HP EliteBook 845 G7 Fingerprint Sensor Issue

[TommyViper]

Hello HP Community!

I have a very strange issue going on with the fingerprint sensor built into my laptop. To start with, I know for a 100% fact that this isn't a driver issue but a hardware issue. To start, I do use Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be exact). I was using Arch Linux but have since switched, but that's irrelevant.

I bought the laptop a little over a month ago and it was working fantastic! The one and only upgrade I have done to it was I upgraded the RAM from 16GBs to 32GBs. But I am unsure if this is where the problem started or not because I didn't always use the fingerprint sensor. Since most of the time I just shut the lid to my laptop when I'm done using it rather than shutting it down, then I wasn't always having to sign in and I also wasn't updating every day. I have it set up so when I do something in the terminal that requires my sudo password, I can use the fingerprint sensor. That worked fine for quite some time. But after a while, that's when I noticed that it wasn't asking for my fingerprint anymore but rather just a password.

So I used the command lsusb and strange that the fingerprint sensor was no longer showing up. So I thought, okay...maybe it went bad. During hot days, I'd have something cool to drink and the glass would sweat and I noticed at times that it would sometimes leak onto the palm rest so I thought maybe the liquid damaged it. So I bought a new sensor. I put it in and to my dismay, it wasn't showing up either.

So a long story short when it comes to troubleshooting, I have come down to the conclusion that it's the bottom panel being screwed down completely that causes it to disappear. If I leave the right side a bit loose and pulled down, the sensor shows up and works just fine (in fact the original one works too!), but if I end up snapping the panel back on completely and screwing it down, the sensor disappears from the hardware list. But leaving the screws where the power plugs into and the one below that loose and just snapping the cover off ever so slightly, the sensor shows back up and works as expected.

So the question is, what could be causing this problem? As long as I've been working on computers, I've never come across something so strange. Could something be causing a short of some kind? I would think if the ribbon cable was the issue, then tightening the battery down over it would cause a problem, but it doesn't. It's only when the panel is snapped on and tightened down correctly that the issue shows up where the sensor disappears and stops even being seen.

Anyone have any ideas of things I can try to fix this issue? It would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[banhien]

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@TommyViper wrote:

Hello HP Community!

I have a very strange issue going on with the fingerprint sensor built into my laptop.

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@TommyViper 

Did you ACTUALLY buy Finger print sensor option ? You said it worked before, under which OS ?

Regards.

[TommyViper]

I'm not exactly sure I know what you mean. Do you mean did the laptop come with a fingerprint sensor installed from the factory? If that's what your question is, the answer is yes. At least it came that way when I bought the computer. I first installed Arch Linux on my laptop and it was working just fine until maybe 2 weeks ago, that's when I noticed that the fingerprint sensor wasn't showing up in the hardware list. (When I'd do a lsusb command in the terminal) That's why I bought a replacement, thinking it malfunctioned. But that's not the case. The case is when the bottom panel is fully snapped into place and the screwed tightened down. If the right side of the bottom panel is loosened, then it will show back up in the hardware list again. This doesn't prove a ton, but I took two screenshots of the hardware. One with the bottom paneled loosened up and one when I snapped it back into place. The first screenshot is of the hardware list when the panel is loosened a bit on the right side (same side the fingerprint sensor is on)

Right after the cover being snapped back into place, no reboot has taken place since the last screenshot.

So as you can see, Synaptics, Inc has disappeared from the list. That would be the fingerprint sensor. I know it probably doesn't prove a ton, but it shows that it does come and go but is ultimately recognized by the OS. Which is why I'm pretty sure it is definitely hardware related, but I don't know exactly why this is happening.