Unable to activate TPM chip via BIOS using BIOSConfigUtility on HP Compaq 8200 Elite CMT's

[SGCoyote]

Here is what I have done to successfully apply my custom BIOS settings to 8000, 8200, 8300, z400, z420.  My failure is with the 8560p but I am still working on that issue.

Script 1

REM set the admin password before you enable tpm.  Some BIOS require an admin password before TPM is available.

BiosConfigUtility.exe /nspwd:"mypassword"

REM unhide the embedded security. 

BiosConfigUtility.EXE /SetConfig:"8200_BIOS_Embedded_Security.txt" /cspwd:"mypassword"

REM end of script

Add a task sequence to reboot the computer

Script 2

REM set the remainder of bios settings such as enable embedded security, boot order etc.

BiosConfigUtility.EXE /SetConfig:"8200_BIOS_Settings.txt" /cspwd:"mypassword"

REM end of script

8200_BIOS_Embedded_Security.txt

English
Embedded Security Device
 Device hidden
 *Device available

8200_BIOS Settings.txt

English

Activate Embedded Security On Next Boot
 Disable
 *Enable
Embedded Security Activation Policy
 F1 to Boot
 Allow user to reject
 *No prompts

[tbiles1]

This looks very helpful. Thanks for the tip.

As for your 8560p, and if you haven't already done so, dump your bios with the /GetConfig option, and do a very careful comparison of the options you are trying to use with your desktop bios /GetConfig options. A few of the ones we use are different (mostly order of words in commands) on the Elitebook BIOS compared to the desktop BIOS. I was told by a HP support engineer that the BIOS developers are different for the two product lines, so there are differences in the command set. 😞

To their credit, they did say that it is their plan to merge the BIOS development so this won't be a problem in the future, when ever that is. For now, you'll have to use different configuration files when dealing with the Elitebook versus the desktop line.

[stephens123]

408

[stephens123]

Does my 408 work?

[SGCoyote]

I don't work for HP and I do not have access to that model.  That is something you will need to try.

[Makino]

Has there been any update for this?  I just got new 8470 elitebooks in and I'm having the same problem.  It appears when your in the BIOS and add the password, when you select EMBEDDED SECURTY DEVICE STATE to turn it on, and save, it actually doesn't save the setting, when you reboot back into the BIOS, it's actually not checked anymore.

Hopefully we can have some assistance.

[Pccarrick]

I also have encountered this problem on new models of HP machines, the way i found out the fix was to run the following command

BIOSConfigUtility.exe /GETCONFIG:output.txt

I then searched the output.txt file for the commands which i currently use in my repset file which was the below 2 lines

Activate Embedded Security On Next Boot
                *Enable
Embedded Security Activation Policy
                *No prompts
                F1 to Boot
                Allow user to reject

I noticed in my output from the new machine that these commands don't exist and have now changed to the below commands

Activate TPM On Next Boot
  *Disable
   Enable

TPM Activation Policy
  No prompts 
  *F1 to Boot
  Allow user to reject

After adding the below to lines to my REPSET file it then worked

Activate TPM On Next Boot  

                 *Disable   

                 Enable
TPM Activation Policy  

                *No prompts  

                F1 to Boot  

               Allow user to reject

Hopefully this will help you guys out because it took me several days to realise this and it put an end to my problems.

[JorgenL]

Well,

after trying everything I've read in here I still can't even dump the bios manually using:

BiosConfigUtility.exe /getconfig:"c:\temp\test.txt"

UAC is off and I'm running as administrator with full permissions to the c:\temp folder.

I set the bios password manually and have enabled TPM and it's not hidden.

I only get an empty test.txt and the <Warning msg="BCU return value" real="16" translated="16" />

This ONLY appears in Windows 7 x86,  in Windows XP x86 or Windows 7 x64 everything works just fine!

Right now we have problems with HP Compaq 8300 Elite Small Form Factor but almost all models fail.

[Pccarrick]

thats really strange because i have password enabled on my Bios and ra the command without issue, one thing i did do is run this from a Command Window which was i did a run as administrator maybe this will work. I have ran this on several machines without issue.

[JorgenL]

I'm also running it from an elevated (Run as Administrator) command prompt. And everything resides on the local computer for testing purposes.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the HP TPM drivers or something in the Windows 7 environment.

I just flashed with the latest bios and using BiosConfig v2.50... still no go... 😞