XPS 9315 - TPM not detected after BIOS update to 1.29.1 (rollback not allowed)

Question

Hello,

I own a Dell XPS 9315. After a BIOS update initiated by the operating system, I’m now getting the TPM-related error shown in the attached image:

"Alert! TPM could not be initialized."
"Alert! TPM device is not detected."

The BIOS version currently installed is 1.29.1, which seems to be marked as critical, so BIOS rollback is blocked. I find it quite frustrating that Dell would prioritize locking users into a potentially faulty BIOS over allowing a rollback to a known-working (albeit vulnerable) version.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

I left the laptop powered off with the battery disconnected for a full week (as suggested in various forums) – didn’t help.
I reflashed the current BIOS version – no effect.
TPM is not detected in BIOS or by the OS.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue? Is there any known fix or a way to bypass the rollback restriction to install a previous version of the BIOS?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

Click here for resolving the TPM issue.

To receive assistance from Dell chat support, they need to verify the warranty status and ownership. Then you must troubleshoot with them. Click the "Get Help Now" icon on the right to start a live chat session. If already out of warranty, click here for the Dell out of warranty offering.

Marius Motea · Answer

Thanks for the reply, Jesse.

Unfortunately, this feels like a case where Dell is pushing the cost of its own firmware issues onto the customer. The TPM problem appeared after a BIOS update pushed by the OS, not because of any user error. Now the system is left in a degraded state, and BIOS rollback is blocked because the version is flagged as "critical."

I've already tried all suggested workarounds (battery disconnect, BIOS reflash, etc.) with no success.

Now you're suggesting that the only "solution" is to contact paid support, which likely ends up with a full motherboard replacement — something extremely expensive for a 12th-gen i7 system with soldered RAM. This doesn’t sound like support — it sounds like a trap.

It would be more reasonable if Dell:

Allowed rollback in situations where TPM initialization fails
Acknowledged this issue as a BIOS-level bug
Provided an official fix or a way to reinitialize the TPM

Otherwise, customers are left with broken systems through no fault of their own.

Can Dell please escalate this to engineering or provide an actual fix that doesn’t require a full motherboard swap?

Marius Motea · Answer

I’ve just tested the newly released BIOS version 1.31.0, and unfortunately the TPM issue still persists.

Looking at the motherboard diagram of this system, it seems the TPM chip is directly linked to the BIOS chip. Most likely, the TPM firmware is loaded from a specific address within the BIOS. Something may have been corrupted during the Windows Update process that installed BIOS 1.29.1, which triggered this whole issue.

This strongly suggests the problem is not hardware-related, but rather a firmware corruption introduced by the update process itself.

At this point, I am still waiting for Dell to provide a real solution. It’s not acceptable to leave customers with broken laptops caused by Dell’s own BIOS updates, and then suggest only a costly motherboard replacement.

I hope Dell engineering can acknowledge this as a firmware-level issue and release a proper fix.

XPS

XPS 9315 - TPM not detected after BIOS update to 1.29.1 (rollback not allowed)

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