Why was enabling tpm 2.0 wrong

Question

As I said in this question, I enabled tpm 2.0 on my pc (a custom build with windows 10 on it), and, apparently, this messed up the filesystem or something and I get “WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR” and “CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT” after a few seconds or minutes of using it.

No one was able to help me fixing the problem, the best option I was told to do was to clone my ssd (to retrieve the data I wanted) and run a clean install.

QUESTION

My question is: what did I do wrong? How can I prevent something like this? Because my thought process was:

1. Went to windows update
2. I saw that I had to enable tpm 2.0 to update to Windows 11
3. I enabled it, by going to the BIOS (I have a MEG Z590 ACE as motherboard)
4. Windows started crashing

But I never read any disclaimer or anything that told me to be careful or to not enable the tpm 2.0: was I just unlucky or could have I done something to prevent it? Should I do more research in general before messing with the BIOS? Should I have known what TPM 2.0 was?

• Note: I’m not asking how to solve the problem, I gave up on it. I’m asking how to avoid doing a similar error in the future.

Answer 1

Really it wasn't; a TPM is not supposed to cause such issues (i.e. there is no specific combination of options that "must be avoided").

Should I have known what TPM 2.0 was?

Before changing any option you should have looked into what the option does, at least in broad terms.

For example, does it only enable something new, or does it change something from one mode to another (like how enabling AHCI would disable IDE-emulation)? Does it enable a whole new device, or just a mode in an existing device? What is the purpose of that option (i.e. why does Windows need it)?

• The TPM is a separate internal device that is normally passive but can be used by the firmware and/or by the OS (which has drivers for the TPM like for other devices). It doesn't normally change the basic operation of the system.

• While some systems have a discrete TPM (a completely separate chip) that the option would simply enable/disable, many other systems emulate the TPM through a special mode in the CPU with help from the system's firmware – also known as an "fTPM". Intel PTT is an example of an fTPM; AMD has its own.

• Features that are emulated through system firmware have a greater chance of causing trouble (see also: "SMM mode"), one specific example being the AMD Ryzen fTPM implementation causing frequent CPU stalls (they released a firmware upgrade to fix that). Having "watchdog timeout" indications from the OS might be a sign of fTPM bugs.

• The purpose of a TPM is, mainly, to store keys in a way that they're permanently bound to the system and cannot be exported from it. Therefore it makes very little sense for a "To Go" portable OS to be using the host machine's TPM for anything, although it may be for the purpose of verifying Secure Boot, but practically nothing else as it contradicts the purpose of a portable OS. Most likely the requirement would not be present in official Windows 11 "To Go" images, if such a thing existed.