Touchscreens are all the rage these days, and it seems that the stylus has become a relic of the past thanks to newer and better fingertip responsive smartphone displays. But when it comes to phablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Note line, the added S-Pen is definitely helpful for more accurate and precise actions (and a less greasy screen).

Of course, there are disadvantages of using an S-Pen too, one being hardware issues. Unlike your finger, the S-Pen can malfunction and become a huge problem, not giving you that precision it once used to. So, if you’re having problems with choppiness, light touches, or having to press hard for your pen to register, you can…

Smack It

I am a firm believer of the “if you hit it, it shall work,” theory of the mid-80s. If you hit any malfunctioning device with just the right amount of force and anger, it usually fixes the problem. That goes for the Note’s and Note 2’s S-Pen, as well.

Take the S-Pen, and slam it decently hard on a flat surface. It’s that simple. Now if that doesn’t work, you can take a more technically and less-forceful route to help fine tune your Samsung S-Pen…

Adjust the Potentiometer

The potentiometer is an electro-mechanical transducer that converts the movement of your stylus into electrical resistance (or something like that). Basically it’s what makes your stylus work with your screen.

And guess what?

You can open up your S-Pen and adjust the meter yourself, no matter what S-Pen it is.

This will work for the Samsung Galaxy Note’s, Galaxy Note 2’s, and Galaxy Note 10.1’s S-Pen—or pretty much any other stylus with a button. This will not work on any regular conductive styluses without buttons.

You will need to take off the click button on the body of the S-Pen. You can just pop it off with a razor. And don’t worry—it can be put back into place without a problem.

Once this button is off, you will have access to the potentiometer.

The potentiometer on the LEFT in the picture above and below is the one you will be adjusting.

Using a razor or small screwdriver, you can turn the potentiometer clockwise to decrease sensitivity and counter-clockwise to increase it. Test it out and see if it works to your liking, then put the button back on.

This tip could also work with a bunch of other styli with buttons, not just the Samsung branded versions, but will not work on regular conductive styli, since all that they do is simulate your fingertip.

If you don’t care for the S-Pen, you could always make your own conductive DIY styluses.