You're in the middle of enabling BitLocker or running an app that uses the TPM for key storage, and suddenly you get 0x80280047 with the message "The gap between saved context counts is too large." This typically shows up on Windows 10 or 11 machines with a discrete TPM 2.0 chip — ThinkPads, Dell Latitudes, some desktop boards — right after a BIOS update, or when you've been toggling TPM-related features (like Virtualization-Based Security or Credential Guard) repeatedly in a short span.
What's actually happening here
The TPM is a tiny crypto processor with a limited amount of RAM. To handle more sessions than it can hold at once, it "saves" contexts — essentially serializing the state of a session to the OS, then restoring it later when needed. Each saved context gets a monotonically increasing counter. The error means the counter jumped by more than the TPM's internal limit (usually 256) between two saved contexts.
Why would that jump happen? The most common trigger is a firmware bug in the TPM's own code, often exposed after a BIOS update that changes how the TPM initializes. Another culprit is a driver that loops through TPM commands without properly flushing contexts, or an application that hogs the TPM and then crashes, leaving orphaned contexts.
What you're not dealing with is a hardware failure — the chip is fine. It's a state management problem. The fix is to reset the TPM's context counter, which means clearing the TPM. That's a bit like formatting a drive that has a corrupted index — you lose the data, but the hardware works again.
Fix it: clear the TPM (step by step)
Before you do anything, back up your BitLocker recovery keys. Clearing the TPM will invalidate any keys stored in it, and if BitLocker is on, you'll be asked for the recovery key on next boot. Write down the recovery key or save it to a USB stick. Don't skip this — you will be locked out.
- Open the TPM Management console. Press Win+R, type
tpm.msc, and hit Enter. - Check the status. If it says "The TPM is ready for use," you can proceed. If it's not, you might need to enable it in BIOS first.
- Click "Clear TPM..." in the Actions pane on the right. Windows will warn you that you'll lose all TPM-protected keys. Confirm.
- Restart the PC. The TPM will be re-initialized during boot. You'll likely see a BIOS prompt to accept the TPM reset — press F12 or whatever key your manufacturer specifies.
- After reboot, re-enable BitLocker if you had it on. You'll need to re-encrypt the drive, which takes time but doesn't require a full format.
If clearing doesn't help
Sometimes the error persists after a clear, which tells you the problem is in the TPM firmware itself, not the state. Here's what to do:
- Update your motherboard/BIOS firmware. Check the manufacturer's support page for your exact model. For example, Lenovo ThinkPad firmware updates often include TPM microcode fixes.
- Update the TPM driver. Go to Device Manager, expand "Security devices," right-click the Trusted Platform Module, and choose "Update driver." Then search automatically. Sometimes a signed driver from Windows Update fixes the bug.
- Check if you have a firmware TPM (fTPM). On AMD systems, fTPM bugs are notorious for causing context issues. A BIOS update that switches from fTPM to a dedicated TPM header (if your board has one) can resolve it permanently.
Still failing? Try the nuclear option
If the error still shows up after a clear and a firmware update, you're likely dealing with a driver or app that's abusing the TPM. Boot into Safe Mode and see if the error occurs there. If it doesn't, the culprit is a third-party service. Disable TPM-related services like TPM Base Services (from the Services app) temporarily, but remember to re-enable them after testing.
I've also seen this happen when Windows 11's VBS is turned on while a game's anti-cheat is hammering the TPM. Turn off Memory Integrity under Core Isolation in Windows Security, reboot, and test. If the error goes away, you've found the conflict.
The root cause in one sentence
The TPM's context counter got out of sync because it saved more contexts than its internal limit allows, and clearing the TPM resets that counter to zero, wiping out the corrupted state.
If clearing and updating don't work, the final check is a hardware test. Some TPM chips fail prematurely, but that's rare. You'd see other symptoms like TPM errors at boot before Windows loads. If you get to that point, contact your motherboard or laptop vendor — they'll swap the chip or the board.