17 R4, firmwaretpm.exe stopped working

Sorry again, it's tpm.sys in C:\Windows\System32\drivers. There could be another tpmfirmware.??? who knows?

And 20h2 was another typo, I corrected that in the next post, I have 22h2. Got several updates today including the long awaited cumulative.

hmmmm.... good question. is there a firmwaretpm file?

device manager.. security devices...trusted platform module 2.0  lists the driver as I said above. it's version 10.0.19041.746. i'm not messing with it here. I didn't break it, whoever is causing the problem will hopefully get the reports and fix it. UNLESS someone finds a definite fix and posts it here.

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@alienware17r4 wrote:

My cumulative update finally arrived today. I dont think that is the problem although I do think an update attempt is causing the tpm shutdown...

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Hi alienware17r4:

When a Dell utility like Dell Update or SupportAssist checks for driver / firmware updates for your hardware components it first has to inventory the make/model of each piece of hardware and check if the current version number if out-of-date. I'm not certain, but at this point my best guess is that a recent update to Dell Update or SupportAssist [or perhaps even the Inventory Collector / Dell Inventory Utility at C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\UpdateService\Service\InvColPC.exe I mentioned in my post <above> ] has introduced a bug that prevents these Dell utilities from reading the make/model and current version of the TPM module, causing TPMFirmware.exe to crash. As Paul T noted today in post # 2508250 of my AskWoody thread, just the fact that invcol.tmp (where invcol likely stands for Inventory Collector) is written to C:\Windows instead of C:\Windows\Temp points to some sloppy programming.

I'm not an expert when it comes to TPM technology, but I'd be surprised if Windows Update had to suspend / disable TPM just to apply a Windows Update, unless Microsoft has released a security update to patch a vulnerability in the TPM firmware itself that needs to be installed by Windows Update. According to Susan Bradley's 13-Dec-2022 post Final Patches for 2022 in the AskWoody forum some Win 10 v22H2 systems might be receiving yet another revised version of KB5012170 (Security Update for Secure Boot DBX) during their December 2022 Patch Tuesday updates, and the Known Issues section of the KB5012170 release notes state that BitLocker Disk Encryption might need to be temporarily suspended if installation of KB5012170 fails, but I don't think installation of KB5012170 would require the TPM protection to be suspended as well. I've paused my Windows Updates so I don't know if my Dec 2022 Patch Tuesday Updates will include KB5012170 (I'm waiting to see if this month's Windows updates introduced any serious bugs) but my Windows Update history shows that KB5012170 was last updated on my Inspiron 5584 with my August 2022 Patch Tuesday updates. If you aren't familiar with the problems that KB5012170 has caused in the past when BitLocker is enabled see the 16-Aug-2022 Bleeeping Computer article Windows KB5012170 Update Causing BitLocker Recovery Screens, Boot Issues.

According to the Microsoft support article Update Your Security Processor (TPM) Firmware Windows 10 users should receive a warning message from Windows Security if your TPM firmware needs to be updated by Windows Update. When I go to Start | Settings | Update & Security | Windows Security | Device Security | Security Processor | Security Processor Details as described in that article it shows that my Intel TPM v2.0 module has a status of "Ready" which means that it's present and enabled and that Windows can take ownership of the TPM chip to store encryption keys, but I have not seen any indication that my TPM firmware requires an update.

I can also open a Run dialog box (Windows key + R) and enter tpm.msc to open my Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Management console, but the Microsoft support article Trusted Platform Module Technology Overview notes that :

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"Starting with Windows 10 and Windows 11, the operating system automatically initializes and takes ownership of the TPM. This means that in most cases, we recommend that you avoid configuring the TPM through the TPM management console, TPM.msc. There are a few exceptions, mostly related to resetting or performing a clean installation on a PC ..."

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64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2251 * Firefox v107.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.18.226-1.0.1838 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7175 * Dell SupportAssist v3.13.0.236 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v4.7.1 * Dell SupportAssist Remediaton v5.5.5.16206 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Re my earlier post on 09-DEC-22 ...

I have just been through the latest patch Tuesday update (KB5021255) for Windows 11 22H2 on 14-DEC-22 which included an update to .NET Runtime to version 6.0.12 (x64). (SupportAssist uses this library.)

SupportAssist and DellUpdate both appear to be working (or, perhaps I should say, both now run without generating a FirmwareTPM.exe crash).

If the problem has been fixed then perhaps Dell should take note and ensure that required software libraries (like .NET) are up-to-date before installing apps that rely on the latest version of such libraries.

those updates did not fix it here (win10 22h2). It will go 2 to 3 days without the error, but it did reappear yesterday.

Confirming presence of same issue...

Per reliability monitor, FirmwareTpm.exe (a temporary file, which no longer exists on my drive) stops working every time I run Dell Update, or check for updates via Dell Support Assist.   I have to assume that FirmwareTpm.exe is generated (or downloaded) by Dell Update / Support Assist, and then deleted when the update is done.

Aside from the "nuisance" of seeing this repeatedly flagged in the reliability monitor, there are no overt/obvious signs of malfunction on my system.   My system is "squeaky clean", so this is NOT a virus/malware issue.  

Have been seeing this issue in Reliability History since 11/20/22 or there abouts.  Running Windows 10 22H2 and currently updated.  Have also run sfc /scannow and any errors fixed.  Reliability continues to show this issue.

My reliabi;lity charts has gone down dues to this error and have attempted other suggested repairs with no success.

Need help!

"more than a month to fix it" ??? is it fixed there? no fix here. Better question is... why does the company who made our systems and who we depend on to keep them safe and up to date keep putting out JUNK? Looks a lot like poor programming and poor testing. I think it was 6 months for them to fix the memory size boot error a while back. I just noticed something about this tpm nonsense... I get the error every 72 hours at 6:34 am. I cant find it in task scheduler. Is support assist just not worth the problems it causes?

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@alienware17r4 wrote:

.. I get the error every 72 hours at 6:34 am. I cant find it in task scheduler. ...

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Hi alienware17R4:

Just a thought, but does the History tab of your SupportAssist interface log anything around the date/time that your FirmwareTPM.exe errors are logged in your Reliability Monitor?

I've only seen three of these FirmwareTPM.exe errors logged in the past few weeks (11-Dec-2022, 17-Dec-2022 and 26-Dec-2022), but as I noted on 18-Dec-2022 in my thread Reliability Monitor Logging FirmwareTPM.exe APPCRASHs Since 19-Nov-2022, I have not manually launched Dell Update for Windows Universal v4.7.1 during this time period, and I also disabled my Dell SupportAssist and Dell TechHub services to prevent SupportAssist from launching at Windows startup [although a few DellDataVault (DDV) services included with SupportAssist still load at boot-up]. I have no definitive proof that Dell Update or SupportAssist are causing these FirmwareTPM.exe errors, but as far as I know these errors are only being seen on Dell computers, which points to some common Dell utility, driver or background task.

I don't know if it's relevant, but I also had a number of RuntimeBroker.exe crashes logged in my Reliability Monitor between 19-Dec-2022 and 23-Dec-2022, but those particular errors seem to have stopped for now.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2364 * Firefox v108.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.19.229-1.0.1860 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7175 * Dell SupportAssist v3.13.0.236 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v4.7.1 * Dell SupportAssist Remediaton v5.5.5.16206 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

I can not associate any other errors with this. I never turn off my machine and only warm restart when microsoft updates demand it. I never manually run support assist. I occasionally run the online driver  check which does not cause any error. I will be the first to apologize if dell is not responsible for this. I did just open support assist to see the history you suggested... nothing there.

@alienware17r4 I wasn't saying that it was fixed.. but that it's already been over a month that this error started popping up So yeah, I agree, why should this take so long.

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I have no definitive proof that Dell Update or SupportAssist are causing these FirmwareTPM.exe errors, but as far as I know these errors are only being seen on Dell computers, which points to some common Dell utility, driver or background task.

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@lmacriit's definitely related to Dell. I only have Dell Update installed and the error only shows when the service is run automatically (on start-up f.e.) or when you run the program manually. Disabling the service gets rid of the error.

Like I said in my earlier comment it's the same thing that happened in June but with a different .exe that it couldn't find.

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@MattSpacer wrote:

... I only have Dell Update installed and the error only shows when the service is run automatically (on start-up f.e.) or when you run the program manually. Disabling the service gets rid of the error.

Like I said in my earlier comment it's the same thing that happened in June but with a different .exe that it couldn't find.

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Hi MattSpacer:

Are you referring to the Dell Client Management Service? I still have that service set to start automatically, since this is a common service required for a variety of Dell programs like Alienware Command Center (AWCC), SupportAssist, Dell Update, etc. These FirmwareTPM.exe errors are annoying but don't seem to be causing any overt problems on my system, so I choose to selectively disable the Dell SupportAssist and Dell TechHub services so that SupportAssist won't launch automatically at boot-up. This hasn't completely eliminated my FirmwareTPM.exe errors (I still see an error logged every 5 or 6 days, even if I don't launch Dell Update v4.7.1) but disabling those SupportAssist services has definitely decreased the frequency of those errors.

I also had that UsbUpdate.exe error (Source = Application Error; EventID = 1000; Faulting Application Path = C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\inv3253_tmp\Executables\UsbUpdate.exe) on my Inspiron 5584 - see my 10-Jun-2022 post in the same Inspiron 3891, Event Viewer Error - Usbupdate.exe Fails thread by LittleMaui that you referenced earlier. Dell employee DELL_Chris M's 13-Jun-2022 post <here> was marked as the solution and stated that "There will be no notification of any sort. The OTA (over the air) update is going to happen for all Dell remediation services (SupportAssist, Alienware Update, Dell Update)".  There was no change to the version numbers of any these Dell utilities after the OTA update was silently pushed out to my Inspiron 5584 - my UsbUpdate.exe errors simply stopped on their own.

What we need now is for someone from Dell to acknowledge that a similar OTA update will be coming soon to fix the current FirmwareTPM.exe errors.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2364 * Firefox v108.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2211.5-1.1.19900.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.19.229-1.0.1860 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7175 * Dell SupportAssist v3.13.0.236 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v4.7.1 * Dell SupportAssist Remediaton v5.5.5.16206 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.21.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Same issue here.  XPS 8930 Windows 10 Home v22H2.  It started before the 19th of November.   I have uninstalled and reinstalled SupportAssist numerous times, eventually showing the same TPM.exe application crash. I have called Dell Tech Support numerous times.  They have no idea that Support Assist and Dell Update is creating this error. I am leaving SupportAssist assist uninstalled for now.

Linda

Are you referring to the Dell Client Management Service? I still have that service set to start automatically, since this is a common service required for a variety of Dell programs like Alienware Command Center (AWCC), SupportAssist, Dell Update, etc.

Yep, that's the one. I only have Dell Update installed and it's the only Dell related service on my system. Because I only run Dell Update every once in a while it's no problem for me to disable it. Didn't know it was also required for other Dell related software.

What we need now is for someone from Dell to acknowledge that a similar OTA update will be coming soon to fix the current FirmwareTPM.exe errors.

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We can only hope.. But it seems that Dell devs aren't even aware of the issue when I see the replies from others.