everything works correctly and as expected.

I've tried un-installing and re-installing the Wacom software a number of times, but nothing seems to work. Searched around here, and found no similar issues. Wacom's site is less than helpful.

Any ideas?

[Cold Warrior]

There is nothing wrong with this; it is the regular behavior for OS X 10.6 preference panes that have not been updated to 64-bit.

[Thorzdad]

You might want to see if any of the more recent Graphire driver releases on Wacom's European site will solve this irritation. You'll have to plug-in your model into the search. There are at least three Graphire driver releases there that have been added this year and claim 10.6 compatibility.

For whatever reason, I've found Wacom's European site to have the latest drivers and, frankly, better customer support forums.

[B3NN3TT]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

There is nothing wrong with this; it is the regular behavior for OS X 10.6 preference panes that have not been updated to 64-bit.

The problem is just the hassle of starting or resuming a job and having no pen pressure control, which means I have to drop it and switch over to the System Prefs and reset it every time. Not a deal-breaker, but not very Mac-like. This is actually the first time I've run upon a 32-bit pref pane in the newest OS, believe it or not! I guess I just assumed that since Wacom released the drivers, and specified that they had Snow Leopard-compatibility, they would have built them in 64-bit mode...

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

You might want to see if any of the more recent Graphire driver releases on Wacom's European site will solve this irritation. You'll have to plug-in your model into the search. There are at least three Graphire driver releases there that have been added this year and claim 10.6 compatibility.

For whatever reason, I've found Wacom's European site to have the latest drivers and, frankly, better customer support forums.

Thanks, Thorzdad; after I posted here, I kept looking, and actually found a solution on ArsTechnica. I was able to install a Graphire2 driver that was backwards-compatible with my Graphire ET, and runs natively in 64-bit. In the future, though, I'll definitely keep your suggestion in mind.

[ibook_steve]

You should also email Wacom and let them know that you are disappointed that there is no 64 bit version of their drivers. Just because there is a workaround doesn't mean that Wacom can get away with this.

Steve