Getting fingerprint reader working on Dell Precision M4800

This is really frustrating!

After scouting & reading through the information available on the net and this whitepaper : Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M4800 Reimage Guide - precision-m4800-workstation_White Papers_en-us.pdf

I have understood the following :

1] As per the white paper there are no "DDPA | Access" packages are not available for the 5th generation precisions(M4800 & M6800). And accordingly, I cannot find any of the following package for the M4800 :

Data Protection | Access — Driver Package

Data Protection | Access – Middleware Package

Data Protection | Access – Application Package

2] without the DDPA the ControlVault(isolation of fingerprint scan storage) and PBA (pre-boot authentication) feature for the embedded fingerprint swipe sensor should not work.

3] With a third party software, I should be able to use the fingerprint sensor to logon to windows.

I believe the Broadcom FMA(Fingerprint management application) should be able to achieve this.This is the "driver" that DELL provides! Here are the steps followed :











Although I get a successful enroll, If I try to log on using the fingerprint recognition, "A match for the fingerprint was not found in the fingerprint store" every single time.

The only logical conclusion I could make is that the control vault is looking in the ControlVault Storage(separate from the OS storage) but since ControlVault storage is not available without DDPA no fingerprint stores are found.

Am I right? If yes, any way to circumvent this?

And, any idea about will there be a "DDP Access" package release for the M4800?

TIA,

ThinkingMonkey

 

Hmm.

For M6700 I have had success with this, using a fresh Windows install (of each Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1).

1. Install ControlVault driver.
Driver Details | Dell US
(Use the .MSI file included.)

2. Update to latest version of ControlVault firmware.
Driver Details | Dell US
(Hit "ushupgrade.exe" in the "firmware" folder.)

3. On Windows 7 and Windows 8, go to the control panel and type "biometric" to find the biometrics control panel. From there you can fire up the Broadcom app to register fingerprints and it works with Windows login afterwards. With Windows 8.1, you don't need Broadcom software to register fingerprints, support is fully built into the OS.

Because the same downloads are available for the M4700/M6700 and the M4800/M6800, I imagine they use the same (or very similar) hardware.

If this is the procedure you've followed and it doesn't work, don't know what to say.

 

Thanks for mentioning the ControlVault Firmware. Although that was not the problem, It lead me to the solution. The solution being that an admin password had to be set in bios so that ControlVault has access to write the scanned finger print. The upgrade of the firmware made me realize this. After I added the admin password in BIOS, I am now able to login to the system using the finger print authentication.

Guys, Any idea about, will there be a "DDP Access" packages release for the M4800 so that PBA(pre-boot authentication) can be made use of.

 

Ah, I've always had an admin password set in the BIOS so that's why I never ran into this I suppose.

 

Aaron, ThinkingMonkey, you were both right !
Firmware upgrade is needed as well as setting an admin password in the BIOS.
Thank you both for helping me to fix the same issue experiencend by ThinkingMonkey.

The correct procedure is:
1): set an admin password in the BIOS
2): upgrade firmware using the link supplied by Aaron
3): register a new fingerprint using broadcom FMA (control panel=>> biometric devices).

THANKS!!!