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I have a Dell Latitude E5450 running windows 10. I have some problems with my fingerprint reader. Now and then, after a reboot or suspend, the fingerprint reader is not working. Each time when that happens, I go to "Device Manager", check my fingerprint reader and see that in "power management" settings the setting

"Allow the computer to turn of this device to save power"

is checked. I then uncheck this option (since that seems to be causing my problems) and it works fine for a while (couple of days). Now and then, I check this setting and it remains unchecked.

However, after a while, for seem reason it becomes checked again and I can't sign in using my fingerprint reader.

Does anyone have any idea what my cause this? Or how to work around this issue?

Edit Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm dual booting this pc with Ubuntu 15.10. I know that sometimes Ubuntu sets certain hardware flags differently then windows. I have not noticed that this issue would occur only after booting in Linux, but I cannot state for sure that it doesn't either. (I have not managed to deliberately produce the bug yet)

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    Have you also tried looking at the advanced power options settings for your current power settings profile, and turning off anything that would be power saving related? Although the power management tab in device manager should work, I never trust Windows consistency.
    – DrZoo
    Nov 24, 2015 at 18:37
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    Windows 10 is supported on your computer model. I suggest to install and update all system software and BIOS for Windows 10 from this Dell page, then in Device Manager delete the fingerprint reader device and reboot. If there are still problems, run Windows Update and see if there are any optional updates that relate to devices. Ensure having good updates before starting, including possibly a disk-image backup.
    – harrymc
    Nov 25, 2015 at 8:38
  • @harrymc I have installed all Dell drivers etcetera. That is not the problem. Why do you suggest to delete the fingerprint reader?
    – BartBog
    Nov 25, 2015 at 15:52
  • @DrZoo. The point is, there is no specific setting in power settings profile for the fingerprint reader. I don't want to disable all power saving related settings (since power saving is important). I only want windows to not turn off my fingerprint reader when I need it to log in again. It is also not very easy to verify whether turning off a certain setting helps since the issue only occurs after a while (sometimes several days)
    – BartBog
    Nov 25, 2015 at 15:53
  • Deleting a device will re-create it on boot with the latest driver. Sometimes one installs a driver, but Windows keeps the older driver for the device unless forced to choose again.
    – harrymc
    Nov 25, 2015 at 17:09

1 Answer 1

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A workaround you could try is to locate the right registry key holding the power settings (something like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{UUID}\DeviceNumber. Once you identify the setting that the checkbox changes and the correct value, you should create a script which sets that value at each reboot.

If your fingerprint reader is physically on USB bus, you could also try to disable USB suspend by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USB\DisableSelectiveSuspend to 1.

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