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3 Posts
1
35063
M6500 Fingerprint Reader Issues
Hello All,
I have recently made a clean install from DVD of the DELL OEM Win7 Pro 64 bit on my M6500. I unfortunately cannot get the fingerprint reader to be recognised by the DELL Embassy Security Center fingerprint enrolment.
It is however installed correctly in Windows, the device manager fingerprint reader hardware ID is
USB\VID_0A5C&PID_5801&REV_0101&MI_00
I have tried to upgrade the firmware of the fingerprint reader using the "Dell ControlVault Firmware Update" for Win7 64-bit, but the updater is not compatible with 64-bit Windows!
So, the simple question is: how do I go from a freshly installed DELL OEM Win7 Pro 64 bit to a working fingerprint reader to use for Windows login?
Thanks,
Pax7
3 Posts
1
May 26th, 2014 02:00
Hello again All,
After too many hours of time trying to get the fingerprint reader to work, FINALLY it does.
To help others here is what I did:
Since the 64-bit version of "Dell ControlVault Firmware Update" is not compatible with 64-bit Windows (is this DELL sense of humour?), I had to install Win7 32-bit on a secondary HDD just to be able to apply the firmware update.
It turned out that despite this, "Dell Data Protection | Access" was not able to use the reader, despite it could identify the reader as working and "OK" (another example of DELL sense of humour?).
So, I uninstalled "Dell Data Protection | Access" and installed "Dell ControlVault Driver" instead. It turns out that fully undocumented, this package includes a Broadcomm fingerprint enrolment application that actually works!
In summary, it would be nice if the install procedure would be documented and if not >50% of the 112 M6500 DELL downloads were not overlapping or otherwise practically undocumented. This is my first DELL, and in my 20 years in computing this is the worst documented and compatible Windows-based system I have ever come across.
Now, on to the M6500 touchpad, which does not work well, at least not with the DELL supplied driver/management application.
SRS1970
2 Posts
0
May 26th, 2014 07:00
Pax7
3 Posts
0
May 26th, 2014 08:00
The "Dell ControlVault Firmware Update" and the "Dell ControlVault Driver" are both the latest versions. You find them with these exact names in the download area.
Note that to apply "Dell ControlVault Firmware Update", you have to go into a sub-folder and manually run one of the .exe files (fwupgrade sth I think, I do not have the archive at hand now), as the top-level .bat does not work. What is that? Which normally skilled user can handle that? In addition the documentation is largely incorrect or not useful.
And yes, I applied the firmware patch in Win7 32-bit and then installed "Dell ControlVault Driver" in Win7 64-bit, and the fingerprint reader works for login in Win7 64-bit.
Lastly, as a note I did try to install Win XP just to apply the firmware patch, but consider not to bother since the Win XP installer BSODs on the M6500, at least with my HW and BIOS settings.