Fingerprint reader software completely hangs system at login

My system (T400 with custom install) had been running perfectly up until the past few days. It started with the fingerprint reader only working at first boot, but not working after sleep or locking the computer, but now the system won't load to the point where you can swipe your finger at all, it will instead just say "Please wait" indefinitely while it thinks about something.

I've tried a few things, including disabling the fingerprint software during startup in MSCONFIG. This speeds things up a bit but performance is restored to normal only when I've completely uninstalled it (I may be missing something I can turn off in MSCONFIG to completely disable the software).

I also tried disabling the fingerprint system in BIOS, and clearing the saved fingerprints through the BIOS before reinstalling the software which hasn't helped so I think the problem is the software itself.

At this point I think I'm just going to have to disable the reader entirely by uninstalling the software. Anyone else run in to a similar problem and actually stumble across a solution?

I can't find a newer version, or any 64 bit version of the fingerprint drivers on the Lenovo site, but it does install the version 2.0 of the system through System Update... which is what I had and it still doesn't work.

 

yes I had this problem on vista 32 bit, turned out it was firewall. See if it works for you if you disable your firewall and reboot.

 

I've seen some mention of people having this problem with the Zone Alarm firewall... I only have the standard Windows firewall but that might be worth a shot.

edit: well I tried disabling the Windows firewall and it hasn't helped. At this point I'm just going to uninstall the fingerprint software and deal with it another time perhaps

 

Zone Alarm and other firewalls are a PITA. Quite frankly, the built-in Windows firewall and Defender are "good enough". I've used that, plus and anti-virus, and had no issues.

Zone Alarm, etc, use to be need back in the days of loose configs of Windows 98/2000/XP. In my experience, they create more issues than they are worth.

I'm using the fingerprint software and it's working well. I had to turn the sensitivity down, which go rid of the annoying repeated failed scan popup during initial login, but since then it's been working like a champ.

 

I've had problems with other firewalls in the past as well, which is why I only use the Windows one anymore on the computer itself.

Doesn't solve this problem though. Now I have a completely useless fingerprint reader on an otherwise perfectly functional laptop.

 

Since last week I have had the fingerprint software uninstalled. I did a BIOS update a few days ago and also applied the IRLP timing registry patch (even though I think it was meant for 32 bit systems). Today I decided to try reinstalling the fingerprint driver and it worked just fine.