Dell D820 TPM (BIOS: A03) and BitLocker Problems

[Walter Porter]

Anyone else having problems getting BitLocker to use the TPM on a Dell
Latitude D820 with BIOS at A03? I've got Vista RC1 build 5728 with a fresh
install, but BitLocker refuses to recognize or use the TPM. I've tried
repeatedly turning the TPM on/off in both BIOS and the TPM snap-in, and
re-initialzing the TPM, but no luck... :-(

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Walter,

I ran into a similar problem, although with a Latitude X1. The closest I got
to an explanation was an inside message from MS that DELL has a problem with
BIOS support for TPM 1.2. Alegedly this should be resolved with a BIOS
upgrade from DELL to be released in November 2006.

Note that this is all second-hand information and I cannot vouch for the
reliability of this.

- Kim

 

[Walter Porter]

Alegedly this should be resolved with a BIOS

upgrade from DELL to be released in November 2006.

Thanks Kim!

 

[Brian Komar [MVP]]

Thanks Kim!

Hi Walter,
I can confirm that there is a beta build of the Dell D820 BIOS that will work with the D820.
Brian

 

[Guest]

Hi Walter,
I can confirm that there is a beta build of the Dell D820 BIOS that will work with the D820.
Brian

Thanks for the update. Do you know if DELL releases this to the general
public or do you have to bribe someone to get it? ;-)

- Kim

 

[Brian Komar [MVP]]

Thanks for the update. Do you know if DELL releases this to the general
public or do you have to bribe someone to get it? ;-)

- Kim

It has not been released to public yet. It is undergoing testing internally at Dell and MS at
this time. In fact, I am not running it yet, as I am unable to use Vista for some of my
application testing.
Brian

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brian, I'll hold my breath then.

- Kim

It has not been released to public yet. It is undergoing testing internally at Dell and MS at
this time. In fact, I am not running it yet, as I am unable to use Vista for some of my
application testing.
Brian

 

[Dave Burns]

Please note that there is a fairly large update for WinXP's TPM software on
the Latitude D820. It fixes a whole wealth of problems in Windows XP that
do not, at first, seem related to TPM or the Embassy Security Suite (e.g.
inexplicably broken applications). If you have the Wave Systems Corporation
programs group or the Embassy Security Suite, this applies to you.

Since TPM is both BIOS and O.S. dependent, expect lots of problems rooted in
TPM to arise during the early days of Vista. Since Dell is not the
developer of its TPM software, but is dependent on Broadcom and
Wave/Embassy, I wouldn't be surprised to see a late TPM package for the
D820. We may have to turn off the PIN and the TPM chip in BIOS on these
great laptops in order to get early support for Vista RTM.

Anybody else have insights on this issue?

-- Dave

 

[Walter Porter]

Note: Dell has released BIOS update A04 for the Latitutde D820. So far so
good on my laptop with BitLocker ...