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Fingerprint reader stopped working

T400/T410/T420 and T500/T510/T520 Series
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Czechnology
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Fingerprint reader stopped working

#1 Post by Czechnology » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:29 am

I've been using the fingerprint reader with practically no problems since october.
Recently, it has just suddenly stopped working. I thought restarting will do the trick, but unfortunately, no luck. No recent driver updates.
Any idea what could have caused it and what can be done with it?
(running on T400 as in my signature)

ThinkPad T450 (20BU-S02N00) [i5-5300U 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 14" HD+, Win7x64]
ThinkPad T400 (2764-CTO) [C2D T9400 2.53GHz, 6GB RAM, 14.1" LED WSXGA; Win7x64]
ThinkPad T43 (1871-F1G)
OnePlus X | Samsung NoteII | Dell Streak | Palm TX, Treo 600, m505, m500 | Psion 5 Series

truk
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Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#2 Post by truk » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:28 pm

What OS?
http://www.truk.tk - 'Cause you've got nothing better to do.
RIP t30 2367-au5 October '07
t400 2764-CTO
7/OSX/Ubuntu
2.8GHz core 2 duo
4g DDR3
320g@5400rpm+160g@7200RPM
Led backlit and all the goodies

Czechnology
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Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#3 Post by Czechnology » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:42 pm

Vista Ultimate (32b)
as preinstalled by Lenovo (yeah, I wanted a fresh install but can't get my hands on a vista DVD)

ThinkPad T450 (20BU-S02N00) [i5-5300U 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 14" HD+, Win7x64]
ThinkPad T400 (2764-CTO) [C2D T9400 2.53GHz, 6GB RAM, 14.1" LED WSXGA; Win7x64]
ThinkPad T43 (1871-F1G)
OnePlus X | Samsung NoteII | Dell Streak | Palm TX, Treo 600, m505, m500 | Psion 5 Series

stubblyhead
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:52 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#4 Post by stubblyhead » Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:12 pm

I'm having trouble with the fingerprint reader on my T400 as well. It works perfectly most of the time, but if I lock my computer and leave for more than about 10 minutes or so, the dialogue box asking for your fingerprint goes away and I'm left with nothing but my wallpaper and the mouse cursor. Pressing escape will not bring up the normal Windows authentication, and trying to swipe my finger anyway has no effect either. I basically have to reboot my computer to get out of this. I would love to reinstall the software and see if that helps, but that requires an administrator account. This is a company machine, and we just don't do that here. I'd like to try to resolve this without going to see our desktop support guy, as he is difficult to deal with. Anyone else experience this and know a way around it?

truk
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Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#5 Post by truk » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:55 pm

There has been a known problem with the readers, you should both update your bios' to the latest version if it's not.
http://www.truk.tk - 'Cause you've got nothing better to do.
RIP t30 2367-au5 October '07
t400 2764-CTO
7/OSX/Ubuntu
2.8GHz core 2 duo
4g DDR3
320g@5400rpm+160g@7200RPM
Led backlit and all the goodies

Czechnology
Sophomore Member
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:48 am
Location: Helsinki.fi, Vienna.at, Prague.cz
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Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#6 Post by Czechnology » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:21 am

Does anyone have a schema for the T400? Where is the CPU located? In my old T43, I can remember that the left side of the keyboard used to heat, on the T400 it's the right palmrest (just slightly left off the fingerprint reader).
I'm asking because my reader started working again - while watching a film, I've heard the new-device-inserted and device-removed windows sounds and there it was again. Seems like some hardware problem that may be related to the heat produced.

ThinkPad T450 (20BU-S02N00) [i5-5300U 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 14" HD+, Win7x64]
ThinkPad T400 (2764-CTO) [C2D T9400 2.53GHz, 6GB RAM, 14.1" LED WSXGA; Win7x64]
ThinkPad T43 (1871-F1G)
OnePlus X | Samsung NoteII | Dell Streak | Palm TX, Treo 600, m505, m500 | Psion 5 Series

truk
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Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#7 Post by truk » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:15 pm

CPU is well away from the reader. The hard drive sits under the reader and heats up a bit. I don't believe the problem is heat myself, but I haven't had it.
http://www.truk.tk - 'Cause you've got nothing better to do.
RIP t30 2367-au5 October '07
t400 2764-CTO
7/OSX/Ubuntu
2.8GHz core 2 duo
4g DDR3
320g@5400rpm+160g@7200RPM
Led backlit and all the goodies

Czechnology
Sophomore Member
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:48 am
Location: Helsinki.fi, Vienna.at, Prague.cz
Contact:

Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#8 Post by Czechnology » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:40 pm

ah, silly me :D sure it's the hdd there... Well, get's pretty warm. Anyway, no idea why this problem happened :(

ThinkPad T450 (20BU-S02N00) [i5-5300U 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 14" HD+, Win7x64]
ThinkPad T400 (2764-CTO) [C2D T9400 2.53GHz, 6GB RAM, 14.1" LED WSXGA; Win7x64]
ThinkPad T43 (1871-F1G)
OnePlus X | Samsung NoteII | Dell Streak | Palm TX, Treo 600, m505, m500 | Psion 5 Series

morgandog
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:01 am
Location: Manchester, UK

Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#9 Post by morgandog » Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:01 am

Mine only works for logon after a restart, and after that I get a 'fingerprint reader unavailable' error and need to use the password. If I didn't have a million other problems with my T400 this one would bother me more.

I'm running Vista 32 as factory installed.

Mecke
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:57 am
Location: Norsjö, Sweden

Re: Fingerprint reader stopped working

#10 Post by Mecke » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:42 am

truk wrote:There has been a known problem with the readers, you should both update your bios' to the latest version if it's not.

Works for me. :D
Thanks

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