Thinkpads Forum

Anyone else having issues with their fingerprint reader on the W500?

Mine works fine on a cold startup, but if I suspend (fn+f4) and then bring it out of sleep, the reader is broken and won't work again until I reboot the machine. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the fingerprint software, the driver for the reader, and the power manangement software & PM driver, all at Lenovo support's request. They then sent me a replacement palmrest (with new reader) and that hasn't helped either.

The only "strange" Thing about the system is that I'm running Vista x64 to take advantage of the 4GB of RAM I have in it. I'm starting to think the x64 fingerprint software is flakey...

Replacing the palm rest and it not help for sure makes it a software problem. I hope you get it worked out. My 32bit Vista Ultimate wakes up without a problem with the finger.

I will be imaging it tonight (Acronis) and then throwing Vista 32bit on to test. I'll be highly annoyed if it's the 64-bit software, as I lose an entire GB of RAM on 32bit.

After more thought, I put a clean copy of Vista x64 on it, with the assumption that there can't be a problem with the 32bit drivers or you all would be complaining.

With a fresh copy of V64, I loaded up all the drivers. I was able to suspend, resume, and swipe myself in three times in a row, which led me to believe there's a software problem with my existing V64 install.

So I blew away the clean copy and restored my image. I again removed all of the power management system, removed the fingerprint software & drivers, and on a hunch I even yanked my video drivers as well.

I reinstalled it all giving a reboot every time it was requested.

I was able to sleep and resume it several times in rapid succession and the reader continued working OK (I swiped in each time after it came out of suspend). I considered the problem solved, put it to sleep and went to dinner. When I came back, dead fingerprint reader again. Now I'm not sure if it was ever working right, even on the fresh blank install, since I never gave it a long period of sleep (1+hour) and then restore to test it.

I'm at a complete loss. Is there anyone else running 64-bit Vista having fingerprint problems?

I got annoyed with all of the fingerprint issues and occasional graphics problems, and I threw Vista 32bit on here.

Of my 4 GB of ram, only 2.5 (roughly) are usable on Vista 32.



If I only lost 1GB I might consider it, but with only 2.5 left I actually have LESS available ram than my old T60p. Too many addon cards stealing memory addresses, I guess.

Back to x64 I go and hope that Lenovo fixes the fingerprint software or someone can give me another suggestion...

Have you tried this patch?


http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 67245.html

That patch doesn't apply to the newer Authentec fingerprint readers found on T/W500 series. If you take a look, it's just a little registry tweak. The location that it twiddles is a subkey of a service that doesn't even exist on my W500.
I don't have a "TcUsb" under Services.

All of this aside -- yes I've tried that "fix" and it hasn't helped. I don't know why System Update even tries to apply it to these machines with the different fingerprint readers. Authentec != UPEK. The UPEK reader in my T60p worked fine...

Yep, I have a disappearing fingerprint reader on my W500.

Started happening right after a System Update.

Vista 32-bit.

[update]

I fixed this. There appeared to be two instances of the software installed (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs).

I removed both of them, and the Authentek driver.

Then I reinstalled the Fingerprint software - not via System Update, but manually, using the driver download from Lenovo.

Upon restart, fingerprints were not yet working. However, after finished booting, Client Security Solution asked me for my password to enable fingerprint authorization, and then after that everything worked fine.

I've removed & reinstalled at least twice now to no avail.

Mine seems to work OK after a cold reboot, but after resume from suspend once or twice it is usually gone. It's not hardware either since they replaced the palmrest & reader to no avail.