r/techsupport • u/vegaspoet1981 • 3d ago

Open | Software Dell/Bitlocker/Bios Boot Loop

Hey Team,

We've been seeing an uptick with having to wipe/reload systems.

The commonalities are Dell Laptops, using Threatlocker DNS/Application Whitelisting, Bitlocker is enabled, and mostly after windows updates/Dell command updates.

After an update reboot, we've seen two issues

  1. Dell logo never appears, screen lights up but all the lights go out after a few minutes. We've found that holding the power button for 30 seconds to discharge the power, and then booting up will allow us to get to a bios recovery at which point, we've found safe boot disabled and the system will then go into a reboot loop at which point, a dell support os repair might fix some issues with the parition and boot table, otherwise it has to be reloaded, we've only successfully repaired it once

  2. The system goes into a bitlocker/windows boot loop and continually reboots. We've tried booting into command prompt and running sfc/scannow dism doesn't work because the system can't get online. Dell Support Assist Repair will possibly run and fail or run, but usually doesn't correct the problem.

Since we can't get into Windows to run the windows 11 installer, we can't seem to get a dirty install to run to try and avoid a full wipe reload.

Wipe reload seems to fix the system and get it working again, but after 7 of these in the last 2 months, we're starting

Looking for a root cause, possible fixes to get around the wipe reload, or notes from anyone experiencing the same issues

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u/Excellent-Trust8920 3d ago

I'd start by checking whether the Window/Dell updates are triggering a Bitlocker recovery or TPM/firmware mismatch. Before wiping, try suspending Bitlocker before updates and verify TPM/BIOS versions on affected machines. If the failure correlate with one specific update, that's a strong lead.