Windows 8 BitLocker and a Black Screen
I'm starting to take mass transit (Commuter rail) into work and want to take some precautions with my laptop (in case it gets lost or stolen). Since my 'travelling' laptop has Windows 8 Pro on it, I decided to enable Bit Locker drive encryption.
While my first experience with BitLocker was a bit less than pleasant, I was able to get it working and ge past a Black Screen issue.
References:
- BitLocker without TPM [blogs.technet.com]
- How to Enable BitLocker without a TPM Chip in Windows 7 and Windows 8 [7tutorials.com]
Problem
When I tried to enable BitLocker drive protection my HP Laptop froze during the reboot validation check. I had my USB key in with the encryption key and let it sit. I had followed the instructions from Microsoft about enabling BitLocker on non-TPM systems (To get around the "A Compatible Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Security Device must be present on this computer, but a TPM was not found..." error).
Unfortunately, this resulted in my computer showing a 'black' screen for awhile. The USB light was flashing, so it looked like it was doing something.I let it sit for 30 hours for good measure. No luck, no encryption
Solution
In my case I just hit the power button once to turn off the system, then pressed it again to have it turn back on. I re-ran the BitLocker setup WITHOUT Checking the box to restart the system with the USB key plugged in. This time around it actually encrypted the drive while I went about my business.
Once Encryption was complete, I restarted the laptop and was prompted for my password. After entering the password the laptop booted like normal.