Windows 8.1 Update - 'A TCG Command has returned an error' - Automatic Encryption Involved?

How were you able to determine it was your memory stick causing the issue?

I got lucky.  It was a new computer build and I passed Prime95 and Memtest86 with no problems (but the temps in Prime95 were scary).  A week or so later, I started getting crashes once every few days when just browsing.  Then once a day.  Then I couldn't run 10 minutes without a crash.  My computer would sometimes fail to boot and displayed non-existent error codes.

It was then that I went into "shotgun" mode.  Swapping components out to try to isolate the problem.  It was then I found that going down from two memory sticks to one fixed the problem.  I also had a spare stick that I swapped in and that made the problem disappear too.  I exchanged the memory and haven't had a problem since.

I saw the TCG error message early on which is how I ended up on this thread.  If my memory hadn't gotten so bad as to put me in "shotgun" mode, I would probably still be chasing after the disk encryption.

This was the second time in my many years of computer building I went down the wrong path.  My previous problem was a sagging power supply.  Did you know the tolerance on the 5V line is only 5%?  I returned what was probably a perfectly good disk drive because it was showing bad SMART numbers due to a power supply that sagged on startup.

So my personal recommendation is to check everything else out in your system to the best of your ability.  But if you still want to turn off disk encryption, I can give you the magic spell to turn Bitlocker all the way off.

Thanks mbulger.  

The PC build has been running with no issues since late December.  The trouble (system reboots when trying to play a video game), and the the TCG error is in the event log right before the critical error (system crash) every time.  Other than regular Windows updates, there have been no other changes to the system.

WRT the SSD, I did install the firmware update, and that did not fix the issue.  I've been on the Crucial forum as well, and this seems to be a common issue (disk encryption related).

How were you able to determine it was your memory stick causing the issue?

After getting my computer stable, my opinion right now is that the TCG Error is benign.  I get the error message EVERY time my computer starts up but haven't noticed any ill effects.  Having benign error messages is not new for Microsoft.  If you have Office 32 bit installed on a 64 bit system, you will get a SideBySide error every time you run an Office app.  The Knowledge Base explains it and tells you to ignore it.

Is this a new build?  You might want to check for other causes.  Temperature?  Memory slot position?  Graphics card?

If you want to get rid of the disk encryption completely, you will have to completely reset your MX100 and do a registry edit on reinstallation of Win 8.1.  The process is a bit complicated and I'll have to look it up.

And Crucial just released an MU02 firmware update for the MX100.  If you don't have that, I'd try that first.

In December, I purchased a Crucial MX100 SSD as part of a gaming computer build.  The system has Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit installed.  Recently, Windows began recording the following errors, after which the PC restarts.  Here are the details of the problem:

The problem lies when doing anything that requires hard drive usage other than simple browsing, it happens within 5 mins on a game and manifests as a system restart. 

Here are the logs from the event viewer.

A TCG Command has returned an error.

Desc: AuthenticateSession

Param1: 0x1

Param2: 0x60000001C

Param3: 0x900000006

Param4: 0x0

Status: 0x12

EnhancedStorage-EhStorTcgDrv

Opcode : TcgLib

A TCG Command has returned an error.

Desc: AuthenticateSession

Param1: 0x1

Param2: 0x60000001C

Param3: 0x900000006

Param4: 0x0

Status: 0x1

EnhancedStorage-EhStorTcgDrv

Opcode : TcgLib

I visited Crucial's support site, and got the following advice:

I can't tell you why it's happening but I can tell you what's going on.

Windows it trying to access the Opal subsytem on the drive, the first step in that process is to sign on (Authenticate).

Param2: 0x60000001C   <-- this is the methodID of Authenticate

Param3: 0x900000006  <-- this is the UID of the SID (root/administrator user in Opal)

A Status 0x1 is NOT_AUTHORIZED.  The password/userid is invalid.  Since we can see the userid is the SID and we know thats valid we can infer that the password is wrong.

A Status 0x12  is AUTHORITY_LOCKED_OUT.   The limit on the number of attempts to authenticate has been exceeded, a power cycle is required to reset the counter.

____  Everything below this is speculation and can be completely wrong _____

At some point you had bitlocker at least partially enabled, windows "took ownership" (a TCG term for changing the SID password from the default).  Then windows forgot/lost the SID password that it had set, now it's trying to set/check the Opal paramaters on the drive and failing because it doesn't have the authority.

Why Windows would be trying to access the Opal subsystem if you have bitlocker turned off is beyond me, but I fail to grasp the wisdom of Redmond on many occasions.

Your options at the point seem to be:

1. Figure out the magic spell that turns bitlocker all the way off.
2. Get Microsoft to acknowledge that this is a bug and fix it.

*** All options below WILL crypto erase the drive and ALL of yout data WILL BE ERASED ***

3. PSID revert the drive (and possibly secure erase it), reinstall windows and let bitlocker have its way with the drive.
4. PSID revert the drive (and possibly secure erase it), set a BIOS password on the drive if your motherboard supports it and reinstall window.

If anyone has a resolution to this issue, I'd be grateful to hear it; however, from what I gathered, this is a bug in BitLocker, and something the Windows team at Microsoft should look at.  Please file a bug.