I had the same issue..... Dell is apparently shipping these laptops with an XP image that is no configured for the biometric device, etc. I ordered XP Home as I already have XP Pro and didn't care to pay the extra $$ for another copy.

Here is what I did:

1. Download all the drivers (Network, video, quick set, etc.) for your laptop from the Support -> Downloads -> Drivers section of the Dell website to a USB device.

2. Scratch and load (e.g. clean install) XP from your CD from Dell or employer, etc. (if you are licensed to do so of course).

3. Once XP completes installing, install all the drivers from the USB drive. This should install all the devices and applications. Check the Control Panel -> Hardware section to verify that all devices are installed properly.

4. The biometric device is managed via a Dell/Wave application that you can run from Program Files. You can use it to manage your XP logon password, set up a TPM policy, scanyour fingerprints, etc.

Note: The biometric application has been acting flaky on my laptop, requiring me to rebuild it as it did not properly register my password/fingerprint and locked me out of the machine. I have not had time to investigate this further. I suspect Dell rushed this application/hardware to production and as such is is a little weak in its current functionality.

I will update here once I get it working ....

OK, never mind. In trying different combinations I had inadvertently disabled the TPM in the BIOS. Once I fixed that, it appears to be working - although I have to say this is one complicated piece of software. Oh well, I guess something this secure was bound to be non-trivial.

Anyway, thanks again for your help, and if there's anyone from Dell out there, you probably need to improve your documentation just a bit.

Thanks for the reply. I managed to find the 'driver' to download. If anyone else is interested it under the 'Chipset' category and is labelled 'Broadcom Trusted Platform Module v1.2'. It's quite a big download (~70 MB), so be prepared for it to take a minute or two.

I installed it, and as you would expect with a 70 MB bundle, there are several applications, but I did find amongst them a "Getting Started Guide". According to the guide, the first step is to "Enable and Activate the Trusted Platform Module (TPM)", which basically involves turning a couple of things on in the BIOS.

I did that, and on starting the Embassy Security Center, it was *supposed* to allow me to establish ownership of the TPM. It has stubbornly refused to do this, and I'm not sure where to go next.

From the "Trusted Platform Module" option, it tells me "TPM is not enabled for this TPM platform", yet under TPM Information and Wave Systems Information, all fields are populated except KTM Version.

Presumably because it thinks TPM is not enabled, it won't let me initialize ownership. However it has definitely been enabled in the BIOS, so I'm not sure where to go next.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I just received my D820 today, and installed the application Meeting Maker on it. The first time I started Meeting Maker and went to select my Meeting Maker server, the application crashed. The error signature for the crash indicates that the crash is caused by a dll called biolsp.dll, which is part of the Wave Systems application. If I remove it, Meeting Maker runs without a problem.

Wave JUST released a patch for Meeting Maker here: http://www.wave.com/support/CSC/CustomerService/common_solutionsESC.asp#go18

The patch is all the way at the bottom.


ALSO: regarding taking ownership of the TPM:
http://www.wave.com/support/CSC/CustomerService/common_solutionsESC.asp#go9


All this stuff is on the same page.

Hope this helps some people.

-POWERman

Thank you. The patch solved the problem.

Rob