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Intel Management Engine causing BSOD?

GLaDOSDan
Level 7
Operating System
==================
Windows 10

Computer Specs (PSU, GPU, CPU, RAM, Motherboard)
==================
Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX HERO

CPU: i7 7700K

BIOS: Version 1203 (Latest)

RAM: 32GB Corsair DDR4

GPU: MSI GTX 1080

PSU: Corsair 600W

SSD: Samsung 960 EVO 512GB



Description of problem
==================
Over the last few days my computer's stability has become almost unusable (I believe after a Windows update occurred). I frequently get BSODs with varying error messages such as CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION and others. Interestingly, I also get an array of error messages regarding the Intel Management Engine whenever I POST (booting proceeds as normal after this). The error messages have changed over the last few days as the BSODs have become more frequent, and the current message it displays every time I boot is:


"Error sending end of post message to ME: HECI disabled, proceeding with boot"


Cause/Steps to recreate the issue
==================
Normal use of PC (browsing, etc) randomly causes BSOD. Intensive tasks such as gaming don't seem to increase BSOD frequency. Anywhere from 10 minutes to 12 hours.

What I've tried so far to resolve the issue
==================
1) Updating my BIOS to the latest, 1203

2) Antivirus / antimalware checks with Windows Defender, MalwareBytes and HijackThis. All come back clean.

3) sfc /scannow


At the moment I'm trying to update the Intel Management Engine to its latest versio (which I meant to do when the vulnerabilities were announced a month or two ago but completely forgot). This is where I'm running into problems.


ASUS' website says the latest BIOS revision should bring my Management Engine's firmware to the latest version, however when I look in the BIOS, my ME Version is: 11.7.0.1229, which is a version from early 2017. I believe I should be aiming to be on version 11.8.50.3425 here? (According to: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97319-A-new-update-for-the-ME-Drivers-and-a-bios-ME-DRIVER... ).


ASUS have a bunch of tools and stuff for updating the Management Engine on their website (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/) and none of them seem to work as expected. The "MEUpdateTool" dated 2017/11/22 (3.71MB) simply tells me "Please check MEI Driver is installed."


So, I download the "Intel ME V11.7.0.1045" tool (dated 2017/12/26 on ASUS' website) which opens up an Intel application called "Intel Management Engine Components" which tells me "This platform is not supported."


After some more research, I was told to try running "FWUpdLcl64.exe -FWVER" to get the current firmware version. This returns:


"Error 8193: Fail to load MEI device driver (PCI access for Windows)

Above error is often caused by one of below reasons:

Administrator privilege needed for running the tool

ME is in an error state causing MEI driver fail

MEI driver is not installed

Error 8757: Display FW Version failed."



I also saw on various forums that people were able to see the Intel Management Engine within Device Manager. I do not have it listed there at all. It is also not listed as an 'Unsupported Device' as if it was missing drivers or anything - Device Manager shows no warnings for any device; the Management Engine simply isn't there.


I've also tried all of the above while booted into Safe Mode to no avail.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm sort of at a loss at this point.


Many thanks in advance.
10,858 Views
8 REPLIES 8

Chino
Level 15
Intel has acknowledged that their Meltdown & Spectre microcode is causing the BSODs. It should be solved in the next BIOS release.

Chino wrote:
Intel has acknowledged that their Meltdown & Spectre microcode is causing the BSODs. It should be solved in the next BIOS release.


Thanks for your reply Chino. Do you have any links to further reading about this?

Chino wrote:
Intel has acknowledged that their Meltdown & Spectre microcode is causing the BSODs. It should be solved in the next BIOS release.


I know Chino is a problem. but until know i work 4 asus machines 2 7700k and 2 8700k 2 heroIX, 1 Hero X and 1 z370-E and are doing ok. On my Z370-E was the thermal paste of the AIO cooler plate. i as felling like a idiot. but that did the trick!

Intel really, as we say here, put all 5 legs on the ground. i hope these get fix. i have wird artifacts on boot. and I know is these. since i check. but is stable on my 7700k hero ix
Learn, Play Enjoy!

JustinThyme
Level 13
Sorry to hear you are experiencing this after trusting Intel to unscrew their screw up.
Personally this has been there for a very long time, it was a mistake IMO to go public with this so some butt plug could have their 15 mins of fame. Now its common knowledge and all the hackers know about it. Would have been better addressed by keeping it under wraps until they had a viable solution that would not cause more issues and time to test it. Then go public with it and have the tools to address it at the same time.



“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, I'm not sure about the former” ~ Albert Einstein

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/firmware-updates-and-initial-performance-data-for-data-center-system...

intel lastest found microcode that fixed Spectre for Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Skylake and Kabylake also bring system reboot follow Haswell and Boardwell, Next week they’ll release another Beta microcode for test again. There are only Coffeelake and Skylake X were safe within minimal performance hit as seen.

*https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/01/workload-table.pdf
W11CANARY 26085.1 Core i9 7980XE 02007006 MCE ME 11.12.95.2499 R6E OFFICIAL BIOS 3801 SAMSUNG OG9 FW 1019.0 SSD 970 EVO PLUS 1 TB x 3 NVIDIA RTX 4090 GAME READY 551.86 64GB GSKILL DDR4 3200MHz JBL 9.1 Sound Bar DTS-X

Thanks for the responses guys. For anyone else stumbling across this thread with similar issues, this information might help you:

I've used Steve Gibson's InSpectre tool (https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm) to temporarily disable Spectre and Meltdown protection until a better fix is found, so far this seems to have increased system stability a bit; I'm now on 6 hours without a BSOD.

My issue with Intel Management Engine appears to be unrelated, but according to a user on the Win-Raid forums, my Management Engine Storage is corrupt and needs re-flashing. You can read more about that here:

https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools-249.html#...

Just as a follow up to all of this - I figured I'd try re-seating my RAM one DIMM at a time. Turns out I have one faulty DIMM. The system wouldn't POST at all with just the faulty DIMM. Removing the faulty DIMM now gets rid of the HECI disabled error and allows me to update the Management Engine as expected. I'm not sure if this has resolved my stability issues - only time will tell.

GLaDOSDan wrote:
Just as a follow up to all of this - I figured I'd try re-seating my RAM one DIMM at a time. Turns out I have one faulty DIMM. The system wouldn't POST at all with just the faulty DIMM. Removing the faulty DIMM now gets rid of the HECI disabled error and allows me to update the Management Engine as expected. I'm not sure if this has resolved my stability issues - only time will tell.




It's something in the ucode itself that causes the issues. It's not related to the ME firmware as best to my knowledge.
13900KS / 8000 CAS36 / ROG APEX Z790 / ROG TUF RTX 4090