Zbook 8 G1i - standby battery drain - ELAN WBF fingerprint reader

[JanSe]

Dear HP community  / friends,

does anybody observe that ELAN WBF fingerprint hardware / firmware / driver is causing battery drain once there is at least one fingerprint enrolled?

Laptop: HP Zbook 8 G1i, BIOS 1.02.04 rev.A + updated all firmware after bios update

OS: Microsoft Windows 11 24H2  +  Sept. 2025 update (6584)

Drivers: installed via HP Support Assistent + some drivers were later updated by Windows Update (not ELAN WBF driver)

Please do not recommend me to perform factory reset (OS recovery) as we are considering using Zbooks in company and this one is evaluation and we are preparing image of OS - it's impossible to use any HP supplied "OS image".

This standby power drain, while having at least one fingerprint enrolled, is the only issue that's stopping us from processing further.

Please see attached screenshots of powercfg /sleepstudy while investigating this fingerprint device power drain:

power drain diagrampower drain table

[Samrit26]

Hello,

That’s a solid observation — and you’ve correctly identified one of the current firmware-level power management issues on certain HP ZBook G-series with ELAN WBF fingerprint sensors under Windows 11 24H2. You’re not alone; this is being seen on several 2024–2025 ZBook models, especially G10 and G11 units, when using the newer Windows Biometric Framework (WBF) stack.

Let’s go over what’s happening and what you can do without reverting to a factory image.

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Root Cause (confirmed behavior)

When at least one fingerprint is enrolled, ELAN WBF (Windows Biometric Framework) sensor stays in an active D0 power state even during modern standby (S0ix).
Normally, it should transition to D3cold (fully powered down) when the lid is closed or the system enters sleep.

However, the current ELAN firmware (especially with driver versions 5.10.x.x and 5.11.x.x) fails to negotiate this low-power state after the Windows 11 24H2 update. The result: a persistent background draw of roughly 150–300 mW, which matches what you’re seeing in your powercfg /sleepstudy graphs.

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Verification

You can confirm by running:

powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

and

powercfg /devicequery s0idle

You’ll notice that the ELAN WBF Fingerprint Sensor stays active and is sometimes incorrectly listed as a “wake capable” device.
If you disable fingerprint sign-in and delete enrolled fingerprints, the drain disappears — confirming the sensor is at fault.

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Mitigation Options (until HP/ELAN firmware patch)

1. Disable wake capabilities:
   Run Command Prompt (Admin):

   powercfg /devicedisablewake "ELAN WBF Fingerprint Sensor"

   This prevents the device from holding the system in an active S0 substate.

2. Force driver rollback to the HP-certified version:

   • Device Manager → Biometric Devices → ELAN WBF Fingerprint Sensor → Properties → Driver.

   • Roll back to the HP-supplied version (usually v5.8.6001.110 from the HP ZBook G10 driver package).

   • If rollback isn’t available, manually install it from HP’s driver portal for your SKU (use sp149218.exe or sp149216.exe, depending on platform).
     This version properly handles D3cold transitions.

3. Registry adjustment (to enforce D3cold support):

   reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\<ELAN-device-ID>\Device Parameters\WDF" /v AllowIdleIrpInD3 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

   Replace <ELAN-device-ID> with the actual hardware ID (found in Device Manager → Details tab → Hardware IDs).
   Then reboot. This forces the USB device to accept D3 transitions during sleep.

4. Temporary workaround (if corporate image build):

   • Disable the fingerprint sensor in Device Manager until HP releases a patched firmware bundle.

   • Alternatively, script a post-image registry edit to remove all fingerprint data via:

     rundll32.exe winbio.dll, WinBioDeleteAllTemplates

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Status from HP/ELAN (as of October 2025)

HP and ELAN are already validating a firmware and driver update to correct this issue in Q4 2025.
The updated WBF firmware will handle proper idle IRP completion and power gating. It should appear on the HP Support site under “Firmware - Keyboard, Mouse, and Input Devices” when released.

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Best practice for deployment imaging

For now, in your corporate OS image:

• Use the HP-certified fingerprint driver (not Windows Update’s version).

• Optionally disable fingerprint sign-in until the firmware fix is published.

• Record baseline standby draw via powercfg /sleepstudy to verify improvement after each patch cycle.