Windows 11 has triggered a new wave of hardware scalping but dont panic

Date:
Fri, 25 Jun 2021 15:54:30 +0000

Description:
You may not need to reach for your wallet, but rather your BIOS, in order to get your PC Windows 11-ready.

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Hardware scalpers have been the bane of PC owners and enthusiasts in a far more intense manner than ever before since pandemic-related component shortages and hardware demand spikes hit the market, and now it seems another PC part is in the sights of these nefarious price hikers.

That particular component is an add-in TPM or Trusted Platform Module for motherboards. A what-now? Well, quite this is a strange one that requires a bit of explanation upfront. Deep breath Windows 11 release date, news, and features We show you how to uninstall a Windows 10 update And here's how to speed up Windows 10

So, Windows 11 launched yesterday , and as well as the new features and that shiny revamped interface the operating system came with a serious curveball in the system requirements , namely a stipulation that TPM is needed to upgrade from Windows 10.

The Trusted Platform Module is basically a little security co-processor that beefs up your PCs defenses against being tampered with, but you wouldnt be alone if youve never heard of it (or had forgotten about it, perhaps).

Due to the TPM requirement, the PC Health Check app which Microsoft has made available to ascertain whether a computer is eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade is telling many folks with contemporary PCs that they cant get the
new OS.

The problem, then, is that those who get the thumbs-down are worried that
they might need to buy a standalone TPM for their PC.

Enter scalpers stage left, as apparently in anticipation of the demand from would-be Windows 11 upgraders, theyre already buying up TPM chips, as highlighted by Shen Ye, Global Head of Hardware Products at HTC, on Twitter. Thanks to Windows 11, people are scalping TPM2.0 modules as well now.$24.90 $99.90 in just 12 hours pic.twitter.com/9TTHC2c47w June 25, 2021 See more

As you can see, a Gigabyte TPM which normally goes for just over $20 (around 14, AU$26) on eBay has about quadrupled in price to hit the $100 or so mark (around 70, AU$130). Anecdotally, online weve also seen PC owners whove already snapped up a TPM for their motherboard pre-emptively in anticipation of such scalping occurring. Dont fear the scalper (in this case)

We shouldnt panic about a full-blown scalping situation yet, of course, as this is still very much early days, but if there is a spike in demand for a less-than-well-stocked component like the TPM, its a tediously predictable scenario that scalpers will get involved.

However, theres another good reason not to panic, as we already discussed earlier today namely that you likely dont need to get a TPM for your PC.
Even though Microsofts PC Health Check tool might say that your hardware cant run Windows 11, it might be the case that you have TPM, but its just not enabled in your firmware.

In other words, all you need to do is take a trip to the BIOS of your
computer and enable it as we explain in the aforementioned article . Alternatively, you may have to wait for a BIOS update yet, but unless you
have an older machine from before 2016, when Microsoft made TPM a
requirement for PC makers to include on Windows 10 devices youll most likely not be left out in the cold.

Of course, there are some folks out there who may have to buy a separate TPM as a hardware add-on to run Windows 11 at least if Microsoft leaves the operating systems requirements as they stand but that should be very much a minority of upgraders.

Still, this is far from an ideal situation because for one thing, it is a confusing picture compounded by the fact that Microsofts Health Check app seems to be a touch buggy and prone to a bit of reporting false negatives.
And for another thing, making less tech-savvy types head to the BIOS to do stuff like enable TPM is going to cause some serious headaches for sure (note that you also need to ensure that Secure Boot is turned on in the BIOS, too). These are the best laptops of 2021



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-has-triggered-a-new-wave-of-hardware -scalping-but-dont-panic/


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