Unable to enable TPM on Surface Book 2 - TPM failure

Jonas Settele 11

Hello Commuity,

while trying to upgrade my SB2 to Windows 11, I noticed that my TPM 2.0 is not enabled.

So I tried to activate it via the UEFI BIOS, but without success. Every time I get the error message: "TPM failure - The system failed to change the state of the TPM. Please reboot the system to try again".

Even after a clean installation of Windows (older version) via USB stick, I was still not able to activate the TPM. On the contrary, now it doesn't even show up in the device manager under security devices.
So the TPM is no longer accessible for me.

Do you think it could be a hadware defect?

Which may also be important:
When I turned on my Surface Book 2 a few weeks ago, I was greeted with a Bitlocker screen prompting me to enter a recovery key. This allowed me to access Windows, but it continued to show up every time I restarted my laptop. Eventually, I disabled Bitlocker so I wouldn't have to deal with the blue window anymore.
Now it's also no longer possible to launch Bitlocker ("This device can´t use a Trusted Platform Module...").

Thanks already for your help!

Reza-Ameri 17,341 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-10-21T16:22:20.977+00:00

Try boot into the Windows and run Windows Update and download and install all updates and make sure update the firmware too.
Have you installed any program before this problem started?
Was there any physical damage to your device?
BitLocker key being stored in the TPM and the message requesting for the BitLocker key might be the reason that TPM is not working correctly and system couldn't read the key from it.
Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-21T16:56:44.92+00:00

I can boot into Windows now without any problems. I think I have also done all the updates (Version 20H2 - Build 19042.1288). The firmware is also updated via the Windows Update Service.

I did not install any new program before I got the Bitlocker message the first time. There is no physical damage to my device and it has never fallen down.

To boot Windows I had to enter the recovery key, which also worked at that time. Unfortunately, since I can't access the TPM, I can't restore it somehow, can I?
Josh Goldberg 6 Reputation points

2022-05-30T00:15:17.76+00:00

Microsoft support gave me the option of paying $600 for a replacement computer to resolve the hardware failure. Given that I am bombarded with upgrade to win11 notices I found this particularly insulting.

12 answers

Docs 15,846 Reputation points

2021-10-22T03:29:49.727+00:00

How come you clean install Windows 10 instead of Windows 11?

There are no requirements for CPU, BIOS settings, Drive partition structure, Secure boot, TPM, etc. when performing a clean install.

Many end users with computers that cannot upgrade form Windows 10 to Windows 11 have performed clean installs.

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Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-22T06:08:53.467+00:00

Windows Support had told me that after the clean install of Windows 10, according to their experience, it would be possible to turn on the TPM.

I know that you can install Windows 11 on devices that do not meet the minimum system requirements. But firstly, it is not recommended and secondly, you still need at least TPM 1.2?
However, since my TPM is no longer recognized at all, I am unsure if it will even work? Actually, my SB2 should meet all requirements!

In the following I have added a powerShell excerpt from my TpmObject.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Tpm

TpmPresent : False
TpmReady : False
TpmEnabled : False
TpmActivated : False
TpmOwned : False
RestartPending : False
ManufacturerId : 0
ManufacturerIdTxt :
ManufacturerVersion :
ManufacturerVersionFull20 :
ManagedAuthLevel : Full
OwnerAuth :
OwnerClearDisabled : True
AutoProvisioning : NotDefined
LockedOut : False
LockoutHealTime :
LockoutCount :
LockoutMax :
SelfTest :
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Docs 15,846 Reputation points

2021-10-22T06:27:09.64+00:00

For computers that do not have TPM 2 some options are:

a) remain using Windows 10 with 4 more years of full support
b) remain using Windows 10 indefinitely with or without full support
c) modify the registry and files so that the Windows update agent does not recognize the unsupported computer environment
d) clean install Windows 11

See these links:

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/08/27/update-on-windows-11-minimum-system-requirements-and-the-pc-health-check-app/

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/10/11/disable-tpm-secure-boot-and-ram-requirements-for-windows-11/

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/bypass-windows-11-tpm-2-0-and-cpu-system-requirements.1989/

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/clean-install-windows-11.99/

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Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-22T06:45:58.883+00:00

Thanks for all the links. I am already aware that I can bypass the TPM request.

However, my desire right now is to re-enable my TPM. I'm also concerned about security and would like to re-enable my Bitlocker again.
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Docs 15,846 Reputation points

2021-10-22T07:26:23.19+00:00

These are some additional links:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/which-surface-devices-can-be-upgraded-to-windows-11-76c3c125-82e0-4d1e-9550-12ed09f9058e

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/36901-check-bitlocker-drive-encryption-status-windows-10-a.html

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Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-22T07:39:30.983+00:00

To the first link:
My Surface Book 2 is compatible for the upgade to Windows 11 as it has the 8th Gen Intel i7-8650U Processor.

To the second link:
As mentioned, I cannot enable BitLocker, so the status check via Command Prompt says my Bitlocker is turned off (decrypted).

Unfortunately, these links do not help me with my problem of not being able to enable the TPM.

Thanks for the efforts.
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Docs 15,846 Reputation points

2021-10-22T08:11:27.323+00:00

This is for Surface 3: (Sorry, I've not found any firmware update links for Surface 2)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/install-and-use-the-surface-pro-3-trusted-platform-module-tpm-update-tool-d5e52c61-c7ec-0544-b6e9-e0e0b85cbc10

Scroll to the bottom of the link > display results for tpm.msc
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Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-22T08:22:33.533+00:00

Since the TPM cannot be activated via UEFI-BIOS, tpm.msc shows "A compatible TPM cannot be found". I have not found a firmware update for the TPM on the Surface Book 2 either.
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Docs 15,846 Reputation points

2021-10-22T08:33:25.59+00:00

See if there is anything useful in these links:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-on-your-pc-1fd5a332-360d-4f46-a1e7-ae6b0c90645c
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/how-do-i-use-the-bios-uefi-on-surface-devices-0f5953d2-befa-3617-a0e5-9735945af774
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-on-your-pc-1fd5a332-360d-4f46-a1e7-ae6b0c90645c#bkmk_enable_tpm
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Jonas Settele 11 Reputation points

2021-10-22T08:39:27.027+00:00

All links are known to me!

Unfortunately, when I want to activate the TPM in the UEFI-BIOS, the error message shown in the attachment appears: "TPM failure - The system failed to change the state of the TPM. Please reboot the system to try again."

M. Thevarajan 11 Reputation points

2022-07-12T16:12:33.41+00:00

This happened to me after trying Linux Lite on my surface book SV7-00001 completely replacing Windows OS, not a dual boot, and then deciding to go back to Windows OS. The Surface Data eraser tool worked to clean the disk but I still couldn't get the device to boot to a Recovery flash drive. It looped on this "failed to change" screen. I couldn't disable TPM and got the same error when trying to change secure boot mode to none :( It's very weird that it will boot to the Eraser tool flash drive. I'm sure that had I called MS for out-of-warranty support, they would not know how to fix this and would have offered the $600 mail in to repair/replace, at best.

I finally got Recovery to work when I used a different model of Kingston flash drive "DT Ultimate G2" rather then the "DT micro3.1" or Dell recovery/Silicon Power brand flash drive which I'd re-purposed for Win10 install. When recovery from flash drive completes, it clears TPM and the UEFI loop issue. :)

Long story short is that flash drive brands which work on every PC for boot to OS recovery, might not work on an older Surface, so try some other brands such as Sandisk or even another model of 8Gb or > flash drive for your Windows Media creation.

After recovered OS was setup (Winver 1511) and frimware updates were done, I used Windows 10 November 2021 Update Assistant tool to get latest OS version.

I then decided to test if the RESET this PC> Advanced startup would allow me to now use that DT micro3.1 recovery drive and sure enough, it did!
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Unable to enable TPM on Surface Book 2 - TPM failure

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