[SOLVED] ASUS TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II AM4 , TPM module built in for Windows 11?

[andrepartthree]

Hi guys .. this is the motherboard on my daughter's desktop PC

TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Detailed specification of TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II Tech Specsï¼CPU: AMD AM4 Socket for AMD Ryzen⢠5000 Series/ 5000 G-Series/ 4000 G-Series/ 3rd/2nd/1st Gen AMD Ryzenâ¢/ 2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen⢠with Radeon⢠Vega Graphics/ Athlon⢠with Radeon⢠Vega Graphics Processors *<br>* Refer to <a...

www.asus.com

and apparently one of the requirements for it to be compatible with Win 11 is that TPM has to be functional on the motherboard... WindowsPCHealth when I run it complains that TPM 2.0 must be supported and enabled on this motherboard.

Here's where things get confusing - if you click on the link above and search for the word "TPM" it comes up with "1 x SPI TPM header" under the "internal I/O ports' .. looking at the motherboard manual (page 24) says " this header supports a trusted platform module (TPM) with a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and the picture shows a bunch of pins similar in a way to the F panel on a motherboard (where you'd plug in the reset, power cable and so forth cables from the computer case)... so not sure if this means you buy your own TPM module and plug it in there? Even if this is a possibility I would have no idea where to start as far as buying such a module

But when you click this link, the Asus TUF gaming B450M Plus 2 (note that it's an amd based motherboard) does not show up on the list of motherboards approved for Windows 11

https://www.asus.com/microsite/motherboard/ASUS-motherboards-Win11-ready/

now here's where things get even more confusing .. I used the instructions in the link below to check in BIOS to see if TPM is an option.. and when I go into advanced settings then AMD fTPm configuration it says " TPM Device Selection - Discrete TPM" (that is , that appears to be the default setting in the BIOS with " Discrete TPM " being one of the drop down box choices the other choice being "firmware TPM" ) " and it also says " Erase fTPM NV for factory reset " and next to it is a drop down box that says "enabled" the other option being "disabled"... this screen on the BIOS also explains that when you select firmware TPM this means " firmware TPM - enable AMD CPU fTPM" when you click on " TPM device selection"... so I'm thinking I would want to do just that, change from " Discrete TPM " to " firmware TPM" for the TPM Device Selection.

https://digitalmasta.com/is-my-asus-motherboard-windows-11-compatible/

but to be honest I'm afraid to mess around with the BIOS and screw things up to the point where the PC refuses to start/launch ... there was a scary moment where I changed the motherboard bios to recognize the higher memory speeds, the PC rebooted a few times as the BIOS clearly struggled to recognize the new settings then defaulted back to the lower RAM speeds ... fortunately a very helpful thread here in tom's forum gave me a solution, just switched the ram sticks (which were in the correct position to begin with according to the motherboard manual) from positions 1 and 3 to 2 and 4 and that did the trick .. still, after that scare I'm nervous about messing around with the BIOS and trying to "guess" the right settings.

And yes I know Win 11 hasn't officially been released yet , I'm just trying to see if I can make adjustments in Win 10 such that WindowsPCHealth gives it the official thumbs up when I run it again

Also WindowsPChealth is complaining that secure boot is not enabled... I tried looking in the motherboard manual and secure boot is not mentioned at all.

So guys, thoughts? Is this motherboard even a serious candidate for Windows 11 or should I just forget any hope of installing Win 11 on it when Win 11 is released? Also do you guys think it's worth risking changing the bios settings to firmware TPM to see what happens or better to leave well enough alone?

Sorry for the long complicated post .. and thanks to anyone who reads this and responds

 

[Koekieezz]

So guys, thoughts? Is this motherboard even a serious candidate for Windows 11 or should I just forget any hope of installing Win 11 on it when Win 11 is released? Also do you guys think it's worth risking changing the bios settings to firmware TPM to see what happens or better to leave well enough alone?

you could just update the motherboard bios to the latest, as it is supported win11 by default.

when you updated the motherboard bios to the latest, check the TPM if it's enabled and if it's assigned to disecrete or firmware tpu, then go to secure boot and see if the secure boot is enabled, on USER mode, and the keys is installed.

How to enable secure boot on user:
Enable Secure boot -> Go to the options, and install the security keys
If you already updated the bios to the latest, go and check the secure boot if it's on user mode, and the keys is installed. if the keys is installed it would show as "remove keys" or "uninstall keys", and says that the mode is user.

Also don't worry if you have 2000 series cpu at the very base, it is still supported in the latest bios update

Most B350 and B450 motherboard supports AMD fTPM and Secure boot, just make sure the cpu bare minimum is 2000 series, and you're good to go (make sure it is the latest bios).

 

[andrepartthree]

you could just update the motherboard bios to the latest, as it is supported win11 by default.

when you updated the motherboard bios to the latest, check the TPM if it's enabled and if it's assigned to disecrete or firmware tpu, then go to secure boot and see if the secure boot is enabled, on USER mode, and the keys is installed.

How to enable secure boot on user:
Enable Secure boot -> Go to the options, and install the security keys
If you already updated the bios to the latest, go and check the secure boot if it's on user mode, and the keys is installed. if the keys is installed it would show as "remove keys" or "uninstall keys", and says that the mode is user.

Also don't worry if you have 2000 series cpu at the very base, it is still supported in the latest bios update

Most B350 and B450 motherboard supports AMD fTPM and Secure boot, just make sure the cpu bare minimum is 2000 series, and you're good to go (make sure it is the latest bios).

Thanks so much for reading my post and taking the time to reply to it - it is very reassuring to hear someone say that " Most B350 and B450 motherboard supports AMD fTPM and Secure boot " because let me tell you given I installed this motherboard/CPU/RAM combo like 3 months ago and didn't consider the hardware to be that old - well, I was mad as all heck that Win 11 would be like " Nope, that motherboard isn't good enough no Win 11 for you " ... I will definitely update that BIOS ! : )

And my apologies I should have stated in my first post that I have an amd ryzen 3 , 3300x cpu installed ... which from what I'm seeing online apparently (hopefully?) supports Win 11 as well?

I did a bit more research online and apparently when you go into the BIOS and then the "boot" menu and see "launch CSM" you should change it from "enabled" to "disabled" ... I tried doing that and sure enough it pops up a secure boot option in BIOS where none existed before in BIOS

I checked system information in Windows 10 and it lists secure boot as "unsupported" so hopefully that will change once I perform the bios changes mentioned above.

However I saw this link online as well

https://www.onlogic.com/company/io-hub/uefi-for-windows-11-what-you-need-to-know/

I checked system information in Windows 10 and sure enough just as they warned the BIOS is set to "Legacy" not " UEFI" ... so a warning for anyone else reading this thread (maybe you came across it in a google search , there are a ton of helpful tom's hardware forum posts that pop up that way just by googling ) .. if you perform the changes I mentioned above you could end up not being able to boot into Windows at all ! I know this seems like common sense but make sure you write down any changes you make in BIOS so you can go back and reverse them if necessary.

Also... groan... I remember reading online somewhere that the hard drives need to be formatted in GPT in order for Windows 11 to even cooperate with them... of course when formatting my hard drives I went with the default that Win 10 offers which is MBR ... so it's looking like when I transition over to Win 11 I'm going to have to do a clean install of Win 11 ... the big question is, if my documents (which are on a different hard drive) are in MBR format will Win 11 even be able to access them? Or do I have to copy all my documents to another hard drive, format every drive Win 11 will interact with as MBR, and then put the documents back on the now MBR formatted drive?

This also makes me REALLY hope that when they offer that free upgrade to Win 11 for current Win 10 users it gives the option of just doing a clean Win 11 install and just plugging your Win 10 product key in there during the process. I really don't want to fork out over $100 for a Win 11 license.

So in summary it looks like I should

- update the motherboard's BIOS

- wait until I get an alert on Windows on the PC (I'm hearing rumors saying this probably won't happen until sometime in the year 2022) saying " Hey you're eligible to upgrade to upgrade to Win 11"

- follow the steps I mentioned above in BIOS... change TPM setting from "discrete" to "firmware" such that it relies on the CPU (amd ryzen 3, 3300x) for TPM support instead of the non-existent TPM module that is not plugged into the motherboard ... and also go into boot and change "launch CSM" from "enabled" to "disabled" to get the secure boot option to pop up in BIOS then of course enable secure boot.

- (hopefully) install Win 11 as a fresh install from the installation media they will hopefully make available , plug in my Win 10 product key number, cross my fingers and hope everything works !

You guys agree with this plan of action?

 

[Koekieezz]

And my apologies I should have stated in my first post that I have an amd ryzen 3 , 3300x cpu installed ... which from what I'm seeing online apparently (hopefully?) supports Win 11 as well?

Correct, starting from ryzen 2000 series cpu (or any Zen+ based).

I did a bit more research online and apparently when you go into the BIOS and then the "boot" menu and see "launch CSM" you should change it from "enabled" to "disabled"

Correct, you must disable any legacy and CSM option.

I checked system information in Windows 10 and sure enough just as they warned the BIOS is set to "Legacy" not " UEFI" ... so a warning for anyone else reading this thread (maybe you came across it in a google search , there are a ton of helpful tom's hardware forum posts that pop up that way just by googling ) .. if you perform the changes I mentioned above you could end up not being able to boot into Windows at all ! I know this seems like common sense but make sure you write down any changes you make in BIOS so you can go back and reverse them if necessary.

Also... groan... I remember reading online somewhere that the hard drives need to be formatted in GPT in order for Windows 11 to even cooperate with them... of course when formatting my hard drives I went with the default that Win 10 offers which is MBR ... so it's looking like when I transition over to Win 11 I'm going to have to do a clean install of Win 11 ... the big question is, if my documents (which are on a different hard drive) are in MBR format will Win 11 even be able to access them? Or do I have to copy all my documents to another hard drive, format every drive Win 11 will interact with as MBR, and then put the documents back on the now MBR formatted drive?

I've installed windows 11 in a B550M Gaming + R5 3600, procedure is pretty simple.

Since the owner asked me to just clean install for the best result, he backed up the data from C: first (important data, not the program files and windows files) to other drive, then i proceed by updating his mobo bios to the latest, enabling amd ftpm, disabling any CSM/Legacy options, Save and exit then go to bios again, go to secure boot, enable, and install keys, and after it restarted it self i immidiately go to bios again and see if the secure boot is on USER mode and enabled as standard, after all set i install the windows 11 fluently like windows 10, no blockage, no bypassing, just normal install

So in summary it looks like I should

- update the motherboard's BIOS

- wait until I get an alert on Windows on the PC (I'm hearing rumors saying this probably won't happen until sometime in the year 2022) saying " Hey you're eligible to upgrade to upgrade to Win 11"

- follow the steps I mentioned above in BIOS... change TPM setting from "discrete" to "firmware" such that it relies on the CPU (amd ryzen 3, 3300x) for TPM support instead of the non-existent TPM module that is not plugged into the motherboard ... and also go into boot and change "launch CSM" from "enabled" to "disabled" to get the secure boot option to pop up in BIOS then of course enable secure boot.

- (hopefully) install Win 11 as a fresh install from the installation media they will hopefully make available , plug in my Win 10 product key number, cross my fingers and hope everything works !

You guys agree with this plan of action?

Yep, just update the bios to the latest, enable ftpm and disable csm and any legacy options, save and exit, go to bios again then to secure boot and see if it's on user mode and the keys is already installed, if not enable it and install keys, go back to bios and see if the secure boot is already on USER and on standard (and see if keys is installed, the only option should be uninstall/remove keys if it's already installed), then save and exit. Check in the device manager if it got a trusted/security devices, and go to system information and see if secure boot is already on.

Then you could just wait for windows 11 to release.

Usually i like to clean install everything after doing that bios thing, so that i could make sure that the windows is installed based on what my bios settings are and it's on UEFI only, and GPT partition ofc.

 

[andrepartthree]

Thanks again ... I'm guessing when you did the clean install to Win 11 you didn't run into any problems with Win 11 as far as the product key ? I have my product key saved so I can enter it again if I'm prompted to during the Win 11 install but I've read online in some sources that despite it being a clean install that Win 11 doesn't even bother to ask you for the product key despite the clean install (which would be really strange though, I imagine in the process that Win 11 formats the C drive so how could it see the product key that was already there? )

 

[Koekieezz]

I'm guessing when you did the clean install to Win 11 you didn't run into any problems with Win 11 as far as the product key ?

Yeah, i used the one he bought for win 10 earlier and it worked.

but I've read online in some sources that despite it being a clean install that Win 11 doesn't even bother to ask you for the product key despite the clean install

well there is a page before proceeding installation to enter the product key, i just skip it (i dont have product key button) and proceed installing as usual, since i was rushed back then and the thing that matters is installing chipset driver and gpu driver.

 

[andrepartthree]

got it - again thanks so much for all the help