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40132
Fingerprint reader unresponsive on 7490
Hello,
We got two new 7490 and both have the same problem with fingerprint reader:
- Intermittently but often it becomes unresponsive at windows login screen, after windows start, locking or sleep. Like it's not up at all. Sometimes after quite a while (minutes) it starts responding to fingerprint touches, sometimes it's numb and does not response at all and we have to login with pass or pin. What we did is disable power save for fingerprint reader but it did not help. Then we installed latest drivers but that too did not help.
- If fingerprint responds, it has problems reading fingerprint touches, often it does not recognize my fingers (I added several) and I have to login with pin quite often. What we did is try to clean the sensor before touching it but it does not help.
This is very frustrating problem. We are not sure if this is Windows, driver or hardware related fingerprint reader problem. Before we had laptop from other well know brand and fingerprint reader worked flawlessly.
Since this happens on both of our new 7490 I wonder if anyone else has experienced this and did you manage to resolve this issue.
Best Regards,
Sasha
ps. I would be quite disappointed if I have to send the notebook back for fingerprint servicing right out of the box.
thedriver
13 Posts
2
August 20th, 2018 00:00
... Same here.
Aren't Dell reps supposed to respond to these threads to assist people with problems?
I have a brand new 7490, Windows Hello seems to accept the fingerprint setting it up without any problems, but it's impossible to sign in using the sensor. At the sign-in page, Windows just shows the error, "make sure that your fingerprint sensor is clean".
Have tried different fingerprints, have tried deleting and creating new prints (works fine) in Windows Hello, but can never sign-in using the fingerprints.
thrivelife
1 Message
0
August 29th, 2018 16:00
Having the same issues over here. I've gone through all the troubleshooting tips listed, but the problem persists. IMO, I think it's just a poorly designed fingerprint scanner. Maybe modern smartphones and MBPs have set a new bar for reliable recognition and other manufacturers haven't caught up yet.
Scanner is recognized about 50% of the time, but the fingerprint is recognized about 20% of the time. Makes something meant to create convenience and makes it's more inconvenient than entering a password.
jeffn67
6 Posts
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September 7th, 2018 18:00
Same for my 7490. No problem setting up the fingerprint but it never works when I want to login.
mazutti
1 Message
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September 11th, 2018 05:00
Same problem in my 7490.
escion
1 Message
1
September 27th, 2018 15:00
I have a fleet of 250 laptops, 70 xLatitude7490, 50xLatitude7470, 60xLatitude7450, 30xLatitude7440, and 40xLatitude6230,
i have the same fingerprint issue on EVERY SINGLE MODEL. they all have different fingerprint readers, some are the glass sensor ones like the 7490 and 7470, others are the finger swipe kind. This is a persistent problem that we've had on every generation of latitude laptops. We are to the point of switching to HP or Lenovo because of pervasive problems like this. Another problem we're having is random Cellular connectivity problems. Is this a driver problem? is it a windows problem? is it a hardware problem?
We tried the "lick your finger" trick and it seems to cause the reader to read correctly more frequently, but SERIOUSLY?! you expect me to tell 250+ staff to lick their fingers to authenticate?! and even then, what is causing all the other "device didn't wake from sleep" problems?
CAN SOMEBODY AT DELL PLEASE ADDRESS THESE ISSUES?
DAF44
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118 Posts
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September 27th, 2018 16:00
Well said!!!
Now looking at the significant number of posts on this issue I would have expected someone from Dell to chime in by now. I have read their responses on many other issues so I know they monitor the forum.
And by the way, we already know that it is NOT a driver or Windows issue.
I'll go out on a limb and say that Dell has their best people working on a solution or maybe not:Wink:
petljalo
3 Posts
2
October 1st, 2018 03:00
Every smartfone in $100 range has fingerprint reader that actually works, fast and reliable. Fingerprint reader in Latitude 7490 is a joke and embarrassment to Dell and yet Latitude 7490 costs more then 15 times more. It's been many months since people indicated this frustrating problem. Dell did NOTHING about it. They could acknowledge the problem and come clean saying "we can't fix it, sorry" but they made the worst possible decision to ignore the problem until it goes away. So next time I decide who will be our notebook supplier I will ignore Dell for sure.
DAF44
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118 Posts
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October 1st, 2018 05:00
This issue goes beyond the 7490 model. According to users in the forum, models 5285, 7280, 7390 and 7480 have the same problem.
Muhh
2 Posts
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October 13th, 2018 21:00
Mr.Martinn
28 Posts
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October 14th, 2018 00:00
a very serious problem that affects many people, so where did people with DELL support go ?
Has any of you reported this problem for a warranty support? Did DELL do something?
mountez
6 Posts
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November 13th, 2018 05:00
decker12
2 Intern
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157 Posts
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November 13th, 2018 12:00
Just wanted to throw my $.02 into this and say that we have NEVER found the fingerprint readers on any of our Latitudes to be particularly responsive or reliable. My users despise them and it was a nightmare for the few test users that we tested out a security policy that we actually required them to use them to log in.
They have also been a HUGE pain to enroll fingerprints on, with so many different versions and methods of Dell Data Protect, DDP Access, DDP Security Suite, DDP This and DDP That and DDP Enterprise ControlVault Protection Enrollment Server Blah Blah Blah Blah. The software side of it is a huge minefield and none of it is explained properly or very well. I've spent hours and hours trying to figure it out with little success.
Heaven forbid you wipe and re-image a laptop from a base Windows 7 installation disk - you won't even be able to get the drivers for these things working properly and the downloads available for your service tag are a mess where you may get the driver but Dell won't give you the enrollment piece where you actually scan in your fingerprint!
I remember a few years ago you had to install the fingerprint drivers before the Controlvault drivers and before the enrollment but not before you did something else which required ANOTHER thing first. You **bleep** up any of these specific steps and you literally had to reinstall Windows to start over. It was a joke.
I've had our reseller flat out tell me not to use the Dell security software because they've never gotten it working reliably enough for any of their clients.
We gave up on it and we no longer buy Dell laptops with integrated fingerprint readers. We tried it for years on various laptops and none of them were a solid, reliable user experience. Windows 10 made it a bit easier from a software standpoint but it's still wonky and unreliable as **bleep**.
By comparison, any external fingerprint reader works perfectly with these laptops under Windows 7 and Windows 10. I bought a bunch of models years ago so I could test them out so users could fingerprint auth when they are docked with their laptops closed, and every one of them worked almost perfectly out of the box. But I couldn't expect the users to drag this external fingerprint reader with it's 6' cable around with them every time they traveled.
Sorry to say, but I suggest bailing on the fingerprint reader problem because it's been a disaster for years and doesn't sound like it's gotten any better.
DAF44
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118 Posts
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November 13th, 2018 12:00
So ...you are saying we should get our money back:Smile:
DAF44
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118 Posts
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November 13th, 2018 13:00
@decker12
I fully understand what you are saying. I guess I was showing my frustration.
What appalls me is the total silence from Dell's staff about this issue in the forum.
decker12
2 Intern
2 Intern
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157 Posts
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November 13th, 2018 13:00
Well, you'd have to send the entire laptop back and you can only do that within the 30 day window of purchase. It's not like you can yank out the fingerprint reader and Dell sends you a check for $50.
In the future however I would not order Dells with the finger print readers, and I'm sad to say you should give up on them ever working properly and just stop using them altogether.
In my experience, regardless of the Latitude model, over the years they've simply never worked reliably enough and my frustrations with them are the same as other users on this thread. As I said I gave up on them entirely.
While my users may have them physically installed on their laptop, we do not require their use nor do we ask them to enroll their fingerprints in them.