HP Probook 6540b with Window 7 Bitlocker (!!Major Issue!!) [ Edited ]

[zephyrSA]

Hi All,

I'm a junior IT Tech at the company I work for. We just started getting the HP ProBook 6540b in for some of the guys in the office. We have encountered an issue where after the OS volume is encrypted with Bitlocker in Windows 7, the system never starts up normally. Every time the system is shutdown completely and then started again, it brings up the Bitlocker console and wants the recovery key entered. It doesn't seem to do this when the system is restarted.

95% of the notebooks we use are HPs, ranging from 4 year old systems to some of the most recent (these ProBooks and a couple of EliteBooks) and these are the only ones that are having this problem.

When we get the new systems, before they are given out to those that need, we format the drive and do a clean install of Windows 7 Enterprise, eliminating all recovery partitions etc.

I have looked online for a TPM driver or something similar but haven't found anything that looks right. 

Any Ideas? If you need anymore info, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[cudgcjohnson]

Hi,

I am having the same issue.  Have you come across a solution for this? Currently I have only enabled Bitlocker on one of our new machines as I would like resolve this issue before encrypting other machines.  Now this machine will no longer post.

[zephyrSA]

No, I haven't found anything yet. I have tried adjusting settings in the policies for Bitlocker but it doesn't seem to have anything there that will work without compromising usability and security.

[vanooijen8]

I have the same problem. Is there a solution already for this problem

[zephyrSA]

Still haven't been able to find anything and no success with trying anything myself...

[oceanix]

I've found that suspending bitlocker, rebooting and then re-enabling bitlocker can break the 6540b out of this cycle. You have to do this by entering the recovery key on first boot after the bitlocker encryption process has finished. That solved the problem for one of my 6540b laptops but the other one is still occasionally failing to boot... frustrating. Had you guys tried this already?

[zephyrSA]

Have tried that but any time new drivers or software of that nature is installed, it comes up with the same problem thinking that something in the boot path has changed.

[vanooijen8]

I have found a solution wat is working for me.

Update the bios to version F.07 28 Apr 2010. This BIOS update can you download from the HP site.

If you already have bitlocker enabled be sure that you suspend bitlocker in de bitlocker management interface before you update the BIOS.

[oceanix]

F.07 didn't make any difference for me. The most reliable way to trigger one of these bitlocker lock-outs for me is to attach a USB mass storage device (flash drive etc) and reboot. Are other people experiencing lock-outs in those circumstances? Also as mentioned earlier, installing a new device can trigger it on next boot.

[vanooijen8]

Your right. It is a solution until you do a windows update or install new hardware.

Do you now of this problem exist on the original HP image. I have contacted the support of HP. They want me to test is on a original HP image before the take futher action.

I don't have the original HP image anymore so i need to wait for 10 days before I receive the installation disks.