The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Alienware 17 r3 TPM

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by icewolf247, Mar 20, 2016.

  1. icewolf247

    icewolf247 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    16
    i have used bit locker on my new Alienware 17 r3 but it is not quite behaving and wondered if anyone was using it and had some suggestions.

    I have encrypted the OS and the other internal drives and using a PIN as extra security.

    The main problem is sometimes it will boot saying the TPM is not found and needs the recovery password. The bios says there is a TPM, it is enabled so there should be zero reason for it not to be there from what I understand

    One time it failed totally and said the \bcd was missing, or something similar and I had to repair so wondering if I can rely on it at all or whether it's best to ignore the TPM altogether

    I have replaced the main PM951 with a 950 Pro which is now the main OS drive and the PM951 is the second SSD. I am seeing occasions when these drives aren't being seen in the bios so wondering if this has something to do with it? It boots fine, apart from the issues mentioned

    The bios is the 1.2.8 version

    Any thoughts appreciated
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2016
  2. rinneh

    rinneh Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    854
    Messages:
    4,897
    Likes Received:
    2,191
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Yeah there is something up with the 1.2.8 bios......Even without bitlocker after a reboot drives are sometimes not found. They really have to fix this stuff.
     
    icewolf247 likes this.
  3. icewolf247

    icewolf247 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Okay so it might be a bios issue? Is this something I can roll back or does this cause more issues?
     
  4. rinneh

    rinneh Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    854
    Messages:
    4,897
    Likes Received:
    2,191
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Some users flashes to an older version 1.2.6 I thought? But another user reported a bricked bios flash. So i rather wait for a new bios. Until then avoid rebooting but just shoot down and start up again. It only happens when you do a reboot.
     
  5. icewolf247

    icewolf247 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Unfortunately shutting down doesnt work. It still requests the recovery key as the TPM is not found. It also stalls on booting unless I first go into the bios and then reset, even then it cannot see the SSDs

    I couldn't see a way to find the previous versions of the bios on the dell website. Are these easy to find somewhere?