omnipass problem

I have a compal HEL 80 with a T7600 CPU and 100GB 7200 RPM HD and 2 GB RAM. bios version 114B, since I got the machine I have had problems with the fingerprint software. The hard drive LED flashes on and off almost continually, indicating activity, even with the computer doing nothing, just turned on, now the hard drive is making noises when on and the light is flashing. My OEM tells me it is the softex omnipass(version 4) accessing the hard drive, they tell me it is a problem with omnipass, softex refuses to talk or help as it is an OEM copy of their software. The feeling by my OEM is that the hard drive is now failing and needs to be replaced. If omnipass caused it, I don't want to keep replacing hard drives. Advice would be appreciated

 

First of all, are those sounds loud? Loud Grinding/swishing noises? Noises that definitely do not sound normal? If so, then your hard drive is probably failing.

Get Notebook Hardware Control (aka NHC). It can access a piece of hardware on your hard drive called S.M.A.R.T. This hardware detects if your hard drive is failing, but you need software (like NHC) to be alerted by it. If after installing NHC, it pops up with a window saying S.M.A.R.T. is detecting a hard drive problem or something, then your hard drive most likely is on its last legs.

I mention that first because it is very highly unlikely that a piece of software could break a hard drive. The only ways I can think of that software could possibly do such a thing would be to

1. make the drive write and read as fast as it can and cause it to overheat
2. Rewrite its firmware

Omnipass should only access your harddrive when you need to swipe your finger. In any other case it should not be accessing it at all. If your hard drive is constantly blinking on, I would suggest you look to other running processes you have on your computer and see if they are accessing your hard drive. Things like Anti-virus programs, spyware, viruses, trojans, etc. can read/write to your drive frequently.

To see if these are the culprit, uninstall omnipass and see if the disk activity continues after a reboot.

Hope that helps! Let us know when you fix the problem

 

Makes more like creeking, tapping noises with some grinding sounds. Tech support did remove omnipass and it didn't flash, when they put it back flashing lcd returns. will get nhc on the computer

 

thanks for your advice