Update TPM 1.2 to TPM 2.0 on HP Z420 Workstation

[lkessler]

Windows 11 is coming out. I was very surprised to find out that my HP Z420 Workstation does NOT meet the system requirements because its BIOS has TPM version 1.2 but needs version 2.0.

I checked your latest driver at Driver - HP Z420 Workstation | HP® Customer Support version 03.96 Rev A, released Dec 13, 2019 and it still only includes TPM 1.2. 

I found the question: how to update IFX TPM 1.2 to TPM 2.0 on HP Z420 Workstation - HP Support Community - 7255607 and DGroves said "windows 10 came out AFTER the z420 was End Of Life, so HP never made a update from 12 to 2.0".  

However that does not appear to be true. According to what IMaxx says in Solved: End-of-life HP Z420/HP 440 - HP Support Community - 6038616 - the end of support life for Z420 was 2/28/2021, which was well after Windows 10 came out.

None-the-less, my question is whether HP might be issuing a BIOS update for the Z420 which includes TPM 2.0 so that it can be upgraded to Windows 11?  Or is there some other way of upgrading TPM 1.2 to TPM 2.0 in the BIOS?

[SDH · Accepted solution]

I share your concerns.  We in our enterprise have a large number of ZX40 workstations already, but also have a strong block of Z620 and Z420 V2 workstations.  Here is my prediction:

HP pulls support for its workstations when they have to move on.  The onboard TPM chip is not made by HP.  There are other brand workstations using those same TPM chipsets that will get updates to the v2 TPM firmware.  I believe some updaters already exist, and our friend DGroves has hinted at that in a post here in the past.  Hopefully we in the forum can build a path to upgrade the firmware with our talents.  We have seen many self-generated advances with these excellent HP workstations that HP did not develop and certify, and yet we have developed the solutions and self-certified them.  There is a will in HP to allow this type of project to move forward.  That is shown by their support for this forum and therby for our work together over many years.

So, wait and watch.  I believe shortly we will be working on this project, and hopefully with help from our HP engineer friends.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I found this document regarding hard and soft floor system requirements, so we are just going to have to wait and see what happens when we actually try to upgrade older PC's to W11...

Compatibility for Windows 11- Compatibility Cookbook | Microsoft Docs

According to the above document, you may be able to upgrade to W11 as long as your PC meets the hard floor requirements.

[SDH]

Paul,

Agree there will be more to this, but on the listing of processors when I went down to the requirements from MS for W10 21H1 and looked up a number of the processors we're using in the Z420 v2 and Z620 v2 with that latest version of W10 (such as E5-1650 v2 and E5-1690 v2) those are not listed even for that version of W10.

I think it is early to get too worried about HP and MS pulling the plug on these more recent workstations.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I agree with you too.

I have 13 HP and Dell business deskops and notebooks in my 'collection.'

Only one consumer notebook I have passed that MS Health check program.

Most of my older PC's all meet the hard requirements, so I am not going to be too concerned at this stage.

I have a Dell Optiplex 7050 with an i7-7700 processor, 48 GB of memory, NVMe SSD, TPM 2.0, a dx 12 video card and the health check tool flunked it.

So, I feel a bit easier since I came across that 'hard and soft' floor document.

[DGroves]

TPM updates for the Zx20 line of workstations will not officially exist, however it may be possible that the TPM chip makers release such a update for other OEM's (unlikely but possible) if they do the best OEM i have found for such updates is the supermicro ftp site

supermicro has a long history of solid support, even beyond their stated support terms in some cases

You can verify the current TPM firmware version on the device:

method 1:  Get-tpm (powershell window)

Method 2:

1. Windows Security settings in Windows 10
2. Powershell
3. TPM.MSC

The different version properties on the chip are:

• Manufacturer version
• Specification version