A fingerprint reader fix

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I’ve been using an ASUS R1F Tablet PC for about six months now and am still quite pleased with its performance and reliability.

I’ve become addicted to its fingerprint reader for logging on to my user account and password-protected websites. But until recently I assumed that the reader hardware was defective.

Despite my practice at perfect my fingerprint swiping technique, it often took three or four tries to get a good read.

And then, a little over a week ago, I discovered an update to the UPEK driver software that powers the fingerprint reader hardware. (According to UPEK’s site, the hardware is used in notebooks from Amoi, ASUS, Gateway IBM/Lenovo, Itronix, MPC, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.) The driver package works with Windows 2000, Windows XP (32 and 64 bit), Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit), and Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit).

Since February 13, I have consistently been getting successful reads in a single swipe, and on those occasions when I miss the mark, I hit it on the second try. That’s a huge improvement, and it certainly isn’t because my technique suddenly improved.

This experience really does show what a difference a driver can make.

(By the way, I found this driver by following a link from fellow MVP Aaron Tiensivu’s list of Thinkpad T60/T60p/T61/T61p 32-bit Vista drivers. Must reading for Thinkpad fans.)

Published by Ed Bott

Published

7 thoughts on “A fingerprint reader fix”

  1. Thanks for your tip Ed.
    I use a Dell XPS 1530. It appears that it uses the same driver.
    At least it accepted a manual driver update.
    I have a lot of problems of fingerprint recognition after a sleep or hibernate, so let’s see if the driver solves that too.

  2. Great tip, Ed! It also proves that a 64-bit driver can be done for Vista. Where’s your 64-bit fingerprint reader update, Microsoft??

  3. Hi
    i have a xps 1530 and the fingerprint reader is not to good like urs was.
    i tried to find that update u were on about but cant find it anywere….?
    i use xp pro x64
    could u post a link maybe??? 😉
    Thx

  5. i havea xps1530 laptop.my finger print reader was working fine untill i installed a fresh copy of vista,when i tried to feed my finger prints a message poped up saying that biometric device not found.i tried re installing the drivers but to no avail. i installled vista again but this time it shows 0xe72c0007 error.i don’t know what has gone wrong with it.it was working perfectly fine.
    plzz if u can help me resolve this problem ASAP.

  7. have the same problem. I get a fingerprint software error 0xe72c0007 on my DELL XPS M1330. Where you able to solve this?

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