TPM could not initialize

mgfvvc

My mother is getting an intermittent "TPM could not initialize" error on her Dell PC. I have Googled that and read a fair amount, including Dell's troubleshooting pages, none of which gave me a great deal of confidence that I understand the issue or that any steps I take to try to resolve it won't cause any issues.


I guess the most important question is whether this is likely to be a hardware fault. If it is, is there any way to test the hardware and confirm that? The Dell diagnostics do not seem to include a TPM test.


If, following the troubleshooting guides, I reset the TPM, it seems to suggest that PINs, certificates and other data securely stored in the TPM may be lost. As it's a tower PC used for word processing, browsing and email, I doubt if there is much stored in the TPM, but the vague language doesn't give me confidence that I can safely reset the TPM. Can anyone give me a clear answer about what might be lost if I reset the TPM? Is there any way to know what is stored in there?

DoaM

Don't know. All I know is that TPM is Trusted Platform Module* and can (usually) be disabled in the BIOS. It is highly unlikely that she does anything that remotely uses TPM.

Solution? Backup her data, disable TPM, then wipe and reinstall the machine. (It's probably overdue a clean install anyway).

* When exporting computer goods to the Russian Federation countries where EAC applies, TPM is not allowed. Probably because TPM on prevents government secret services hacking machines so Big Brother doesn't know what's going on.

BigAl94

Most likely solution -
Try pressing F2 to go to into the BIOS setup, find the "TPM Security" section, and click the button (or check the box) that says "Clear", then apply/save settings and exit. If that doesn't work, the TPM might be damaged, and that wouldn't be a simple fix since it's soldered onto the motherboard. But the only common reason to use a TPM is for BitLocker, which requires a Pro version of Windows 8 or newer (or an Enterprise/Ultimate version of Windows 7). If you don't have any plans to use BitLocker, then you can disregard this, and you may even be able to get rid of that error message by disabling the TPM entirely in the BIOS so that you don't constantly have your boot process interrupted.

onomatopoeia99

DoaM wrote: »

then wipe and reinstall the machine

Can't think of any reason to do that for a faulty TPM. Most people won't do anything that uses it, so having it working or not makes no difference.

DoaM

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Can't think of any reason to do that for a faulty TPM. Most people won't do anything that uses it, so having it working or not makes no difference.

If post #3 doesn't fix the issue then a wipe and reinstall should - and gives the added benefit of a spring clean.

joeypesci

mgfvvc wrote: »

My mother is getting an intermittent "TPM could not initialize" error on her Dell PC. I have Googled that and read a fair amount, including Dell's troubleshooting pages, none of which gave me a great deal of confidence that I understand the issue or that any steps I take to try to resolve it won't cause any issues.


I guess the most important question is whether this is likely to be a hardware fault. If it is, is there any way to test the hardware and confirm that? The Dell diagnostics do not seem to include a TPM test.


If, following the troubleshooting guides, I reset the TPM, it seems to suggest that PINs, certificates and other data securely stored in the TPM may be lost. As it's a tower PC used for word processing, browsing and email, I doubt if there is much stored in the TPM, but the vague language doesn't give me confidence that I can safely reset the TPM. Can anyone give me a clear answer about what might be lost if I reset the TPM? Is there any way to know what is stored in there?

TPM is used for Bitlocker encryption. If you're not using Bitlocker encryption then it's clear to reset the chip. I'm not sure if other encryption software uses the chip, I don't know of any. I just know Bitlocker uses it.