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157294
August 15th, 2014 12:00
TPM Issues on LATITUDE E6540 using tpmvscmgr.exe
I am seeing a number of TPM event in my system event logs related to “The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware failed to execute a TPM command.” (see below). I have contacted Dell support and they have replaced the mother board in my laptop but I am still getting these events. I am able to BitLocker my drive without issue.
I have a other Dell/Lenovo systems (OPTIPLEX 9010 STM/13.12/TPM:1.2 and X220 STM/8.32/TPM:1.2) that I am able to create the virtual smartcard devices and enroll/use/delete certificates. Has anybody else attempted to use TPM based Virtual Smart cards with a LATITUDE E6540 or using the ATML 41.4 TPM chip on a Dell system?
LATITUDE E6540
BIOS Version: A10
OS: Windows 8.1 Enterprise
TPM
Manufacturer Name: ATML
Manufacturer Version: 41.1
Specification Version: 1.2
Event Viewer – System
Source: TPM
EventID: 17
The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware failed to execute a TPM command.
locationCode: 234882318
TpmCommandOrdinal: 186
TpmResponseCode: 34
locationCode: 234882318
TpmCommandOrdinal: 121
TpmResponseCode: 54
JDinKC
3 Posts
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July 30th, 2015 20:00
I am getting the exact same two error codes on a Latitude E6540 that just shipped this month. I installed Windows 10 Enterprise in EFI mode. Bitlocker is working. The error shows after each reboot, and also shows when attempting to setup virtual smart card.
Were you able to find a solution to getting the E6540 to work?
So far I have tried BIOS update (A14 to A15), updating the Controlvault firmare, removing the Dell ControlVault software, enabling trusted execution, clearing the TPM, and removing the TPM device in device manager and allowing it to reinstall.
So far nothing has made it worse or better.
I found one other site with a Dell device with Atmel TPM 1.2 that gets similar TPM event code 17 errors:
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/797784-tpm-protected-authentication-certificate-enrollment
If you found a solution, I would be interested in knowing what you did. I suspect the TPM function we are needing is rarely used on the E6540 and needs a bugfix.
JDinKC
3 Posts
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July 31st, 2015 15:00
Some additional information on the error:
http://osdn.jp/projects/openpts/wiki/FrontPage/attach/20080218-TPMv12ErrorCodeCheatSheet.pdf
Error 54 is that the TPM is not in FIPS mode, and error 34 is an invalid handle. (I suspect the error 34 happens because the error 54 happened first, invalidating any handles for next steps)
The two commands being run that fail are 121 (create an AK) which fails with the 54, and 186 which is an eviction/flush command that gets the error 34.
I also found this document:
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp2014.pdf
which would seem to indicate that the firmware 42 atmel (The E6540 appears to be firmware 41) on page 17, has a Legacy FIPS and a Win8 FIPS mode, and I suspect it is the Win8 FIPS mode that is needed, and either no FIPS mode was selected or the Legacy FIPS mode was selected when the chips were made. Just another guess though. I still need to further test other configurations to see if something will allow the commands to process through.
JMaroon-Alliant
1 Message
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March 27th, 2017 15:00
JDinKC,
I know that this thread is 2 years old, but I am currently experiencing this same problem on a Latitude E5540 and so far have no solution. I have worked with Dell and Microsoft and found nothing.
Did you ever get a resolution to this issue? If so, could you let me know what was discovered?
Any help that you can provide is much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason
JDinKC
3 Posts
0
March 31st, 2017 13:00
I was not able to find a fix. I still suspect they put a wrong model of TPM in this machine that disables the necessary FIPS mode for virtual smartcard. Bitlocker is able to work, but the virtual smartcard requires additional TPM abilities.
I ended up having to use a standard smartcard in the card slot on this laptop. The older series E6520 worked just fine, and co-workers using the newer 7000 series laptops also work just find. It just seems to be the Exx40 series that has a bad TPM.