Anyone else noticed the new Intel Inf Chipset drivers (10.1.2.74) now takes care of the Intel Management Engine without installing any .sys drivers on the 100 series Chipsets?



EDIT by Fernando: Screemshot resized (to save space)

check the registry if no files is loaded ...
the box and the services.msc have tab showing infos ....like the dependencies one or description . but they read the registry so if driver does not write these info...the mbox can show errors or no dependency to drivers .

I'm not going to install the usual drivers if I don't need it. I've been using IME without the usual .sys file driver for a couple of days now, and doesn't seem it is actually needed for IME on a consumer motherboard/chipset.

Maybe Intel and OEMs got fed up of seeings bricked consumer Motherboards RMA'ed because people failed their unneeded IME firmware update? That's what I wanted to point out.


@grml4d I just checked, no .sys files are loaded and the device isn't linked to any other service in the registry. The driver even states "Needs_NO_DRV" in the inf.

the firmwares you find here are working but can bug with "old" hardware....
you can give them a try if your mainboard has a dual bios or is able to replace the bios when off by usb [ like the sabertooth x79 i have ]
if you have not it then it s better not to update it .
updating firmware can be very cool and make the pc better . mainboards makers are aware of that but they want money so some buggy bios is not a problem...it is even worse with Android os ...with Google making updates that are never distributed by samsung and others ...Google is making a Blacklist of these fuckers...my next phone with the new Android 7 will be a Google .samsung being one of the worst brand i ever seen .

i made screencaptures to show places about drivers-services in win 7 ...10
with one of amd

with intel Me


both are in the same "very long" registry branch , in GUIs they are not in the same and taskmangr does see the amd but not the intel...both having holes in infos...
like we say in france " ce qui se conçoit bien , s'énonce clairement " : what it is well conceived, is easy to explain ...
M$ registry keys are not so well handled by these big brands...so what about us ?

EDIT by Fernando: Screenshots resized (to save space) and the off-topic video removed

Sorry for jacking this thread but I thought it was relevant for me that I had the same question and need more clarification.

I saw this thread while doing research on IMEI. I didn't know much about it and your site has been very helpful so be patient with this noob.

I just built a new system (see specs in my sig) and always thought it best to install Chipset drivers first, which I did. I was as surprised as Chris34 to see that there were no devices showing as needing a MEI driver. I now understand that the INF "driver" are not really drivers but just a way to fool Windows.

Fernando's advice was to uninstall the Chipset "driver" (in my case 10.1.2.77) and install the MEI drivers. But there's no uninstall entry in Windows 7 Programs and Features for uninstalling. All of those multiple entries for Intel(R) Xeon(R) E7 v3/Xeon(R) E5 v3/Core i7.... entries show no drivers installed (see both pics). So should I uninstall them one by one or just use the non-INF MEI installer here?

Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools
Intel MEI Driver v11.6.0.1023 MEI-Only Installer

And if I use the file above will that correct all the "No driver files loaded" messages?

@Fernando

Thanks for the reply.

After uninstalling I got all the listed devices. See pics. I had to do 2 pics to show them all.

4 questions:
1- How do I know which devices require the MEI driver?
2- If I run the single non-INF MEI installer will it load a driver for all 63 devices?
3- If not, should I run the Chipset driver again for all the leftovers?
4- If I run the Chipset driver after MEI install will it mess up the MEI install?

I made a system restore point so I can always go back.

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #11

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@redwald:
I have never seen such chaotic Device Manager. You should better recover the system, which you had before taking your last restore point.
How did you get all these devices listed within the Device Manager? Did you force the installation of all INF files by choosing the " -overall" command?
[quote=redwald|p31618]

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Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #11

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1- How do I know which devices require the MEI driver?
By checking the HardwareIDs of the devices (right click onto them > "Properties" > "Details" > "Property" > "HardwareIDs"). For your on-board Intel ME device they will be PCIVEN_8086&DEV_8D3A.

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Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #11

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4- If I run the Chipset driver after MEI install will it mess up the MEI install?
I don't think, that the INF file installer will replace an already installed driver by a simple text file, but why do you want to run an Intel Chipset Device Software Instaler at all?

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@Fernando

LOL...I was hoping you would say that.

Perhaps I have the worst luck of anyone in the world, but it appears that the folder for Haswell-E is empty. I'm assuming thats what I need. Download from Mega and check that I'm not crazy.

The package did, however, have drivers to these 2 devices out of the 60.
Intel(R) C610 series/X99 chipset SMBus Controller - 8D22
Intel(R) C610 series/X99 chipset SPSR - 8D7C