"Please Connect the Fingerprint Reader" error?

[hellosailor]

Sometimes when I wake the laptop (opening/closing the cover and using that to trigger sleep/resume) the computer won't take my fingerprint, and the fingerprint icon on the screen says "Please connect the fingerprint reader" which of course IS connected.

A reboot has cured that in the past, so I'm wondering: Hardware failure? Software/driver failure with Vista?

Has anyone else had this problem & found the right cure for it?

[ryengineer]

Do this:

Start > Right Click on My Computer then Properties > Device Manager > Biometric- explore it > Right Click on TouchChip Fingerprint Coprocessor then properties > Power Management > Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power > Click OK.

[hellosailor]

Try not to laugh too hard, ry.

I'm still getting use to Vista, there is no MY COMPUTER on the desktop and I'm [censored] if I can't find the device mangler in anyplace obvious, either.

Aside from that...if I disable power management for the fingerprint reader, isn't that going to drain the battery when the machine is sleeping?

[NEXT DAY]

ry, I found where they buried My Computer. I had placed shortcut on the desktop when I first got the machine and of course, right-clicking that is useless. Got the real thing back where "God and Henry Ford said it ought to be" and told the computer to leave power on for the fingerprint reader. Which leaves the questions...Of how much this will ding the battery while sleeping? And, is this a known driver bug?

Incidentally, Vista SP1 has been released to manufacturing, meaning it will be available for download as soon as they get it replicated out to the servers.

[tallshorty]

I am experiencing the same problem. I tried the suggested fix above but still get the error msg. However, the delay to when I can use the fingerprint reader again is only about 1 sec.

[Crunch]

The problem MAY be that the connector of your palm rest, to which the fingerprint reader is attached, became loose, or disconnected. It's not a big deal to fix it. You would only have to remove the palm rest, without the keyboard, if you want to take a look.

Also check Device Manager to see if the operating system detects it as existing hardware. There may be a little yellow exclamation point next to it, which indicates a problem with the driver.

Hope this helps.

[hellosailor]

Thanks, but it was and presumably still is firmly attached. I opened the wrist rest 6? 8? weeks ago to "de-creak" it and checked the connection at that time--solid. I've worked with these connectors before.

Last week the computer pulled that trick AGAIN for the first time in a long time. No reason to think the OS wasn't detecting it, after all, the OS knew it was there after the cold boot, why should it "lose" the device during operations--unless there was a driver failure, or something similar?

Tonight, the fingerprint reader is working fine--but the WiFi radio has played hide and seek a couple of times this week. It was ON when suspended (by F4 or cover close) and normally comes back ON with the connection intact. But once in a while--when the computer wakes again, the WiFi radio is OFF. And tonight, after I turned it back on (with the Lenovo control applet) it turned itself back OFF again after a few minutes.

I'm starting to wonder if I should send it to Camp Lenovo and tell them to either find the cold solder joints, or replace the hardware wholesale. I think most o fus have been around computers long enough to know, they don't just "stop" for no good reason. And since the drivers are the same for thousands of other units--that means hardware failures.

Very disappointing.

[erik]

this happened to me with my T61p under vista SP1 RTM.   i can say with 100% certainty that it's not an issue with the physical connection.   try installing the latest biometric coprocessor driver from UPEK and see if that helps.

[hellosailor]

Thanks, eric. Did the driver upgrade 4? 6? weeks ago. Haven't done the SP1 install, will probably do that this weekend after a complete backup "just in case" and then...Reinstall the UPEK driver as well?

But this week's failure was with (after) the new driver was installed, unless they've joined the driver-of-the-week club.<G>

?

[Galaxer]

I used to have this issue constanly for many weeks with my z61m and newly installed Vista until I opened it to change the memory. After that it functions properly. I thought somehow, while the memory upgrade changed the system behaviour significantly, it influenced the FP behaviour as well. Meanwhile I do not remember exactly, if I disconnected the cable from the main board or not.

[tallshorty]

This is really annoying. Normally, the Fingerprint reader will automatically reconnect but today, after restarting from sleep, the fingerprint reader refused to connect forcing me to restart the computer.

[C.Schlehaus]

Hi.
I experienced this sometimes ago on my t60p running VISTA SP1 while having this also in the past with my T43p as well.
While sometimes the error message "Connect the fingerprint reader" did not appear for a long time of waiting on log-in, I clicked on the log-on screen on "Change user" which at all times seems to restart the driver as in the following log-on screen the reader is available..

Sincerely, Carlhermann

[tallshorty]

I had the Ubek driver installed (ver 2.2). I uninstalled it and reinstalled the Lenovo version (ver 1.9). I think it may have fixed the problem.

EDIT: Nevermind...I am getting the error again.