Question DynaBook In-Touchpad Fingerprint Reader

metal450

Honorable
Feb 27, 2018
7
0
10,510
I just purchased a DynaBook Portege X30L-J1337. It seems they embedded the fingerprint reader in the top left of the touchpad (you can see it in the images here: https://www.cdw.com/product/dynaboo...l-j1337-13.3-core-i7-1165g7-16-gb-ram/6520182) - which is fine, however the issue is that if your finger even slightly "clips" (passes over) any part of the fingerprint reader, the touchpad completely deactivates until you remove your finger & replace it. In other words, any motion/dragging that takes place after your finger has briefly passed over any portion of the reader is no longer reflected in cursor movement. This more or less makes the touchpad unusable, as it is constantly deactivating (especially considering that the reader is over the left side of the touchpad, which is where the left button is - the most commonly-used button).

This is a brand new system with the OEM-supplied OS/drivers, and I've updated the BIOS to the latest version. The behavior is the same even when using the mouse in the BIOS.

I tried calling DynaBook support, but it seems like their entire support system is just a Philippines callcenter that can't do anything beyond read the official support manual. (Side note: I'm pretty surprised that they don't even have their own support forums either - their website just points people here to Tomshardware).

Has anyone experienced this? Is it fixable? I really like this system otherwise, it seems like an incredibly odd design choice if they really have a touchpad where the top left ~20% is not only non-functional, but deactivates the entire thing if you accidentally pass over it. Is there any solution (other than the obvious: just return the entire system & go with a different manufacturer)?

I also asked their support if I could purchase a replacement touchpad part without the fingerprint reader, but...it wasn't in the manual, so no hep from them there.

Thanks in advance
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I think it's more a design flaw or you need to start working with an add-on USB driven mouse to avoid your finger(s) from getting around the area where the fingerprint sensor and button reside on the trackpad. That's the best thing I can suggest without you having to unplug a cable in a brand new laptop or placing a strip of masking tape over the suspected culprit area.

With regards to the OS on the laptop, out of the box, what OS are you working with? If Windows 10, what version(not edition) of the OS are you on?
 

metal450

Honorable
Feb 27, 2018
7
0
10,510
I think it's more a design flaw

Right, clearly a design flaw - just trying to determine if there's any way I can keep this system, or if I need to return it.

or you need to start working with an add-on USB driven mouse

That's really not an option - I do need it to have a functional touchpad.

That's the best thing I can suggest without you having to unplug a cable

I'm perfectly fine with unplugging a cable if that will fix it

or placing a strip of masking tape over the suspected culprit area.

I actually tried that - it still senses your finger through it. (i.e. even if you put masking tape over the entire touchpad, you can still use it through the masking tape).

With regards to the OS on the laptop, out of the box, what OS are you working with? If Windows 10, what version(not edition) of the OS are you on?

Out of the box it's Win10 19044.1645. But given that the behavior is the same even when using the mouse in the BIOS, it seems unlikely to be OS-related.

Thanks again
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I'm perfectly fine with unplugging a cable if that will fix it
I can't confidently suggest an end user open up a brand new'ish laptop to detach a cable in order to deal with a design flaw that came from the factory, since there are stories of warranty being void due to opening said device up.

I also can't blame you for not adapting your gestures to avoid the culprit area since everyone have their own way of operating a device. A logical tactic would be to actively avoid using that area(to the point where it becomes akin to breathing) via mental conditioning but that's probably a little too much to ask from some one who purchased a laptop for daily grind tasks and not have extra baggage to deal with.

Can you return the laptop?
 

metal450

Honorable
Feb 27, 2018
7
0
10,510
I can return it, but would like to try to exhaust all other possibilities first.

I actually did try opening it up - there are 4x cables to the touchpad, I tried detaching each one separately, but none of them seemed to fix the behavior. The cables were:
  1. Deactivated the AccuPoint
  2. Deactivated the physical buttons for the AccuPoint
  3. Deactivated all touchpad/pointer functionality (so presumably this cable included power)
  4. Detaching seemed to have no affect. Perhaps this was actually the cable to the fingerprint reader as that's the only touchpad feature I can't test from the bios, but either way, the broken behavior of "entire touchpad stops working as soon as you get near the fingerprint reader" remained.

It just feels to incomprehensibly stupid & nonsensical that that it could be built with a touchpad that literally just breaks itself if you use any of the left 1/4th of its area - especially when that's the area directly above the left "mouse button," which is the most frequently used. Can anyone honestly use such a touchpad? Do people just buy this laptop, & give up & only use an external mouse? Then what's even the point of even including a touchpad, if it's 1/4 broken out-of-the-box & nobody uses it?

Anyway, would still really like to figure out some way to keep this system. Although it seems this specific submodel only ever comes with the fingerprint reader, it seems DynaBook does have a variety of portables where the fingerprint reader is optional - thus I wonder if it's possible to just buy a replacement touchpad (a model without a fingerprint reader stuck in the middle of it), and swap it out.

I took a photo of the back of the touchpad, shown here: View: https://imgur.com/bf1XS9W
. However, no luck in finding any info on that part, or a replacement. I again called & asked DynaBook, but as before, the Filipino callcenter gets confused if you try to discuss anything that's not already written into the owner's manual.

Anything else I'm missing? I really really would like to avoid having to return this & start completely over with another system :/