Several brands of laptop come with built in Biometric devices, such as fingerprint readers. A lot of people have reported problems with their fingerprint readers no longer working after upgrading their laptops from Vista to Windows 7. I had the same problem with my Dell Studio 1737 and tried several suggested solutions from various blogs but I gave up when none of them worked. After months without it I decided to check to see if any new developments had occurred.

There are 2 parts to the puzzle – the correct driver and the correct software is needed. Here the software is supplied by DigitalPersona, and it tells me The Fingerprint reader is not connected. Connect the reader. A better message would have been – The Device Driver is not compatible with this version of the software, please update the Device Driver.

A look at Device Manager on Windows 7 shows the Driver is supplied by AuthenTec Inc (actually it is supplied by the computer manufacturer Dell). The above screen shot shows the Allow the Computer to turn off this device set to false, as one person reported that this fixed their fingerprint reader problem but it had no effect. The real problem was the Driver.

The current Driver version was 2.0.0.18 (quite old) yet Windows 7 told me it was up to date and no driver update was needed.

The software version from DigitalPersona was 4.02.3769

Going to the Dell support site with the service tag of the laptop still showed the latest driver compatibility with the operating system the unit was shipped with – Vista 32 bit. Windows 7 was not listed here.

However, ignoring the service tag and searching “By Product”, basically  filtering on Studio Laptop 1737 brings you to the correct Driver where Windows 7 is listed under compatibility. So don't use the service tag for drivers after you upgrade the operating system.

After downloading and running the setup program

the installation proceeds, requiring a reboot.

Thereafter the Authentec AES2810 Driver version changes to 8.5.0.251. The DigitaPersona software remained at 4.02.3769, however it should be noted this is not the original version that shipped with the laptop, it had been upgraded in previous attempts to resolve the fingerprint reader problem with Windows 7.

Finally the reader works again with successful scanning.

All accounts (multi account laptop) now work for login as well as web sites selected to authenticate via the fingerprint reader. Its a nice feature to be able to use, just swipe your finger, no passwords to remember.