Wacom Bamboo tablet was not working with finger input

I just bought a new Wacom Bamboo tablet that accepts both finger and pen inputs to use with my laptop. The model number is CTH-460. Because I really do use my laptop on my lap and it has a large area below the keyboard, this made a good resting spot for the tablet as I started to use it.

Everything installed ok and I started to go through the tutorial. I was a bit frustrated when it got to the part about how to use finger gestures to operate the tablet because it was not responding. Nothing. I picked the tablet up and tried to use the trackpad built into the laptop and the trackpad still worked. I started using the pen and it worked. Only the finger input was unresponsive. I thought maybe it was broken or I got the wrong model of tablet. I finished the tutorial anyway and would get back to it later.

Then I opened up the control panel to try to adjust the input properties thinking that maybe it was just setup wrong. Since it was not working, I set the tablet to the side on my desk. Then I discovered the problem and it had nothing to do with software. The solution was so interesting to me that I just had to write this blog about it.

It turns out that just setting the tablet on top of my trackpad was causing some type of interference. Sure enough, if I set the tablet on my desk, it works. If I set the tablet on my laptop, it doesn't. I'm still shaking my head because although it works, I lost a perfectly good resting place for the tablet. Maybe I will try disabling the trackpad to see if the tablet will work then...