Fingerprint reader stopped working

[jmak]

Weird one: we run a fleet of several hundred Dell Latitudes and the fingerprint readers have stopped working this morning.

 

It looks like it doesn't detect the presence of the finger at all. People who hadn't turned their PC off last night could use it when they first switched on. It looks like GP update could be involved - although we've made no changes to the policy overnight. When GP update runs, it stops working. We do have a policy to explicitly enable Windows Hello, including "Allow users to log on using biometrics".

 

This is happening on devices which have had no OS, software or firmware updates.

[mavhc]

what do the event logs say?

[jmak]

what do the event logs say?

Nowt.

 

No security events as the finger isn't detected. No firmware changes. Fingerprint reader is on in bios. We've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver.

 

It looks like something interacting with a group policy as it stopped working when gpupdate ran this morning - but the group policy hasn't changed.

 

We can login with PIN, so Windows Hello is enabled and working. It offers fingerprint as a login option, but didn't detect the finger at all, so no error to log. If it didn't recognize the fingerprint, it would revert to PIN login - that's not happening.

[Dos_Box]

I have a Dell Vostro laptop and the fingerprint reader on that will stop working after a couple of days use with it only being hibernated via closing the laptop lid.

Is the driver being shown as having crashed? Mine uses the Goodix MOC fingerprint reader.

It's a common problem across a range of Dell laptops apparently.

[FN-GM]

My personal Dell Latitude is also doing this. Started a week or so ago…

[Dos_Box]

My personal Dell Latitude is also doing this. Started a week or so ago…

 

Can I ask how long you've had your Latitude? Mine only strated to do this after quite a time, but is now a regular thing and unless you reboot (or restart the driver) after three days or so.

[jmak]

Can I ask how long you've had your Latitude? Mine only strated to do this after quite a time, but is now a regular thing and unless you reboot (or restart the driver) after three days or so.

I know you were asking @Dos_Box but my machine is 3 years old, we have it on 5440s (one year old) and a 7450 (three months old). Mine has worked since new, was in sleep mode this morning and worked until GPUpdate ran.

[Dos_Box]

I know you were asking @Dos_Box but my machine is 3 years old, we have it on 5440s (one year old) and a 7450 (three months old). Mine has worked since new, was in sleep mode this morning and worked until GPUpdate ran.

 

Is it the same fingerprint reader as mine (Goodix)?

[FN-GM]

Can I ask how long you've had your Latitude? Mine only strated to do this after quite a time, but is now a regular thing and unless you reboot (or restart the driver) after three days or so.

 

Probably about a year or so, but it wasn't new. Only just started to happen as well. The reader in mine is a Broadcom

Edited September 29, 2024 by FN-GM

[Dos_Box]

Probably about a year or so, but it wasn't new. Only just started to happen as well. The reader in mine is a Broadcom

 

Is that the driver crashing too? Some of the solutions I've seen are to set the power options on it to prevent Windows turning it off, but that never seemed to work for me.

[FN-GM]

[emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji638][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]]]Is that the driver crashing too? Some of the solutions I've seen are to set the power options on it to prevent Windows turning it off' date=' but that never seemed to work for me.[/quote']

 

Honestly, I haven’t had time to check. In my free time I am currently renewing my CCNP and painting the downstairs ready for my brother visiting in [emoji638] weeks.

[jmak]

Mine is a Broadcom device. Driver is running fine - I've tried reinstalling the driver and it made no difference.

[Dos_Box]

One thing I found whilst looking for a solution, is that the 'strip' type readers can fail is because a coating over the lens wears off and gives false results.

Mine however, is built into the power button and is flat, without a lens.

it's all very puzzling.

[markcuk]

Just fixed mine Lattitude 7410, needed to reinstall Dell ControlVault3 Driver and Firmware. all over reddit blaming some defender updates

[markcuk]

I have read it a cert issue with the drivers

[jmak]

What with a bunch of clients reporting a malware attack that was actually the antivirus not trusting its own updates and Microsoft Defender borking biometric logins, this security stuff can be a bit of a PITA!

[jmak]

Just fixed mine by the same method. Downloaded the Controlvault software from the Dell website and ran it without uninstalling anything. Rebooted and logged in with fingerprint [emoji116]

 

It comes in an msi so I might look at deploying with group policy.

 

We don't run Defender, but it might be antivirus definitions. That's the only thing that changed between when a system was working and when it stopped.

[markcuk]

keep an eye on this thread

[jmak]

keep an eye on this thread

That's the thread I found after you pointed me in the right direction - I'm not much of a Reddit user.

 

The bad news is that it doesn't look like there's a single version of the Controlvault software that works on all the devices, so we'll probably have to help users one by one. Fortunately we only have a few hundred affected devices [emoji30]