Thinkpads Forum

The fingerprint scanner arrived defective. It constantly thinks someone is scanning the finger, and it keeps saying "too short" and to try again.

Lenovo is sending me a new front panel to replace it myself.

Mine did that too for a while. Seems to have fixed itself.

Mine worked fine for the fist hour that I owned the new computer. Then it started.

I guess quality is really going downhill with Lenovo.

Maybe one day IBM will buy back the line...........One can only hope..

I had it delivered today, but before I opened it, I thought that the box seemed to small to accomodate the front panel (they sent me the whole panel).
I was right, they decided to send me the fan instead.
Lovely, I called them to tell them that they sent the wrong item. I was on for almost 1 hour 30 min. It took them forever to find the correct part number. Hopefully I will get the right part tomorrow.

In the mean time, my current defective fingerprint reader, suddenly fixed itself just like Rivak!
Go figure.

kingweb wrote:I had it delivered today, but before I opened it, I thought that the box seemed to small to accomodate the front panel (they sent me the whole panel).
I was right, they decided to send me the fan instead.
Lovely, I called them to tell them that they sent the wrong item. I was on for almost 1 hour 30 min. It took them forever to find the correct part number. Hopefully I will get the right part tomorrow.

In the mean time, my current defective fingerprint reader, suddenly fixed itself just like Rivak!
Go figure.

Why not get your part numbers from the Hardware Maintenance Manual?

Where do I get that from?

The lenovo rep told me that since the T400 is so new, their normal system didn't even show them the part #s. He had to use a system that they call "wppl". Not sure what that is though.

I searched google for the hardware maintainance manual, and I found a list of them, but the T400 isn't on the list.

Here is the page that I found:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 39298.html

Found it!
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 297e83e42e

Thanks for the tip!

Just wanted to say I'm also having the same problem. T400 and the finger reader freaks out every 2 seconds and gives me the Too Short! message whether I'm trying to use it or not.

Called Lenovo, first they wanted me to send the whole laptop back and I agreed. Then i called back today after reading this and told them to just send me the part. So we'll see if this fixes it.

My finger print reader has been working 100% fine. In fact I haven't had a single problem with the laptop since I got it this morning. Sorry to hear you guys had trouble

UPDATE:
My fingerprint reader that "fixed itself", broke itself again. Back to the same issue. However, now it is intermittent, instead of constant like before.

I have the new one that Lenovo sent me, so I decided to install it. Guess what-------It doesn't work AT ALL!!! The computer can't find it. I keep getting "unable to communicate with fingerprint reader". I even put the old one back in, disabled the security chip, and then tried the new one, and still nothing.

Furthermore, while this may see very petty, the new panel doesn't have the intel and windows stickers on it. Not that it is a big deal, but I bought a new computer for almost 2 grand, and I am already replacing parts. It would be nice to have it all work and look properly.

Anyway, I upgraded to the onsite repair. I am going to call them and have them come to me and fix it.

kingweb wrote:UPDATE:
My fingerprint reader that "fixed itself", broke itself again. Back to the same issue. However, now it is intermittent, instead of constant like before.

I have the new one that Lenovo sent me, so I decided to install it. Guess what-------It doesn't work AT ALL!!! The computer can't find it. I keep getting "unable to communicate with fingerprint reader". I even put the old one back in, disabled the security chip, and then tried the new one, and still nothing.

Furthermore, while this may see very petty, the new panel doesn't have the intel and windows stickers on it. Not that it is a big deal, but I bought a new computer for almost 2 grand, and I am already replacing parts. It would be nice to have it all work and look properly.

Anyway, I upgraded to the onsite repair. I am going to call them and have them come to me and fix it.

Looks like we found our freak accident person. Anyone else this unlucky?

Haven't had a single issue.

Well, it deifnately isn't a freak accident, because there are 2 other people that have replied here that have the same problem.

FURTHERMORE, my partner just got his T400 and bingo! He also has the same fingerprint problem.

So that is now 4 people in this thread with the problem.

I also saw it for 5-10 minutes - when the lid was closed on a dock - but then it went away. (On a W500)

FWIW, no problems here. I can imagine how frustrating it is to get a new system and have an issue with it though, I hope you get it resolved quickly.

kingweb wrote:UPDATE:
My fingerprint reader that "fixed itself", broke itself again. Back to the same issue. However, now it is intermittent, instead of constant like before.

I have the new one that Lenovo sent me, so I decided to install it. Guess what-------It doesn't work AT ALL!!! The computer can't find it. I keep getting "unable to communicate with fingerprint reader". I even put the old one back in, disabled the security chip, and then tried the new one, and still nothing.

Furthermore, while this may see very petty, the new panel doesn't have the intel and windows stickers on it. Not that it is a big deal, but I bought a new computer for almost 2 grand, and I am already replacing parts. It would be nice to have it all work and look properly.

Anyway, I upgraded to the onsite repair. I am going to call them and have them come to me and fix it.

Great. How much is the upgrade to onsite? I just have the standard 1 year depot.

Put me on the list.

My fingerprint reader is not recognized at all by the software on my new T400. Just submitted a ticket and waiting to hear back from them.

Well I installed my replacement and so far... so good!

Have not gotten one pop-up box.

I uninstalled the finger reader software first, before I disconnect my original one, and deleted all of the fingerprint data when uninstalling.

I then connected the new one and installed the software/drivers again and so far it's running smooth. Let's see if it stays that way.

kingweb, did you try uninstalling everything and deleting your fingerprint data before hooking up the new one?