Dell Studio 15 Fingerprint Reader NOT Detected.

I just received my laptop a few days ago. And today I turned my laptop on, the fingerprint reader wasn't working. It says the reader is not detected. I restarted, the same thing happened. Anyone else have issues on this or is it just me? Any experts have solutions for this?

 

Someone else posted that they had a problem like this. They downloaded the fingerprint SW from support.dell.com and that got it working. When you go to the support page for the Studio15 look under the security section for the fingerprint driver SW.

 

hey what you need to do is uninstall both the AuthenTec Fingerprint System and the DigitalPersona Personal restart and then re-install both of these...

 

No go for me. I have two Studio 15's with this problem and it is driving me crazy.

It's worked once or twice (I've actually enrolled fingers!), but then on reboot, the login screen shows reader not detected.

Once I log in normally (text), I've tried uninstalling the driver and the Digital Persona software, and reinstalling both again.

There seems to be two drivers out there...the Dell.com support site has 8.10, but the DRIVERS\SECURITY folder on the C: drive has 8.26.

Running the 8.10 install doesn't seem to do anything. The install routine starts, then...nothing. No finishing windows or text. One wonders if it finished. The 8.26 installs all the way and shows the completion dialogs and reboots the system.

What is wrong with this fingerprint system??????

 

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...scription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=ob-63885-1

I believe 8.26 is the latest Authentec driver avail.
It wasn't included when my notebook shipped but the HP driver linked above worked just fine for me.

Also, only had an older version of the DigitalPersona software on the Dell CD that came w/the Studio...Once again, HP comes thru with updated software that fixed some issues: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299986

Makes you wonder why Dell is so slow to post updated device drivers for their systems when HP really seems to be on the ball as of late...

 

Check in the bios under security, that the reader is actually enabled. I suspect that there is an issue with the bios that causes the fingerprint reader to be disabled at boot time.

You may want to check that you have the latest bios installed on your system too.

 

What's odd is it works sometimes, but mostly not. Nothing changes as far as settings go. Simply rebooting, it goes from working to not working. Then, getting it working again is purely random.

 

If it is working intermittently then you probably have a bad connection from the device to the motherboard or the hardware is faulty. Either way, this is a service call to Dell.

 

My new Studio 15 has the same issue. The fingerprint reader is not working ata all since i got the laptop...tried the HP driver and software...no luck.

 

I don't know how widespread this problem is, but it seems to be extremely annoying since you have to pay extra $ for it and expect it to work. I'm considering a Studio 15, but might opt to forgo this feature. How's that guys?

 

I have exactly the same question.. since FP reader is no more a standard, so is it worth paying extra bucks for it? What are its uses apart from logging into windows??

 

I have had soo many problems with my fingerprintreader since i got my studio 1735 i cant type it all, it works a bit then fails seemed to be cause of updates, then POSSIBLY my trial antivirus, i stopped updates fro cmong automatically, ive lost data a few times having dell restor my computer, i ahve no antivirus right now.. dell support in indaia have been nothign but a headache, one guy in utah fixed it but noone in india will help me get in touch with him i have a name and cant get anywhere.... i keep beign told ill be calle dback with help in 24 hrs.... tongith i fixed it myself ot working better then before it was great!!! then i restarted and it was gone.. not detected.. onyl this time it still prompts me to login with it on the net everytiem i get a login screen... but i cant! I knowp nothign abotu computers, im fed up with losing data... and BTW i got my laptop on the 30th of Sept!!!!!! i havent tried my tv tuner yet im scared... i want to try that BIOS thign one guy commented on but im scared ill screw it up more.. altho having it jsut restored again to factory settings what could i possibly do now right.

 

@lucky3 did u ordered it online?
I ordered mine Studio 15 through a dealer on 29th September. So if any problem arises its their headache. Since there are not too many dealers of Dell in India yet, i was lucky to have one in my city...

 

i ordered it from dell canada... im wishign itwas US..lol i just dont want any more headaches... im fed up now i have bronchitis and my sonis still sick i only get minutes on here literally and i need to get work done not F$%^ aroudn ya know!!

 

Mine stopped working as soon as i installed a firewall. Once i opened the fingerprint program and allowed it through the firewall it worked again.

 

I would check what your firewall program is doing. The fingerprint reader does not communicate outside of your system and should never need to go through the firewall. If the firewall is stopping internal system communications, then it is setup incorrectly.

 

Well, as soon as they decide to call me back.... I will tell them i want a new notebook sent and i will return this one when i recieve it... in the meantime im trying to download my sons show for him since we dont watch a lot of tv but he has a couple favs.... and it take days.......... to get one download..... i have trie dsoo many things that i foudn gooling solutions and nothign has worked...... im done worrying about the othe rglitches im having... but if i coudl figure this out now thne i dont ahve to mess aorudn wiht my new pc
any suggestions???

 

I found a fix for at least one Studio 15 that I tried it on...it seems the Studio 15 came with the Fingerprint reader software version from 05/2008. If I uninstall that, and download and install what is on the dell.com download support site (which is a 02/2008 version), it works. I've even rebooted a bunch of times, and it still boots.

The version of the fingerprint reader software on the dell is newer than what is available online.

 

Don't come here, go talk to a Dell Tech over through the chat. It's much better than on the phone. Their phone support kinda sucks. Hopefully you got the onsite warranty, and they'll replace it for you for free, like they did with mine.

 

Who are you addressing?

 

Well I did uninstall and reinstall, it works it hasnt stopped detecting but it has glitches.. and at this point im not sure if it is my computer or site specific... but i have so many glitches as it is that i am going to try to get a new one then try again... dell still has not called me back... and i cant go to dell chat.... i bought it in canada and it says we don't have that option here yet... so im stuck talking to support in india......

 

Hi 3lucky, I was just wondering if you were able to resolve you fingerprint reader issue. I just got my laptop on 10/24/08 and on the first day I was able to use the reader but then on the next day, it kept saying that the reader is not detected. I tried to update the driver and that worked for one day but after I turned on the laptop the next day, the not detected message showed. I then tried to uninstall the driver and the digitalpersona fingerprint software restarted and reinstalled but no go.

That's when I called DELL support in India. She spent over an hour connected to my laptop redoing exactly what I did. She kept asking me if I reinstalled the OS recently to which I said no. Then she asked if I knew how to access Embassy Securities Suite on my system. I had no idea what that was. I don't think it came with the system. This is when she says I might have to reinstall the Vista OS, to which I said NO WAY. She then said I could either try system restore or send the laptop in to replace the possibly faulty motherboard. She said the settings will stay the same and nothing will be deleted with the latter option, so I'm going with that. I don't know but I hope this works. I should've left it alone but I basically paid for this gadget so it better work.

 

you know..I've had the same problem. as soon as i grab the cd to reinstall, it says its working fine....until you restart it again.

but the biggest problem I have with this is the fact that this is my SECOND studio 15.

its worse than the first one. the first one had media buttons up at the top that only lit up when they felt like it and sound that worked every other restart, much like the fingerprint reader works only occasionally now.


They..-after 8 hours on the phone with people who didn't really understand- sent me a new one and allowed me to box the old one and send it back..

only i open the new one and low and behold, its got a million glitches as well

is it too much to ask for the BRAND NEW COMPUTER to work when I take it otu of the box? personally I think we shouldnt ahve to install all these differnet upgrades and whatnot, it shoudl be in perfect working order for the money i paid for it.

 

Often times the security software you install on your computer is preventing it from working. I found this with my firewall.

So before you start bashing the laptop, maybe realize that its something you are doing that is causing the problems.

 

you know, I thought that with the first one..

but two times in a row..the second time I havent even gotten around to installing anything...

 

The bottom line is the fp reader does not work CONSISTENTLY with out of the box settings FOR ANY DELL running VISTA (suspect its a driver issue with the way VISTA does its power managment). I have a Inspirion running VISTA and have the same problems and spent the same hours with clueless dell support staff. Anyone up for a class action suit (I'm serious).

 

The Studio 15's fingerprint software frequently doesn't work out of the box, or works one time and then no more. It has nothing to do with firewall software. In your case, it did, but that is not the problem we initially discussed.

So, maybe you should realize that it's something Dell is doing that is screwing up the fingerprint software before you start defending them. I sell a lot of Studio 15's and it happens on a good number of them.

I use the same fingerprint sofware on my HP notebooks, (it comes from HP) and it is flawless on the HP's...so I don't think it is Digital Persona's fault.

 

One solution --

I wanted to post this, in case it's relevant to anyone else. I had this same problem on my new Dell Studio, starting immediately after I installed CA Internet SEcurity Center. A whole lot of other stuff wasn't loading properly either. Everything went back to normal after I uninstalled the CA Firewall. I have no idea why the firewall was screwing with things like the fingerprint reader (or for that matter, with the windows sidebar and other basic stuff), and I tried to find settings that would fix the problem, but in the end I just uninstalled it and regained control of my computer.