Wacom "Tablet driver not found"

Question

I have a $100 Wacom Intuos drawing tablet, and after a while, it says "THE TABLET DRIVER WAS NOT FOUND" when I try to open the Wacom Tablet Properties. The tablet still functions the same, but I just can't change the settings. Restarting works, but it takes a long time for my computer to restart, and it's a nuisance. How can I fix this without restarting, or prevent it in the first place?

EDIT 1/20/15: Sorry, I forgot to specify that I'm on Windows 7. I didn't think it mattered.

Solution

Here's a simple guide I follow whenever this happens with my Wacom:

1. Close your drawing program if you haven't already.

2. Go to Services in the Start Menu; you can find it by typing it into the search bar. The correct one is the one with the light blue gear symbols.

3. Once you click on it and open the list of services running, go down to the Wacom Professional Service and right click it.

4. Click on the option that says Restart.

5. Once the service is restarted, reopen your drawing program, and everything with your tablet should now work.

I wish I knew how to prevent this from happening, as this consistently happens every time I boot up Windows after having been in Ubuntu.

Comments

[Dave]

What drivers are you looking for? I mean, you don't even state what OS this is for (Windows, Mac, Other)... :(

[Tetsujin]

I'm guessing you're on Mac Yosemite - which has killed the prefs pane for the old Intuos boards. They will still work, but you can't get to the settings any more. They are now unsupported so it won't be fixed. Be glad yours only cost 100… mine was closer to 700.

[P1nGu1n]

The service wasn't even started for me, starting (instead of restarting) did the trick for me (win10)

[Donald Duck]

Although your answer is 100% correct, it might also become 100% useless if that link is moved, changed, merged into another one or the main site just disappears... :-( Therefore, please edit your answer, and copy the relevant steps from the link into your answer, thereby guaranteeing your answer for 100% of the lifetime of this site! ;-) You can always leave the link in at the bottom of your answer as a source for your material...