The fingerprint reader on my Zephyrus G14 came back to life, presumably
because of the sequence I used to install Windows 11. I should mention
that even in Linux, the fingerprint reader caused a "device descriptor
failed" error before even logging into the operating system. I think I
pin-pointed what the issue was but it should be alarming to anyone using
Windows.

Usually, when installing Windows 11, I download the Windows 11 ISO
directly and install it on the hard disk. Whether the fingerprint reader
is activated in the BIOS makes no difference: it's locked in some sort
of comatose state and refuses to work. Since this time around the ISO
was prepared using Linux Mint's ISO preparation tool, the result was
that Windows 11 couldn't install because it "couldn't find required
media." Apparently, you really have to use Microsoft's MediaCreationTool
for a positive result. Since that was the case, I used an older,
commercial Windows 10 USB thumb driver and decided to upgrade from
within. During this time, the fingerprint reader remained disabled in
the BIOS.

After installing all of my software with winget and upgrading to Windows
11, I decided to go ahead and use default settings in the BIOS. I
expected that the fingerprint reader would again be annoying though.
Instead, it detected and allowed me to enroll the fingerprints. I should
mention that the driver for the reader ended with .260, a driver from
2020 whereas Windows 11 generally updated it to .290 rather quickly. In
other words, installing Windows 10 first prevented the operating system
from updating the driver to a seemingly broken one.

For the heck of it, I upgraded the driver to .290. After I did so, the
fingerprint reader was still functioned (according to Device Manager)
but suddenly couldn't detect my finger on the sensor at all. As a
result, I rolled back to .260. Knock on wood, it still works properly
two days later, saving me a potential trip to ASUS to replace the component.

Here is what I think: the .290 driver causes the same kind of problem
that older drivers for the MediaTek MT7921 wireless chip this unit came
with. It simply bugs out to a point that the component becomes comatose
requiring a hard reset. However, in the case of the MediaTek MT7921, a
hard reset would actually work; in the fingerprint reader's case, it
would remain comatose on the hospital bed with no sign of brain activity
(I call this the Chris Ahlstrom state). The Chinese-made drivers for
this Chinese-made component are apparently so bad that they would pull a
Romeo & Juliet and essentially make the hardware act dead even after an
operating system reinstall or the installation of an alternative
operating system. This is a driver supplied by Windows Update, by the way.

Thoughts?

--
RabidPedagog
Catholic paleoconservative