Preparing Automatic Repair Boot Loop

[PaPaulWul]

I fought for hours, over a few days on this.  Downloaded/made 2 boot repair sticks (Linux based, one being a Norton), had to set to Legacy mode to boot.  But neither could 'repair' the problem. After sifting through countless posts on this, all mostly saying the same thing above to try, stumbled on 1 that said for a boot/boot from Win10 stick, TPM must be disabled, which obviously worked.

Did you notice the Win10 upgrade screen has advertising about getting ready to upgrade to Win11, which TPM is required??  Don't know long that's been there.  So, did this last Win10 update turn on the TPM in BIOS?  Or does this update now look at the TPM state, and if enabled want to look the TPM setup/contents (like Win11 needs)?  Or perhaps, the current running BIOS needs a firmware upgrade for this now (my friends' is running F45, sort of old)?  Or maybe a combination of a couple of these.

By the way, the AMD CPU on this model laptop is not supported by Microsoft, though you still might be able to upgrade to Win11.  Win10 support ends this October, though you can buy an extra year of support, for $30, so you can still get fixes and security patches. For now, Win11 requires a TPM PC.  Time will tell if they will bend the rules on this next year, because you're talking about replacing millions of older PCs running Win10 that have no TPM chip.

I used to work for EMC/Dell, in the large enterprise area, but have been working on PCs since the 80s with MS-DOS 2.11

[TN3315]

I did not notice that on the Win10 upgrade screen and I haven't checked my BIOS settings yet to see about the TPM and honestly don't know much about the TPM at all as far as what it does, etc. so feel free to enlighten me. As far as firmware goes though, at some point during my trials and tribulations of trying to get this PC to work, I looked at the firmware and do remember seeing that it was running F45! 

At least I wasn't far off in suggesting you work for HP! It just baffles me when people who are not associated with the company do a better job at solving issues than the people actually working for the company. It makes sense when you have been working on PC'S for 40+ years. I am just starting out really and learning it almost entirely on my own, but doing it all as a side gig, so the laptop with this particular issue was actually one that I was looking at for somebody as well! That being said, I am open to any advice or suggestions that you have given your many years of experience!

[PaPaulWul]

TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, a small, plug-in chip on the motherboard, been around since about 2015, an optional set up.  It is used to hold Bit Locker encryption keys and other secure keys, etc.  UEFI is an updated, secure boot process over the standard BIOS process, to ensure the integrity and security of the boot and the OS. Mainly because hackers and malware can actually attack the BIOS.  This is the Legacy mode and Secure Boot/UEFI mode in the BIOS. The TPM, if set up, can work in tandem with UEFI.  Google TPM mode and UEFi mode to learn more.  Motherboards and BIOS were much simpler 15+ years ago, but now there's so much more intelligence, features, and checking on them, that sometimes a component fails and machine will not power on, or power comes on fir 1-2 seconds then shuts off.  Sort of smart enough to not power on when there's a critical failure like a CPU, DIMM, I/O card, etc.

Back to our problem, my gut says the last Microsoft update wanted to interrogate/do something with the TPM.  Perhaps unique with this HP latop and/or its BIOS, I don't know.  But, realize this HP model came out in 2017, so it is considered old, warranty is way past, perhaps out of support.

To get any PC updated to Win 11, you must have a TPM, UEFI BIOS, 4GB of memory, 64GB free storage space, and a supported CPU chip. The AMD CPU in this laptop is not supported by Microsoft.  You still might be able to get Win 11 on it, but you're on your own, and could be issues later. And be gentle with the lid on these, the metal hinges are just pressed into the plastic, and they can break off.