Digital Persona Fingerprint Reader

[calvertnr]

I have an HDX 18t. It came with windows vista x64 and I upgraded to windows 7 x64. After the upgrade the built in digital persona fingerprint reader stopped working. The fingerprint reader was not detected. I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling, and updating the drivers. Currently I have the latest software for the fingerprint reader installed (4.11.3826). The icon for the fingerprint reader has the "x" on it indicating that the reader is not detected.

I have already been sent to the post:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/DigitalPersona-Validity-fingerprint-and-...

I followed the instructions for part A on installing Validity fingerprint driver and DigitalPersona Personal software. However, after my computer rebooted a message appeared and said "the fingerprint reader could not be detected. Please reinstall using the application and driver recovery disk that came with your system."

Previously, I have tried unistalling digital persona entirely and reinstalling from the application and driver recovery disk. However, this did not work either.

I think the recovery disk is not working since it was made for windows vista. The only way (At least as far as I know) I could succesfully use this disk would be to reinstall vista and then reinstall the application and driver recovery disk. However I would no longer have windows 7 which I paid for already.

I have also attempted to contact Digital Persona about the issue online, I have not had much success though.

If ANYONE can at least tell me who can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. I have tried several different solutions several times and it is becoming frustrating. I just want to use the fingerprint reader that came installed in my computer. I want to keep windows 7, so I will not downgrade for the fingerprint reader. This problem has persisted for several months now and I just want it to be dealt with.

I have enough confidence in my computer skills to be able to follow instructions given to me online, but I am not above having a techinician fix it for me. So if that is necessary I would quickly oblige. The only thing I wish to avoid is shipping my computer anywhere since I use it everyday for school.

I apologize for the length of the post. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[HaggisCat]

First of all, did you run the Microsoft upgrade adviser ? Did you uninstall all of the finger print reader software before you did the upgrade and for that matter any other incompatible programs and drivers ?

If you didn't, uninstall all the finger print stuff again > restart > go to the device manager and uninstall the finger print driver from there. It's listed as "Biometric Devices" Restart your machine again and if you go to the device you should have a yellow

 triangle(s) indicating the missing driver.

Install CCleaner and run the registry cleaner.

 http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/  There may be a check box to install a tool bar, uncheck this.

Restart and run it again. Do this as many times as necessary so that there are no more loose registry files left. Only use CCleaner and nothing else.

 Now go to these links  and down load these two rar files to desk top. One is for Digital Persona and the other is Validity Sensor.

http://j.imagehost.org/download/0141/DPFPR

http://j.imagehost.org/download/0131/Finger

Here is the link for the rar software to extract them.

Pick the trial 64 bit one.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Open and install the Finger one first (Validity Sensor). Restart.  This will correct the yellow flags in the device manager.

Do the same for the second one.

Restart after all of this and hopefully this should work. The files that I gave you may not be the most up to date software, but they are from my dv8 t 1000 cto. The dv8 replaced the HDX series and the drivers and software were designed to work in W7. There have been problems with the items on the HP web site, so I know the drivers and software I gave does work in

Windows 7

[calvertnr]

I tried going through those steps several times. Each time I installed the digital persona software it said my reader could not be detected, and that I should install the reader with the application and driver software that came with my system.

Also I did run the microsoft upgrade advisor. It said that the fingerprint software might not work properly after the upgrade, along with HP mediasmart music/photo/video. It also said the keyboard filter might not work properly. The advisor said to uninstall these programs before the upgrade. I can't remember if I did or not, but I'm not having any problems with the HP mediasmart. Although the advisor said only the mediasmart software could be safely reinstalled after the upgrade.

I figured the fingerprint software would need an update to work on windows 7.

[HaggisCat]

The other thing that wasn't tried here was to first update the Bios. Even if you have the latest version, sometimes reinstalling it will allow the software to interact with the devices on your laptop.

The reason why you need to uninstall those things before hand is this : when you upgrade it does not remove the old Vista registry files that may not work when you upgrade, they are still in there in other words. So even when you install compatible drivers and software, deleting the old stuff, never gets deleted entirely. The old registry files don't get deleted because you don't have permission to do so. This is a theory. I did some experimenting last night and have some more things for you to do. It's kind of involved, but you seam to be computer savvy.

We need to find the registry files for the finger print reader, change their permission and delete them off the hard drive. When you reinstall the the Validity Sensor driver it should replace those registry files with the correct ones, assuming that the ones in there are incorrect.

Go to the device manager > biometric devices > expand > right click > properties > driver > driver details. The list that appears is where the drivers are in "C" on the hard drive. eg. Windows/system32/drivers/cdrom.sys (this one os for the dvd player).

Keep this list open so you can get to the right ones to change their permission to delete them. You may want to write their names down as in order to delete them you will have to close the device manager down and go back in later to delete them out of "C". They will just end up in the recycle bin and you can simply choose to restore them if need be.

 To change the permission so you can delete them : have the device manager open so you can get the right ones, I believe there are three. Two are in Windows/system32  and one is in Windows/system32/drivers.

Right click on the correct one that you have found from the list in the device manager > properties > security > advanced > owner > edit > your computer name should be there what ever you named you computer. Click on that and push apply. Close this off. Go back to your first window and click "edit" Choose from the list for your computer name, tick the box "full control" > apply. At this point you should simply be able to right click on the file and delete it. Do that or all three.

Go through the drill again and reinstall the Validity Sensor driver first then Digital persona. Run CCleaner again after you uninstall both. Do not restart the computer after you have deleted the drivers or uninstalling Validity Sensor, go in and reinstall the driver and Digital Persona.

If this does not work, then my next suggestion would be to do what I had to do when I went Windows 7 on my HDX and that was to do a full install and not an upgrade.

The biggest problem on mine was that the Media Smart would not play Blu-ray's any more and the hot-keys refused to work properly. None of the drivers or software would install. It would appear they would, but then nothing would happen.

I ended up wiping out the other hard drive deleting everything on it and creating "unallocated space" This totally wiped out Vista, doing it this way goes beyond formatting. I opened up the hard drive compartment, changed them around and proceeded to do a full reinstall. When I had W7 up and running I just formatted the drive with the other operating system on it.

 I then of course had to manually install all the drivers and any software that I wanted. It took a long time to find what drivers and software made the hot keys work properly. There is a very long thread here about that, but all the answers are there concerning the hot keys.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/HDX16-buttons-in-windows-7/td-p/154571

I t was nice starting with a clean slate though.

The above is for a HDX 16, but they are very much the same.

[Daniel_Potyrala]

@calvertnr

Hi,

You are saying that below guide:

 DigitalPersona Personal and Windows 7

isn't working for You. I answered in Your topic some time ago. There is now updated driver which I'm posting below:

Validity fingerprint driver here (ver 3.1.374 for 32/64 bit Win7)

Important note:

Remember to uninstall old driver and software for fingerprint before You will install other driver.

Resources:
Uninstalling Software in Windows 7
Uninstall or change a program in Windows 7

If this will not solve Your problem too then try latest one:

Validity fingerprint driver here (ver 3.1.374 B for 32/64 bit Windows 7)

Please report back about Your results.

[kingsrook14 · Accepted solution]

After many many days for toil I have finally found the solution to get Validity VFS301 sensor working with Digital Persona on Win 7 64 bit as it is supposed to.

DO NOT INSTALL WBF drivers from any websites or from drivermax.. These drivers only allow logging in Win7 and not website log in.

1) First UNINSTALL all software and DDK (validity drivers)....

       Make sure you also go to Control Panel => Device Manager => Validity Sensor

        UNINSTALL the sensor and check "delete the driver software for this device"

2) Then make sure you REBOOT

3) Download and Install Validity drivers from HP

      ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp48501-49000/sp48509.exe

4) REBOOT AGAIN ... it is important

5) Download Digital Persona ver 4.11.3805 from link below

         http://d11tvxmfjhi64o.cloudfront.net/X64/Setup.exe

     (This file is taken from

      http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq-voodoo-pc/404164-drivers-hp-dv6-gen-2-dv7-gen-3-dv8-hdx16-...

6)  RUN the Setup.exe

      When it asks to install driver for finger print reader (the first dialog you get when you run the setup.exe)

      DO NOT click INSTALL

      Leave the installation window as it is...

7) Open windows explorer by pressing win+E

😎 Go to

      C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\

      click the column "Date Modified" to sort the last modified files first in the list

       You will have a folder with   {05B54AFA-28C6-4FED-A0E6-3F235641DA1D} <============= EXAMPLE only it will be different on your computer

       Go in the folder and you will see some ini files with a file named "fingerprint reader drivers.prq"

       open "fingerprint reader drivers.prq" in notepad.exe

        Delete all the lines of text in the file "fingerprint reader drivers.prq"  and save the empty file.

9) return to Digital Persona setup dialog mentioned in point 6

     Now click INSTALL and let it install the software

     It will open the same folder again and then continue install...

     When it asks to REBOOT click YES

10)  After REBOOT the finger print reader is working without a hitch.

REMEMBER THE KUDOS IF MY SOLUTION SOLVES YOUR PROBLEM

[calvertnr]

I have been busy with other things for a while, but I got on here tonight and decided to try again. Your solution was very simple and worked the first time I tried it with no problems at all. Thank you so much, I've been trying to fix this for a long time haha

[sunflowur2]

I am having the same problem the fingerprint reader cannot be detected I have installed and uninstalled tried the recovery manager and nothing.  My question is I have a Pavilion dv6700t CTO Entertainment Notebook p/n KT260AV with windows Vista 32 bit.  Your help would greatly be appreciated.

[Tanna]

Worked on 

hp pavilion dv4 1100ea

Thanks Yar 

[srinathcv]

Perfect solution.  Many thanks