Fingerprint sensor stopped working: driver not compatible with this version of Windows 10

[russthegibbon]

The fingerprint scanner on my Envy 13-aq0003na stopped working several weeks ago.  I can go to sign-in options and choose to set up Windows Hello Fingerprint, and I get the dialog where it asks me to place my finger repeatedly on the scanner.  Nothing happens when I touch the scanner, and after a few seconds the dialog changes to "Sorry, something went wrong.  Close Windows Hello, then try going through the setup again."

• Rebooting the machine hasn't helped.
• In Device Manager under Biometric devices, I can see "Synaptics WBDI SGX".  I uninstalled the device, choosing to delete the driver software, then did Scan for hardware changes to reinstall it, but that didn't solve the problem.
• I installed the latest Synaptics Fingerprint Sensor Driver from the HP website (6.0.39.1111 Rev.D).  On installing, I got a warning saying "The driver is not supported on this OS version (10.0.19042).

Has HP stopped supporting the fingerprint sensor on this notebook model?   That would be very poor indeed considering it cost me well over £1000 and it's less than 2years old.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Is the device showing up in the device manager as an unknown device or showing that it needs the driver installed?

Sometimes you can get around the "The driver is not supported on this OS version " message by manually installing the driver.

If you see the device in the device manager, click on it.  Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update Driver.

Select the 'Browse my computer for drivers' option, and browse to the driver folder that was created when you ran the file.

That folder should be in C:\SWSetup\sp104404.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked and see if the driver installs that way.

Then restart the PC and see if you can use the fingerprint scanner again.

[russthegibbon]

First of all, thanks for taking the time to reply: I really appreciate it.

I tried your suggestion but unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.  Then I re-installed Windows via Reset this PC: still no good.

Finally I went into Reset this PC and chose to remove everything and wipe the disk before re-installing.  Now the fingerprint scanner is working again on Windows 20H2, build 19042.985.  So the nuclear option fixed the problem, but I'll probably never know what caused it!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Glad you were able to get the fingerprint sensor to work again using the full reset.