T500 Fingerprint Reader Doesn't Load at Startup (Blue Scrn)

[Excelsius]

I have T500 2081CTO. Came natively with Vista Home, but I reinstalled with XP Pro SP3. All the latest updates both in terms of drivers and windows are installed (as of March 12, 2010).



I have had this laptop for about a year and the fingerprint reader used to work fine. Some months ago it stopped functioning for some reason and I stoppped using it. I finally had time to reinstall the entire windows and installed it. It worked fine for about a day, but today I was using my computer and it suddently froze with no response. I powered it down and when I turned it back on, the fingerprint sensor would not load and a blue screen came up with an error that an application failed to initialize and windows just kept restarting at this stage and displaying the same message. I have password protected log in and had loaded all ten fingers to be used during log in (without the welcome screen).



I tried power cycling, didn't work. Eventually had to log in via safe mode, disable fingerprint sensor option at log in, and then restart in regular mode to be able to log in without the blue screen error. I tried updating the BIOS, didn't work. Reinstalled the fingerprint sensor, again same problem. I also reset the fingerprint sensor in BIOS and then reinstalled the software, but again the same problem. Basically now I use the welcome screen and this way I don't get the blue screen error. It just keeps showing as if the sensor is trying to load, but never happens, so I just put in a password and get in. I remember that months ago when I had a problem, it was similar. It worked fine, but when I turned off the welcome screen, I suddenly had a problem with the sensor that didn't get resolved until I reinstalled windows. Now that I think of it, it could be the same deactivation of the welcome screen the screwed things up again.

I also found out that the computer can't wake up from sleep. When I open the laptop, everything seems to start, but the monitor stays turned off. I have to hold the power button to turn off the computer. I am hoping that uninstalling the fingerprint reader will help.


Could anyone please explain what is going on? Why are there so many problems without the windows Welcome Screen? I know that the sensor works fine because when I am trying to scan my fingers or even log into Thinkpad security systems, it works fine. It's just windows log in that is screwed up. I can't even revert it to work at least with the welcome screen. I would really appreciate any help.

[Excelsius]

So I take it no one has the slightest clue? Is there any other forum you could recommend I visit? Right now I cannot use my fingerprint reader and I really need to find out what's wrong. I might even try to get rid of this laptop.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Maybe take off the palmrest and the data cable and make sure there's nothing wrong with it hardware wise?
Perhaps the little connector thingy that goes from the touchpad/FPR to the motherboard came loose and needs reseating?