General Technology & Troubleshooting Topics

[Adam_Link]

Protege M700

Clean Install of Windows 7 Professional

• deleted existing Windows 7 system partition
• deleted existing Windows 7 primary partition
• created new partition with all available space
• installed Windows 7

Background:

In an attempt to get rid of the Toshiba bloatware, fix my Mats_hita DVD problems, and rid myself of all issues Vista, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional. Install went fine although I had to do some hunting for drivers and had 1 unknown device remaining.  The only problem I encountered was the occasional system hang during shut down requiring 4 sec. power off. However, after one such hang + soft off Windows 7 decided it needed to "Prepare" my desktop a second time. This lead to multiple copies of things like My Documents and Favorites and such. Annoying but not life altering. Today, it happened again only this time when I turned my tablet back on it had lost my "user" profile. Used Sytem Restore to bring the machine back to a functioning state, backed up all my files, and reinstalled Windows 7 as described above.

Current Issue:

After installing Windows 7 and allowing it to update itself, I installed the 11 piece package Toshiba provides for OEM drivers, software, and such. Bluetooth failed to download (not important really, it just happened). Reboot as required. I now had to option to log on using the biometrics. I tried it even though I had not enrolled any fingerprints yet. As expected, it failed to allow me access. Logged on using password and was prompted to enroll fingerprints. Tried to do so. After process seems to complete successfully, I get the message:

"Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist."

Strange. Okay, I though perhaps I need to run that uninstall program fist that I read about. Shouldn't be required and it a long shot but what the hay. Downloaded and run several times. Doesn't do a flippin thing as far as I can tell. Definately did not "uninstall" anything on my tablet. Manually uninstalled the fingerprint utility and another Authentec fingerprint program that the Toshiba package installed. Reboot. No prompt for fingerprint. Logon via password. No sign of Fingerprint utility. Ran uninstall programm yet again. Still appeared to do nothing. Reboot. Logon. Install Fingerprint Utiity. Reboot. Available finger swipe but doesn't work (shouldn't -- it has no fingerprints yet). Logon via password. Enroll fingers. Error Message and explititve. Run Firefox to come here and ask for help. See "new" extension installed that I suspect is supposed to allow fingerprint access to sites. Small feelings of happiness that I might finally be able to use this feature that I had on my M400 but wouldn't work with the M700. Then remembered THAT I CAN'T ENROLL FINGERPRINTS!!! so the feature is rather useless.

Any thoughts? Please help if you can.

The above message was posted November 9, 2009 in the Driver's and Utilities thread. No solution yet. As I am getting rather tierd of the fingerprint utility prompting me to "Enroll Fingerprints to begin" when it will  not accept the results of said enrollment, I am posting this in General, Windows 7, Portege Laptops and Open Topic in the hope that someone out there knows the solution.

[Adam_Link]

Protege M700

Clean Install of Windows 7 Professional

• deleted existing Windows 7 system partition
• deleted existing Windows 7 primary partition
• created new partition with all available space
• installed Windows 7

Background:

In an attempt to get rid of the Toshiba bloatware, fix my Mats_hita DVD problems, and rid myself of all issues Vista, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional. Install went fine although I had to do some hunting for drivers and had 1 unknown device remaining.  The only problem I encountered was the occasional system hang during shut down requiring 4 sec. power off. However, after one such hang + soft off Windows 7 decided it needed to "Prepare" my desktop a second time. This lead to multiple copies of things like My Documents and Favorites and such. Annoying but not life altering. Today, it happened again only this time when I turned my tablet back on it had lost my "user" profile. Used Sytem Restore to bring the machine back to a functioning state, backed up all my files, and reinstalled Windows 7 as described above.

Current Issue:

After installing Windows 7 and allowing it to update itself, I installed the 11 piece package Toshiba provides for OEM drivers, software, and such. Bluetooth failed to download (not important really, it just happened). Reboot as required. I now had to option to log on using the biometrics. I tried it even though I had not enrolled any fingerprints yet. As expected, it failed to allow me access. Logged on using password and was prompted to enroll fingerprints. Tried to do so. After process seems to complete successfully, I get the message:

"Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist."

Strange. Okay, I though perhaps I need to run that uninstall program fist that I read about. Shouldn't be required and it a long shot but what the hay. Downloaded and run several times. Doesn't do a flippin thing as far as I can tell. Definately did not "uninstall" anything on my tablet. Manually uninstalled the fingerprint utility and another Authentec fingerprint program that the Toshiba package installed. Reboot. No prompt for fingerprint. Logon via password. No sign of Fingerprint utility. Ran uninstall programm yet again. Still appeared to do nothing. Reboot. Logon. Install Fingerprint Utiity. Reboot. Available finger swipe but doesn't work (shouldn't -- it has no fingerprints yet). Logon via password. Enroll fingers. Error Message and explititve. Run Firefox to come here and ask for help. See "new" extension installed that I suspect is supposed to allow fingerprint access to sites. Small feelings of happiness that I might finally be able to use this feature that I had on my M400 but wouldn't work with the M700. Then remembered THAT I CAN'T ENROLL FINGERPRINTS!!! so the feature is rather useless.

Any thoughts? Please help if you can.

The above message was posted November 9, 2009 in the Driver's and Utilities thread. No solution yet. As I am getting rather tierd of the fingerprint utility prompting me to "Enroll Fingerprints to begin" when it will  not accept the results of said enrollment, I am posting this in General, Windows 7, Portege Laptops and Open Topic in the hope that someone out there knows the solution.

[Adam_Link]

Protege M700

Clean Install of Windows 7 Professional

• deleted existing Windows 7 system partition
• deleted existing Windows 7 primary partition
• created new partition with all available space
• installed Windows 7

Background:

In an attempt to get rid of the Toshiba bloatware, fix my Mats_hita DVD problems, and rid myself of all issues Vista, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional. Install went fine although I had to do some hunting for drivers and had 1 unknown device remaining.  The only problem I encountered was the occasional system hang during shut down requiring 4 sec. power off. However, after one such hang + soft off Windows 7 decided it needed to "Prepare" my desktop a second time. This lead to multiple copies of things like My Documents and Favorites and such. Annoying but not life altering. Today, it happened again only this time when I turned my tablet back on it had lost my "user" profile. Used Sytem Restore to bring the machine back to a functioning state, backed up all my files, and reinstalled Windows 7 as described above.

Current Issue:

After installing Windows 7 and allowing it to update itself, I installed the 11 piece package Toshiba provides for OEM drivers, software, and such. Bluetooth failed to download (not important really, it just happened). Reboot as required. I now had to option to log on using the biometrics. I tried it even though I had not enrolled any fingerprints yet. As expected, it failed to allow me access. Logged on using password and was prompted to enroll fingerprints. Tried to do so. After process seems to complete successfully, I get the message:

"Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist."

Strange. Okay, I though perhaps I need to run that uninstall program fist that I read about. Shouldn't be required and it a long shot but what the hay. Downloaded and run several times. Doesn't do a flippin thing as far as I can tell. Definately did not "uninstall" anything on my tablet. Manually uninstalled the fingerprint utility and another Authentec fingerprint program that the Toshiba package installed. Reboot. No prompt for fingerprint. Logon via password. No sign of Fingerprint utility. Ran uninstall programm yet again. Still appeared to do nothing. Reboot. Logon. Install Fingerprint Utiity. Reboot. Available finger swipe but doesn't work (shouldn't -- it has no fingerprints yet). Logon via password. Enroll fingers. Error Message and explititve. Run Firefox to come here and ask for help. See "new" extension installed that I suspect is supposed to allow fingerprint access to sites. Small feelings of happiness that I might finally be able to use this feature that I had on my M400 but wouldn't work with the M700. Then remembered THAT I CAN'T ENROLL FINGERPRINTS!!! so the feature is rather useless.

Any thoughts? Please help if you can.

The above message was posted November 9, 2009 in the Driver's and Utilities thread. No solution yet. As I am getting rather tierd of the fingerprint utility prompting me to "Enroll Fingerprints to begin" when it will  not accept the results of said enrollment, I am posting this in General, Windows 7, Portege Laptops and Open Topic in the hope that someone out there knows the solution.

[Adam_Link]

Protege M700

Clean Install of Windows 7 Professional

• deleted existing Windows 7 system partition
• deleted existing Windows 7 primary partition
• created new partition with all available space
• installed Windows 7

Background:

In an attempt to get rid of the Toshiba bloatware, fix my Mats_hita DVD problems, and rid myself of all issues Vista, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional. Install went fine although I had to do some hunting for drivers and had 1 unknown device remaining.  The only problem I encountered was the occasional system hang during shut down requiring 4 sec. power off. However, after one such hang + soft off Windows 7 decided it needed to "Prepare" my desktop a second time. This lead to multiple copies of things like My Documents and Favorites and such. Annoying but not life altering. Today, it happened again only this time when I turned my tablet back on it had lost my "user" profile. Used Sytem Restore to bring the machine back to a functioning state, backed up all my files, and reinstalled Windows 7 as described above.

Current Issue:

After installing Windows 7 and allowing it to update itself, I installed the 11 piece package Toshiba provides for OEM drivers, software, and such. Bluetooth failed to download (not important really, it just happened). Reboot as required. I now had to option to log on using the biometrics. I tried it even though I had not enrolled any fingerprints yet. As expected, it failed to allow me access. Logged on using password and was prompted to enroll fingerprints. Tried to do so. After process seems to complete successfully, I get the message:

"Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist."

Strange. Okay, I though perhaps I need to run that uninstall program fist that I read about. Shouldn't be required and it a long shot but what the hay. Downloaded and run several times. Doesn't do a flippin thing as far as I can tell. Definately did not "uninstall" anything on my tablet. Manually uninstalled the fingerprint utility and another Authentec fingerprint program that the Toshiba package installed. Reboot. No prompt for fingerprint. Logon via password. No sign of Fingerprint utility. Ran uninstall programm yet again. Still appeared to do nothing. Reboot. Logon. Install Fingerprint Utiity. Reboot. Available finger swipe but doesn't work (shouldn't -- it has no fingerprints yet). Logon via password. Enroll fingers. Error Message and explititve. Run Firefox to come here and ask for help. See "new" extension installed that I suspect is supposed to allow fingerprint access to sites. Small feelings of happiness that I might finally be able to use this feature that I had on my M400 but wouldn't work with the M700. Then remembered THAT I CAN'T ENROLL FINGERPRINTS!!! so the feature is rather useless.

Any thoughts? Please help if you can.

The above message was posted November 9, 2009 in the Driver's and Utilities thread. No solution yet. As I am getting rather tierd of the fingerprint utility prompting me to "Enroll Fingerprints to begin" when it will  not accept the results of said enrollment, I am posting this in General, Windows 7, Portege Laptops and Open Topic in the hope that someone out there knows the solution.

[kobi1]

Had the same problem, it is OK now after I used my left hand, apparently the software thinks that the right index finger and the right middle finger are used already and cannot be enrolled again even if deleted.

All other fingers are working fine..

[justBLAZE]

I have the same problem.

And yes, previously I used my right hand index and middle finger, which are not working with Windows 7 because of the duplicate template error.

All of the other fingers work, but I would still like to find out how to fix this.

[jmaz]

In the fingerprint utility I had the option to run as administrator. Once I did that, I was able to delete the old templates.

[iamacow]

Having the same issue and spending 1 day tinkering with various ways of installing windows 7, I realised that possibly the fingerprint reader has some form of memory, and the previously enrolled fingerprints in Vista were stored in the physical device itself.

Basically, I tried (and succeeded) in enrolling a previously unused finger. After saving 1 finger, the toshiba app menu changed, and allowed me to delete all the templates (including the previous "unknown" fingerprints.) Now, I can enroll ALL the fingerprints again..

So... feel free to try what I did.

Cheers

[justBLAZE]

Thank you so much, all I needed to do is to run the program as Administrator (even when my user account is also admin account) that allowed me to go into settings and delete all entries including the ones from Vista.

Thanks once again.

[blackstrype]

iamacow's method below above should work... If you can find a finger you didn't use. When I got Vista I went all happy-crazy with the cool, new fingerprint utility and enrolled every finger. So...

I took a similar, backdoor approach that seems to work:

(Firstly, get to the main menu dialog)

1. Choose "Run as administrator"

2. Choose "Import/Export"

3. Choose "Export all data into a file"

4. Click "Start"

5. You can go ahead and ignore the advice of saving to an external media for now. Just save the file somewhere you can find it.

6. Now go ahead and "Import all data from a file"

7. Find the file you saved and import it.

8. That should do it -- enroll your new fingerprints.

[peter9477]

blackstrype, thanks so much... I didn't think of importing as a way of overwriting things.  None of the other approaches worked (run as admin, delete all, etc) but export-then-import worked just fine.

[purefct]

While blackstrype's solution is the simplest, the export/import idea didn't work in my case.  The tech tried it before we reached the solution I list below.  It is possible the tech (who was using a program to directly work on my laptop) didn't follow thru on the export/import procedure completely.  I think he attempted to export but since he did not see anything to export he did not continue.

Here is the correct info on the problem and alternate best solution:

ISSUE 

- When saving a "newly" enrolled fingerprint the utility says "Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist."  This is most likely to ocur after wiping a hard drive thru a clean install of Win 7 or any other OS, or any event where the hard drive has been re-formatted, and/or you have installed/reinstalled the fingerprint utility.

- Also, the Fingerprint Control feature is disabled, greyed out.  You are not able to enter this feature to delete the existing template.

CAUSE

- Fingerprints are stored in the boot sector and not the "normal" portion of the hard drive.  Thus, even if you reformat the drive the fingerprint enrollment data is not removed.

- The Toshiba and third party S/W will not regognize the fact that the previously stored data exists when reinstalled, aside from refusing to save data because it already exists.

SOLUTION

- COMPLAIN UNTIL TOSHIBA FIXES THE BUG

WORKAROUND SOLUTION

- DO NOT listen to Toshiba to create a second profile and all the steps involved with this, although I do believe this method will indeed work.  IMHO this method takes a lot more time, and ultimately adds files to your drive which you are unlikely to ever use again.

- DO NOT listen to Toshiba and uninstall the programs they say must be uninstalled/reinstalled.  At least not if the version Toshiba wants you to install was created prior to 1-Dec-09 (My "Toshiba Fingerprint Utility" is vers 1.0.2.12 and the supplemental "Authentec" S/W required to run with it is vers 8.5.4.23 - my 3rd party S/W was something else before I installed Win7).  Do not reformat/reinstall anything.  After all, the "duplicate file" will not be erased when performaing these actions!

- If you did not scan all 10 fingers, scan two of your fingers which have never been scanned and save them.  It does not matter what finger location you save to in the utility.  For example you can scan your two never before recorded thumbs to the two pinkie locations in the utility.  It also doesn't matter if you are scanning an unscanned finger to a finger location in the utility you previously used.  The only thing which matters is the new source finger must never have been recorded on the laptop on any of the 10 spots. 

- Technically you can store 20 fingerprints.  I don't know if that's two spots for each of 10 "fingers" or if you can store 20 enrollments to a single finger location.  It is thus very important to delete enrollments, which I'll explain later.  In the event you previously enrolled 20 prints, this workaround might not work and you'll have to ask Toshiba how to delete the information from the boot sector (that's where I think they said it is located).

- If you previously recorded all 10 of your fingers, ask your spouse / significant other / friend to provide two of their fingers for a "temporary" recording.  It does not matter where you scan the two finger to, it only matters that the two fingers have never previously been scanned/enrolled/recorded at all on the laptop.

- VERY IMPORTANT Now that you have successfully enrolled two new fingers, the Fingerprint Control feature is enabled.  Previously it was greyed out, but if you go thru the menu you will now see you can enter it.  Now you can erase all scanned fingers but I recommend you erase all data EXCEPT the two recent fingers.  If you were using the two "temporary" enrollments to gain access I very highly recommend you now enroll two more fingers you want and go back to the Fingerprint Control feature and delete the temporary fingers.  Either way you can now enroll additional fingers!

- NOTE - If I remember correctly all the "old" finger prints don't have the same type of description in the Fingerprint Control feature as the two you just enrolled.  All those odd looking entries are the ones you want to delete.

[purefct]

SOLUTION

- COMPLAIN UNTIL TOSHIBA FIXES THE BUG

WORKAROUND SOLUTION

- DO NOT listen to Toshiba to create a second profile and all the steps involved with this, although I do believe this method will indeed work.  IMHO this method takes a lot more time, and ultimately adds files to your drive which you are unlikely to ever use again.

- DO NOT listen to Toshiba and uninstall the programs they say must be uninstalled/reinstalled.  At least not if the version Toshiba wants you to install was created prior to 1-Dec-09 (My "Toshiba Fingerprint Utility" is vers 1.0.2.12 and the supplemental "Authentec" S/W required to run with it is vers 8.5.4.23 - my 3rd party S/W was something else before I installed Win7).  Do not reformat/reinstall anything.  After all, the "duplicate file" will not be erased when performaing these actions!

- If you did not scan all 10 fingers, scan two of your fingers which have never been scanned and save them.  It does not matter what finger location you save to in the utility.  For example you can scan your two never before recorded thumbs to the two pinkie locations in the utility.  It also doesn't matter if you are scanning an unscanned finger to a finger location in the utility you previously used.  The only thing which matters is the new source finger must never have been recorded on the laptop on any of the 10 spots. 

- Technically you can store 20 fingerprints.  I don't know if that's two spots for each of 10 "fingers" or if you can store 20 enrollments to a single finger location.  It is thus very important to delete enrollments, which I'll explain later.  In the event you previously enrolled 20 prints, this workaround might not work and you'll have to ask Toshiba how to delete the information from the boot sector (that's where I think they said it is located).

- If you previously recorded all 10 of your fingers, ask your spouse / significant other / friend to provide two of their fingers for a "temporary" recording.  It does not matter where you scan the two finger to, it only matters that the two fingers have never previously been scanned/enrolled/recorded at all on the laptop.

- VERY IMPORTANT Now that you have successfully enrolled two new fingers, the Fingerprint Control feature is enabled.  Previously it was greyed out, but if you go thru the menu you will now see you can enter it.  Now you can erase all scanned fingers but I recommend you erase all data EXCEPT the two recent fingers.  If you were using the two "temporary" enrollments to gain access I very highly recommend you now enroll two more fingers you want and go back to the Fingerprint Control feature and delete the temporary fingers.  Either way you can now enroll additional fingers!

- NOTE - If I remember correctly all the "old" finger prints don't have the same type of description in the Fingerprint Control feature as the two you just enrolled.  All those odd looking entries are the ones you want to delete.