Dell New Fingerprint Reader Owner's Must Read. Broadcom USH Issue effecting Preciosn M4400, M6400, Latitude E6400 and others

Well, that would be nice, but ergonomically problematic (could be on the side of the machie, but it would attract dirt, etc).

Nope, my complaint is that the software has been hamstrung so that NO OTHER reader (e.g. external USB Biometric reader) could be used.

Because the supplied Embassy software will not recognize or work with anything BUT the internal Broadcom USH-connected fingerprint reader, the system simply cannot be used as supplied when docked.

You see, the internal reader is not recognized by Windows as a standard Biometric device. SoI could program my external Biometric reader for logging onto Windows, but then I could not use the Embassy password manaement software... see the dillemma?

russ

 

Yes.

John

 

This is totally outlandish, and they have not addressed it in the M6500 either. I manage an IT enterprise of several hundred machines, of which nearly a hundred are laptops. I began "future-proofing" two years ago by including the fingerprint readers in our purchased configurations. To date, they have been completely worthless.

They are being extremely short-sighted on this, and have partnered with hardware and software vendors who cannot come up with any workable solution. Wave has confirmed to me at the highest levels that 64-bit support for PIM is NEVER going to happen, and does not take the client seriously at all, calling it a "casual consumer" application.

The very best part of all, when I complained about the reader being worthless because it can't even be used with another vendor's software, their suggestion was that I convert all of my laptops over to their Enterprise management client. Ok, so I'll bite, what does that get me? For $80 per workstation, it gives me a client tool that does nothing but manage passwords for the self-encrypting drives... which doesn't touch the TPM module OR support finger-swipe for the harddrive password (boot password).

Even if they did get PIM working, it does a horrible job of managing anything but website passwords... so here I am years after uninstalling Norton Password Manager waiting for a suitable replacement. The only tool I have found that works at all for application passwords is Roboform Enterprise- yes, you have to get the Enterprise version if you want it to work on non-web logins. (but even though the support biometric authentication in the next release, our laptops won't be supported... because our readers are proxied through the broadcom TPM module and therefore don't even exist.

... and yes, whomever merged the topics was an idiot with an at best tenuous grasp of technology.

On another note- the location of the fingerprint reader was also extremely short-sighted. They put it where they did I am sure to keep it cleaner, no doubt anticipating few if any people would actually use it... or more specifically COULD use it.

Other vendors locate the reader on the lower palm rest. Why? Because they figured out that if you did use a docking station and external devices, you only need to crack the laptop open 1" to be able to still fully utilize the reader... which also helps with reducing heat build-up.

Again, I find it difficult to describe how deeply disappointed I am with them on this. We have $60,000 budgeted this year for laptops, and for the first year in the last 7, we will more than likely be purchasing HPs.

 

I've ordered a M4400 (Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit) without a fingerprint scanner. Is there any good way to add a fingerprint scanner to a M4400 (or other Dell)? I'm thinking maybe a Upek Eikon To Go USB stick fingerprint scanner with Upek Protector Suite software, but I'm out of my area of expertise here. Would this be a good solution?

 

Well folks, someone else has started a new idea on Dell's IdeaStorm website to try to make Dell aware of this idiocy.

Here's the link, make sure you promote the idea and comment on it!

 

Just to update... I bought an Upek Eikon To Go and got a free upgrade to Upek Protector Suite 2009. It does what I want and it does it well. However, I'd much rather have a working internal fingerprint reader. The external USB fingerprint reader flexes when you try to scan your finger, making getting a good read more difficult. Also, I tend to remove it and forget where I left it.

I voted up the IdeaStorm in the link above.

 

I found an interesting thing on the E6400 manual. Here's a direct link for the subsection "replacing the system board".

The last page on the above PDF says that you can run an utility called "CVFIPS201_Enable.exe" for 32-bit systems or " CVFIPS201_Enable64.exe" for 64-bit systems which will make your system FIPS 201 compatible. The systems affected by this utility are "E4300, E6400, E6500, M2400, M4400 and M6400".

Has anyone tried running this utility to see what happens to the fingerprint reader? I'm not at home now so I can't do it for a few hours. It might help in making it compliant with Windows 7's features.

IMPORTANT: Running this utility will disable your contactless smart card reader!

Also, here's a suggestion from one of the IdeaStorm users:

In theory the above could work, but in practice it depends on the shape of the USB connectors used.

 

@Herr Kaputt

This thing bugs be real bad, this is what I've done so far:

I had an "old" M4400, ran the described util you mentioned to make the system FIPS Compliant. Looks to me that all it does is to disable the RFID antenna for the contactless sc reader. You can read the release notes when you download the util. I played around for a few hours last night on two M4400, one FIPS compliant and one Non FIPS. I get all the same results.

But, I got windows to recognize the fingerprint reader on both systems, but I still get that windows sees the reader but says its unavalible. I have attached to screens for you. Anyone have any other ideas. And yes, I did dismantle the system to see if there was another USB on the motherboard where it could be connected.

cciemaster

 

@cciemaster

I've been searching around even after my last post, and I found some information that might be useful to you (and all others in this situation, including myself...).

Here is an interesting thread on the Dell community forums.

In particular, here's a quote of the third post in that thread:

I'd advise you to look for the mentioned file and try deleting it. Note that the folder in question is hidden, so you have to enable hidden folder viewing in Windows.

Also, please provide me with some more information: Have you installed Dell's Control Vault, and the Wave software? I'm not saying you should, I just want to know more details because I plan to dig into this issue more deeply this weekend.

 

@HerrKaputt

I looked for the file, found the folder but no .lock file.

Both my systems have the UPEK reader. As I mentioned earlier one system which I ran the FIPS tools and one non FIPS. This is what I have tried on both systems using the UPEK WBF driver downloaded from the UPEK website:

Clean Win 7 install, installed UPEK drivers on the "Broadcom USH w/swipe sensor", now it shows in device manager as a biometric device. Reboot. Systems now come up showing biometric in control panel but the device is "unavailable".

Installed latest dell security driver pack, this forces the now listed "UPEK biometric device" to a "Controlvault with swipe sensor". I then uninstalled this and checked off to also delete the drivers, installed the UPEK drivers again. So now I have the Dell security pack with the UPEK WBF drivers. Reboot. No change, still bio in ctrl panel, but still showing "unavailable".

Now I am going to try for the hell of it and install the wave software, but I dont keep many hopes. My guess is that there needs to be a USH firmware update that unblocks the reader. I think thats why it shows up unavailable.

cciemaster