"alert tpm device is not detected" on Dell laptop boot

My Dell laptop (latitude 7480) occasional displays

alert: tpm device is not detected

On boot, if it is turned off without power for 30 seconds then on rebooting the error is not displayed. If the error is displayed pressing F1 allows the laptop to boot.

How can I fix this issue.

Solution 1:

After upgrading both the BIOS and TPM firmware version this problem has gone away.

The upgrade process is complicated since you need to disable the TPM auto provisioning in windows using the Powershell command Disable-TpmAutoProvisioning and the TPM module needs to be cleared from the BIOS.

In order to clear it in the BIOS I needed to wait 30 seconds with the power cord unplugged before rebooting so the BIOS recognised the TPM and this is required several times.

Once the TPM has it's firmware upgraded, run the Powershell command Enable-TpmAutoProvisioning to turn back on the tpm auto provising.

Dell documents this here https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000184894/how-to-successfully-update-the-tpm-firmware-on-your-dell-computer

I also had to upgrade the BIOS before I could get the TPM firmware upgrade working.

Once the TPM firmware was upgraded (in my case to 1.3.2.8 from 2017) I am no longer seeing the problem.

I suspect the underlying problem is that you have to clear keys from the TPM to perform the upgrade, which means Dell can't auto upgrade the firmware.

My other guess is at some point a BIOS upgrade (which does autoupgrade) for the Latitude stopped working with the older 1.3.1.x TPM firmware that the machines originally shipped with.