Fingerprint Scanner on Z61m?

[hawkbox]

Do these things work at all? We just got one in the office for a teacher and I have to nuke home edition off of it, which is a nightmare in and of itself with these sata hard drives. But I have been messsing with the fingerprint reader cause I need to get one of these myself and I spent 45 minutes getting it to take my fingerprint. The best I could get was it saying "Too Short" and that was only maybe 3% of the time, No matter how I swiped my finger across the thing it didnt read it. Is there some fancy trick to these things or are they a waste of time?

[Mark16q]

Just purchased a z61m and had the same problem.
A call to Lenovo and they over-nighted a new palm rest, which includes the reader, as well as the touchpad, etc. Four screws to replace.

Since installing the new reader, have had one bad scan (my fault). Otherwise reads every time. And imo, worth the effort. Much easier than typing passwords all the time, and very flexible software.

Mark

[christopher_wolf]

Also keep in mind that sometimes the fingerprint reader reacts to fingerprint swipes differently in certain environments. Believe it or not, changes in overhead lighting can affect its ability to read in a high quality fingerprint scan.

[philnicholas]

I could be wrong, but I believe that the fingerprint reader on my own new (<2 weeks old) Z61M is a bit too recessed in the body of the laptop -- it concerned me a little, at first. I can get it to work about 90% or more of the swipes, but it takes some finesse to do it. Unlike an ink fingerprint, which the side-to-side accuracy is key, the ThinkPad reader seem more interested in the length-wise image. It's hard to describe, but the "rolling" motion has to make sure the whole forefinger is evenly dragged across the reader. Dry fingers are a no-no, so if you have dry skin you may want to rub you swiping finger across a sweaty palm or somewhere on your skin where there is more natural oils. Not trying to be tacky here, but it works. I also have much better luck using my middle finger, probably because the other two finger stabilize the middle finger as it swipes in a sort of three finger operation.

[hawkbox]

So my dry [censored] fingers could be a problem? Interesting. And if it is a problem with the scanner I am not going to worry about it for now with this one, I'll just concern myself with the model Im getting. I'll give that a try though.

I just tried licking my finger and it worked, rather gross as my palm rest will be slimy quickly. And it has failed twice in a row to accept my input. Apperently its 3 reads in dont match or something. Lovely.

[GomJabbar]

@hawkbox

Sounds like you got the problem licked!

[hawkbox]

Only half licked, not only is it gross but 9/10 finger swipes record as to short and when I finally do get 3 swipes in it tells me they dont match or some such and make me try it all over again. I gave up after the 3rd try. If I need to slime up my laptop just to use this function I dont want it.

[christopher_wolf]

Is this always in the same location that you are trying it on?

I would give serious consideration to calling them and telling them that there is something wrong with it and telling them exactly that. You don't need to moisten your fingers significantly nor do any other tricks besides a normal swipe or two.

[hawkbox]

WEll then something is wrong. I have to practically goo up my finger before it reads anything. The laptop is sitting on my desk beside me and hasnt moved since I started doing this. I dont think I'm going to bother calling about this one as it isnt mine anyway but it does not give me high hopes for what I thought was going to be supercool tech.

[hawkbox]

Interesting, I finally got it sort of working when I did an upgrade from home to pro. But after a reboot it wont accept my fingerprint anymore and when I try to edit the settings it wont accept the password I logged in with to the same bloody account. This software is useless at best as near as I can tell.