ZA Furries

So this all started with a reaaaally sturdy graphics tablet that is probably 20 years old by now. I inherited it for free from a friend waaaay back in 2001-ish & it has served me very well the past 15 years. Given the exhorbitant prices of graphics tablets, I've been doing all I can to keep Old Faithful functional & compatible with my system.

As such, I am still running Windows XP (calm yourselves!) on an otherwise really nice machine. I fear that the tablet drivers might finally meet their match should I upgrade to eg Windows 10. Lately, as can be expected, my Windows XP is starting to fail badly as an operating system. It seems to "lose"(?) drivers & is just generally buggy.

It is now inevitable that I will have to upgrade my operating system. My question is this:
1. Does anyone have tips/tricks for if the tablet's drivers won't work? I feel I've done patches in the past that won't be migrated to any upgrade.
2. Failing that, does anyone have any recommendations on replacement graphics tablets? I don't need cutting edge specs but a good middle range would be cool beyond cool.

Windows 10 will automatically find the best drivers to use for the tablet. It's pretty amazing like that.

You can always google the make and model and download a driver, those tend to stick around. But like Fluke said, Win10 is really good at finding adequate, if sometimes suboptimal, drivers.

As for a new one, there are some nice ones available on Takealot: http://www.takealot.com/computers/graph ... pens-19808

Lose XP, getting the tablet to work is something to worry about afterwards. There will be ways to make it work. Alternatively you could just have a weak XP machine purely for the tablet, if you have one lying around, and just never connect that to the internet.

Thanks, folks! I already booked my PC in on Thursday morning for the software update & data migration. I'll probably get it back by Monday afternoon at which time I'll see if Old Faithful will still chug along.

I went on a recon of new tablets yesterday and found two reasonably priced (FOR GRAPHICS TABLETS!) options:
1. Genius M508WXA (R1800) (the model number might be slightly different as the catalogue was from last year & all the reviews I get for that particular model number says "discontinued") http://webantics.com/genius-mousepen-m5 ... pen-tablet
- PROs = much bigger working area, price lower, double the pressure sensitivity
- CONs = it is fugly-looking XD, pen looks very bulky & requires a battery
2. Intuos Pen&Touch Art CTH-490AK (R2300) https://www.wacom.com/en-kr/products/pe ... intuos-art
- PROs = very sleek, pen doesn't need battery, I currently have a WACOM
- CONs = it is more expensive, less pressure sensitive, much smaller active area (about the size of an A6 paper)

Not aiming to repaint the Mona Lisa here, but if I replace Old Faithful I'd like something that'll last me a while. I do very little digital painting. I don't particularly need very fine response/feedback for vector work but I could always branch out. Both options are said to come with software, but all the shop clerks I asked couldn't confirm this and one even said "definitely not" wrt the Intuos.

Does anyone have experience with either product or even another one that I haven't stumbled across yet?

I got a Wacom Intuos tablet a few months ago, and have been pretty happy with it thus far: https://www.wacom.com/en-kr/products/pe ... ntuos-draw
It might differ slightly from the model you highlighted above, but I think most of the difference is in the bundled software (which you may or may not find useful).
I got it relatively inexpensively through Amazon, but I am also in the US, and so I am not sure how the price point may differ.
For the price I would say that it is very versatile. The active area is a bit small, but that has not been much of an issue for me. It has some pretty neat features, and overall I would say that I have been pretty happy with it.
Hopefully that helps a bit! :3

Very helpful indeed, Trace! Thanks!

The Intuos Draw is the same "hardware" just without the touch gesture capabilities & therefore muuuuch cheaper. I would actually have preferred that one! The touch functions are pretty cool though but not sure how often I'd practically use them. I am practicing on my Note to see how much I like the combo.

How did you get your software? And can you only download it to one pc? I'd like to have the software on both my desktop & laptop but I am not sure of the restrictions.

The included software comes with registering the product, I believe. I think you can download it multiple times, or at least save the install files in case you need them again.
However, I am not sure how helpful the software will really be. From what I recall, mine mostly came with a 'lite' version of a paint program that was only *okay*, from when I tried it out; and an animation program that I wasn't overly impressed with either. I think they do also offer some online tutorials, but I haven't really taken much of a look at them myself.
If you are looking for decent paint software, I myself have been pretty impressed with PaintTool SAI. It is fairly easy to use, while also being very versatile. There are also plenty of online tutorials for using it. It comes with a free 1-month trial, and afterwards can be purchased at a fairly reasonable price (certainly compared to some other programs of the like). If you want free software, GIMP is powerful, but not very user-friendly. Again, I hope that helps a bit.