Windows 11 and Elan Biometric software - not really friends here; fingerprint scanner not working. Again.

[kiddingguy]

I have an Asus M533IA notebook with a built-in Elan Biometric fingerprint scanner.

Since the Windows 11 update (from October 2021 onwards) it comes and goes whether or or it decides to recognize my fingerprint. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I have to reinstall the software every now and than to get it to work.

This week it decided to stop working again.

 

A quick search brings me that this is a known issue;

 

https://www.windows11forums.com/threads/elan-fingerprint-sensor-not-working.57/

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/all/windows-11-fingerprint-issues/ad58c934-053e-4240-a50a-ea0483e28ab2?page=1

https://windowsreport.com/fingerprint-sensor-not-working-windows-11/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FlowX13/comments/oc96l5/fyi_windows_11_breaks_hello_fingerprint_login/

 

Do you guys and gals experience this Elan thing too?

 

Any suggestions here as to how it is going to work? Report this to Asus once more?

Or.... have myself a decent fingerprint scanner (Kensington for instance), but than again... it's too bad the one built-in isn't working. It is/was/should be a nice feature of this notebook. But when it's not working, you gotta look for alternatives, right?

[kiddingguy]

EDIT:

I turned my notebook back on after 6 hours.

For some strange reason the fingerprint scanner is working.

 

I don't know why. I don't know for how long. I have no clue why it's working again now.

 

This is not reliable software.

I tried the latest Elan Finger Print from the MS Catalog but than my fingerprint wasn't recognized. A rollback to v3.5 did the trick once again.

Also, 6 hours ago in de device manager the 'Biometric devices entry' was gone. And now it's back on. Strange things are happening here on this Elan-thing.

 

Any suggestions on this bugginess?

What can I do? Use this one scanner with the random hick-ups, breakdowns and non-working behaviors?

Or can I "better" get a decent, separate, USB finger print scanner device?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I do not have any specific knowledge of the Elan fingerprint reader in the ASUS M533IA notebook, but I have noted that many brands and models of notebooks with fingerprint reader support.  While I am unsure if this is due to changes in how biometric devices are supported in Microsoft Windows 11, an issue with power management (i.e., driver gets disabled on sleep, modern standby or hibernation and does not re-enable correctly) or something else entirely.

It looks like Elan Microelectronics does not provide device drivers directly to end users, but instead to manufacturers.  Looking through the Microsoft Windows Update Catalog for "ELAN + fingerprint" does return several pages of drivers: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=elan+fingerprint.

Perhaps one of these will work better than the currently-installed device driver.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky