Thinkpad T60 Finger print login seems inconsistant and unreliable - how can I improve it?

My ThinkPad T60 has a build date of June 2006 and came almost fully optioned out/equipped.

My #1 frustration comes with the fingerprint reader. I have a very strong 14 character password that I prefer not to have to type in everytime I unlock or log into my thinkpad. Yet I'm finding it's usually much quicker for me to just type it instead of scanning my fingerprint, because sometimes I open up the lid, the fingerprint screen comes up, I swipe my finger, and there's a long delay before it says if I was successful or not. Other times it's quick, but it takes me between 1 and 15 times to get it to let me in - sometimes I even reach the lockout limit because of trying too many times.

I'm tried re-registering my fingerprint, I've tried alternate fingers, I've looked at my finger to make sure I don't have anything on it or any scratches, I always make sure the reader is cleaned off and my finger is free of dirt or sweat... yet it's still embarrassingly inconsistent.

I've used a USB connected Microsoft fingerprint scanner on several desktop PCs before and I almost never fail to authenticate on the first try. Granted that's a full-sized reader I just stick my finger on. With this IBM I have to 'swipe'. I'd say on average, 15% of the time I swipe it lets me in, 15% it says too fast, 15% it says 'too short' and the other 55% is mostly 'failed' messages.

When I first got this laptop I thought maybe it was just one of those things I'd have to get used to, like the motion for swiping my finger at the right speed and angle. But I can't seem to figure it out, and I login to my laptop at least 2-3 times every day for 5 months now. I also hoped that, like some fingerprint reading software, it might develop and refine its records of my fingerprint over time to where it was easier to recognize my finger the more I logged in. That doesn't seem to have changed either.

Is this just the way it is with this feature on all IBMs or am I doing something wrong or need to change a setting or upgrade a driver or what??

Off topic a bit but, overall I really enjoy this laptop. The build quality is not quite as impressive as legend had me convinced due to a very loose 9-cell battery and a squeaky/flexing right side wrist rest. But otherwise I'm extremely impressed and as long as the build quality and reliability hold up over the long haul I don't regret spending as much money as I did as opposed to buying another Dell Latitude.
Just the other day I finally realized I have an LED light for the keyboard, though I must say I've used laptops in the dark all my life prior to this and the glow from the screen is usually sufficient since I rarely look at the keyboard anyway. Still neat, though.

 

I've also found the fingerprint reader to be inconsistent. I have had better success with it after practicing for a while...sometimes I'll just go through my entire hand until I get one that registers. It is hit-or-miss, I'll grant you that. The difference between the swipe & impression style (like your M$ pad) is that the impression pad is viewed as being "less secure" as transient fingerprints will remain on the pad. It also takes up more space on the laptop. I don't think the technology has quite matured yet. I view it more of a gimmick than a really super-useful tool.

p.s. The LED light is pretty sweet

 

I also find it inconsistent, but a lot less than the OP's experience. I would probably say about 3 to 5% of the times, after I swipe my finger, nothing happens, it kinda just hangs there, sometimes, I find swiping another finger does the trick, but a few times, I had to reboot the laptop. Not really sure why that is though, since I haven't logged into windows yet, nothing's loaded, so why does rebooting it help?

 

Well that part doesn't happen to me much more than you described it happening to you.

It just seems really laggy with the finger print reading - sometimes it just doesn't work at all... but I can always circumvent it by ctrl-alt-del with my password... still, I wish it was reliable enough to where I could disable my password login entirely, but if I have an unsaved document or web page open the last thing I want to do is be forced to reset because my fingerprint reader is malfunctioning.

 

I wonder if certain finger prints work better than others. Have you asked a friend or family to try his/hers? Perhaps some types of patterns work better than others'. It is a stretch but a hypothesis none the less.

 

Strange, I must've done SOMETHING where if I ctr-alt-del to try to log in typing my pw, it won't let me giving me a message I don't remember ATM. I guess its kind of a good security feature in that you can't hack the pw. Its a finger swipe or nothing at all. And also, I used the thinkvantage to partition a drive to store secured documents and files so I'd have to type in a seperate pw after I swipe my finger at the log-in screen, and if that pw is wrong, it will not let me log into windows even if it recognizes my fingerprint, so sort of a double lock at the door.

 

Lick your finger before swiping it - this works for me.

 

One of my office mates also had problems with fingerprinter reader of his T4?. He just disabled it.
That is also why I did not order this fancy but not practical feature with my T60.

 

thought the reader was a standard thing that comes with ALL the T series.

 

No, it costs $30.

 

My reader works great with one finger, the others it struggles

 

Mine works fine. I don't know if the older versions of the software had the tutorial video, but if you scan your finger like it shows you, it seems it will reliably read at least a couple of fingers.

 

Something I found that seems counter intuitive is that a light touch (but still a complete touch) works better than a firm touch.