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3 Posts
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40160
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.
decker12
2 Intern
2 Intern
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157 Posts
1
November 13th, 2018 13:00
I've had similar experiences with their Self Encrypting Drives (SED). We used to order Latitudes with both finger print sensors and SEDs, with the thought that we'd be really secure if one of our laptops got stolen.
It was an unmitigated disaster. Check my post history for my comments about using the Dell suite of "security and protection" products which included the fingerprint software and SED software. Literally 60+ hours of screwing around trying to get the products actually working on Windows 7.
Now that we've upgraded to Windows 10 we no longer order SEDs and instead just use Bitlocker. All of our Windows 7 machines have SEDs which are not being used because the software just plain doesn't work, was impossible to install, or routinely bricks / kills the hard drives for no reason other than it thinks it's been compromised and won't unlock.
Maybe it all works well if you have 10,000 people in your company and your IT dept has some massive complex $150,000 managed "Dell Security Encryption Protection Suite Enterprise Virtual Cloud Service for Windows 2016 Datacenter Edition" (or god knows what they actually call it).
But for everyone else, my company included, it's just an aggravating pile of junk that I've struggled with and never got working, so we just don't use it anymore.
Mr.Martinn
28 Posts
0
November 22nd, 2018 11:00
mountez
6 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2018 05:00
I have talked to official support.
About three weeks ago they replaced my fingerprint reader to new one - but of course without any change.
Today I have received infromation that my Latitude 7390 doen't support Windows Hello feature. So there is no official possibilty that reader works stable.
(Why did they replace reader...?)
I am little confused what to do with new laptop...
swerwwe
1 Message
0
November 30th, 2018 05:00
we have 6 brand new dell laptops, latitude. Those fingerprint sensors are useless - same symptoms as described above.
Mr.Martinn
28 Posts
0
November 30th, 2018 08:00
I volunteered for support - they want to replace the fingerprint
Of course, I do not agree because it is not a problem and nothing can be replaced
Mr.Martinn
28 Posts
0
November 30th, 2018 09:00
decker12
2 Intern
2 Intern
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157 Posts
0
November 30th, 2018 09:00
Personally I think the physical hardware is fine. It's whatever happens after you rub your finger on the sensor that doesn't work properly. It's a driver or a low level function or some problem with ControlPoint and how it accesses the Trusted Platform Module that ends up being the problem.
I have had TONS of problems with Dells security suite of software. I've bricked SSDs by no fault of my own trying to use the Dell Data Protect Encryption software with pre-boot authentication. I've spent countless hours trying to get the Dell Data Protection suite working without much luck. Knowing that the fingerprint reader also talks to that software makes me think it's not the physical hardware, it's the software layer underneath that doesn't work well.
I've plugged in external fingerprint scanners via USB, and using their 3rd party software that came with the scanner, it was far more reliable. You have to do that in case you want to use a fingerprint scan to wake up a laptop that is docked to 2 monitors and has it's lid closed.
The fingerprint readers on Dell business laptops don't work well as we've all experienced. The SSD / self encrypting drives with pre-boot authentication don't work well as I can attest to after years of screwing around with them. I haven't used smart card authentication with Dell business laptops but if I did, I can bet it wouldn't work well either.
There's no instructions or steps anywhere that tell you how to use Dell Data Protection suite of security programs so you just have to screw around with it trying to get it to work. We've reached out to our reseller/integrations vendor (one of the largest in the country) and even THEY told us it's a poor product and not to use it.
I've given up on it all and use Windows 10 with Bitlocker for drive encryption and we no longer use the fingerprint readers.
micpyc
7 Posts
0
December 6th, 2018 03:00
The same issue on 5490. They switch a new sensor three times with no result.
Mr.Martinn
28 Posts
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December 6th, 2018 10:00
micpyc
7 Posts
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December 12th, 2018 14:00
Yes, it looks like. Does we have some response from Dell? Would them fix it? Sorry for english.
Zdzich
3 Posts
2
December 16th, 2018 10:00
@decker12- "Personally I think the physical hardware is fine."
If physical hardware is fine then how can it be that licking a finger and then touching the sensor makes it work then without a problem?
BTW: I don't want to lick my finger so I breathe on it thus humiditing it - this makes fingerprint read succesful at the first attempt in most cases.
And regarding Dell Data Protection it has just reached its End-of-Support date as described here:
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln305349/end-of-life-end-of-support-policy-for-dell-data-security?lang=en
micpyc
7 Posts
0
December 28th, 2018 09:00
Not bad. But when you wake up from hibernation nothing will save you. The reader does not answer at all.
micpyc
7 Posts
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January 24th, 2019 09:00
Trumpetron
5 Posts
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May 10th, 2019 12:00
I had the same problem with a new E5491 and was about to return it. After experimenting I found that pressure is your friend. If you just touch the reader it is unreliable. But if you press your finger down I find it reads it 80% of the time. YMMV.
naspolya
1 Message
0
June 5th, 2019 02:00
I have a 7490, and had the same issue with the weak fingerprint reader.
Now I have tried out with my thumb finger, and 9 out of 10 times it works like a charm.
The fingerprint sensor's algorithm should recognize your finger independent of rotation or shifting. In reality the algorithm (working with sensor's input data) is really sensitive even to small shifts. Maybe the sensor is not efficient enough, but it gets along better with the wider, more contoured lines of my thumb.
I don't know why are they using such a garbage sensor in a business class notebook, these are the small details which could easily mess up the good user experience.