This was at PEK. I tried four different lanes at the e-channel before someone came over to help. She seemed familiar with the problem of failing to read the passport details (the screen just showing the spinning green arrow) and immediately suggested using lane #8 - which worked within seconds.

In my case I have a newly issued UK passport, where the problem could either be (just guessing here though ...) that the chip is embedded in a thick piece of polycarbonate, or that the photo-page is highly reflective (probably some security feature). It does seem though that some of the scanners work better than others.

In any case good that you were directed to the special lane, but it would be better and less stressful if this worked smoothly every time. Hope you have better luck on your return to PEK (try lane #9 - that one worked for me after trying several others) !