VeriSoft won't accept fingerprints

Have had HP Pavillion dv9000 for 2 years now. It came with fingerprint reader run by VeriSoft. Everything worked fine until about a month ago it suddenly wouldn't recognize my fingerprint. I tried re-registering my prints, but it kept saying either I was swiping my finger too slow or fast, or it wasn't recognized or some other bs, no matter how slow or fast I swiped my finger. I've already contacted HP customer support and they had me uninstall/reinstall VeriSoft, but that didn't help. My prints haven't changed and I'm swiping my finger the way I always did. I can't understand how it can work w/out problem all that time and then suddenly stop, when nothings changed. Any suggestions?

Hi canuhover,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Please see the section on how to solve fingerprint reader problems at: Troubleshoot a Fingerprint Reader HP Pavilion dv9000 CTO Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English). Before starting, however, check to the right to make sure I have the correct model or your computer - there were several options for the information you provided and I just picked the first one. If you have a different version, then go to support for that model and enter fingerprint as a keyword in searching for related articles and it should bring up the page containing articles appropriate to your system and hopefully one will be how to troubleshoot the fingerprint reader. Follow all the instructions as there's no telling which one is the cause.

If the HP troublshooting article doesn't work, do a Startup Repair by booting to the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (or one you can borrow from ANYONE) or from a Recovery Disk with recovery options included on it. Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html. To boot to the CD you may need to change the BIOS to make the CD-drive first in the boot sequence. To do that, wait for the screen that tells you the F key to push to access the boot menu or boot setup. Push it quickly. Make the changes, save your work, and exit. Put the CD in the drive and reboot. When prompted, push any key to boot from the CD.

If you don't have either disk, you can make a bootable Recovery Disk using http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ along with burning software like: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html and, of course, a blank CD (perhaps made on a different computer or perhaps in safe mode with networking if that is working).

If that doesn't work, try to boot into safe mode (repeatedly click the F8 key while booting and go to safe mode with networking). Then let's check some of your system files:

Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command prompt and right click on command prompt and click run as Administrator.

Type sfc /scannow and enter and let it run. It will scan and try to fix some of your system files. Hopefully it will complete with no corruption it could not repair (if there is such corruption post back here or try to analyze it to find the problem file(s) using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228. Try to attach the report (you may need to copy it to your desktop before it will permit you to attach it) here so we can see if they can be repaired with good copies from the installation disk (unless there are too many).

While in Command Prompt, type chkdsk /f /r and enter and let it run. It will want to schedule itself to run at the next restart. Answer yes and then reboot to run the program. It will scan and try to fix any corruption or bad sectors on your hard drive and mostly remove that as a potential cause.

If that doesn't work, then please post any error messages from the Event Viewer concerning fingerprint reader (Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer). Here's how to use Event Viewer: http://www.petri.co.il/vista-event-viewer.htm. Look in the System section.

You may be infected with malware. Try to run anti-malware programs (in safe mode with networking if necessary). To fix this problem (if it is a problem) download, install, and run the following two programs: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html. You may also want to try the new, free Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-Download-131683.html (with the caveat that only ONE AV program can be installed and running on your system at any one time). Use removal tools when appropriate http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/05/05/comprehensive-list-of-uninstallers-or-removal-tools-for-antivirus-software/. You may also want to try the free Avira at: http://www.free-av.com/ and Avast at: http://www.avast.com/index. Reboot after completing all the scans. You may also want to try the free OneCare at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm and let it run all the options (except the registry cleaner) because that’s good maintenance (it will take some time to complete but can be done in the background).

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause.

If that doesn't work, we'll need to do a system repair/upgrade using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (one you own or one you can borrow from ANYONE). To do this you have to also be able to boot normally. Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html. Although this will not affect your data, settings, or programs, you should still backup your data before starting just to be on the safe side. You may have a lot of updates to re-install (including any service packs you had to remove). If the version on the system came with SP1 or SP2 pre-installed and the disk is an earlier version, then you'll need to make a slipstream disk as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-installation-dvd.html.

If none of the above work and re-installing Verisoft did not resolve the problem (try doing it again after all of the above steps just to make sure that they did not actually work and a reinstallation is all that is still required), there's a good chance you may have a hardware problem with the reader itself (they don't last forever). Contact HP Technical Support to see if there is a way to test for that. If not, you may need to send the computer to HP for servicing and possible replacement of the fingerprint reader.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Hi,

If the device has been un-installed & re-installed with the correct drivers, It must not be functioning correctly.

Anyway I went looking for drivers & found these: -

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ex?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&softwareitem=ob-49006-1

Not sure if they are correct for your model, HP should have offered you the best ones or at least a working set?

After all "Nothing has changed" right, well it must be broken then?