I will soon do a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 OS on my X99 platform. My plan is:

A) OS phase:

01 Windows 7 SP1
02 manual updates (like SSD registry changes)
03 Windows 7 Updates

B) drivers phase:

04 basic software (like file manager, unpacker)
05 chipsets INF
06 Management Engine driver
07 Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 driver
08 AHCI driver
09 USB 3.0 driver
10 USB 3.1 driver
11 LAN driver
12 graphics driver
13 monitor INF
14 audio driver
15 system image backup #1

C) software phase:

16 antivirus
17 firewall
18 (any other needed software)
19 system image backup #2

Is this order ok? Will you move anything sooner/later? :)

@Fernando: Thank you for your opinion. :)

Most of these things on the list are "old" for me as I reinstalled different Windows OSes many times using this order and "nothing bad" happened so far, but I am not completely sure about two drivers as I will install them for first time and I would be happy to hear your specific opinion about them.

- Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 driver - I've never installed it so far because this is the driver for X99 platform.

- Intel Management Engine Interface driver - I've never installed it so far because I was always using NULL_HECISystem.inf from chipsed INF and I was not really aware I need to install anything else.

I think my planned order of installation of these two things go well with your "the Drivers phase should start with a look into the Device Manager for yellow flagged devices" sentence.

- Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 driver - During first OS installation on X99 I was not aware that I need this driver and had one "!" in device manager. During my searches I've found out that this specific driver will allow me to correct this "!".

- Intel Management Engine Interface driver - As I was always using NULL_HECISystem.inf so I've never seen "!" on this device. This time I plan to not use NULL_HECISystem.inf so I should see "!" here.

So, I think, to hide all "!"s, these two drivers along with chipset INF should be installed first. The question is: in what order? Does my presented order look OK for you?

I'm still not sure what "IMEI thing" does to my system but "everyone here on this forum" recommends to install it so here it goes. But I've heard the opinion that it should be installed even before chipset INF, so maybe I should do that with IMEI (and maybe also with TBMT 3.0) driver/s?

@Lex
On my side I don't use W7 (but W10 RS3 64bit).
I ignore what is Turbo max driver v3.0 and never seen a yellow flag about this. I have checked in ASUS Sabertooth X99 manual and did not find any reference to this 'specific' driver.
What kind of driver is it related ?
About MEI driver I do use Intel MEI v11.7.0.1045:


About Chipset driver I did use Intel Chipset Device Manager v10.1.2.86 package:


This package does install the 'drivers' v10.1.2.80:


About the installation order you propose I don't see abnomalies. The eventual yellow flags have to be fixed one after one to get a stable configuration.

May be is there another method if you try to build via NTLite tool, on a development machine, a full W7 personalised image with all 'additional' drivers you need so that the installation driver order is no longer questionable ? (However, as I have never done this exercise, it is only one suggestion if you get some problems with your procedure).

@100PIER: Thank you for your reply and confirmation that you can't see any faults in my install oder. :)

Zitat von 100PIER im Beitrag #5

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I ignore what is Turbo max driver v3.0 and never seen a yellow flag about this. I have checked in ASUS Sabertooth X99 manual and did not find any reference to this 'specific' driver.
What kind of driver is it related ?

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Zitat von 100PIER im Beitrag #5

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About MEI driver I do use Intel MEI v11.7.0.1045

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@Lex
Thanks for infos about Intel Turbo Boost Technology v3.0.
It is related to some Intel CPUS/chipset:

Intel® Core™ i7-69xx/68xx processor family for socket LGA 2011_-v3 (single socket only)
Intel® Xeon® E5-1600 v4 product family (single socket only)
Intel® Core™ i9-7920X/i9-7900X/i7-78XX processor family for socket LGA 2066 with X299 chipset.

My CPU i7-5930K does not supported this feature, this is the reason why I have no TBT trace into Device Manager, System Device.

About what does Intel MEI do exactly I think the start post here gives details: here

@100PIER: Yes, I know the topic you linked but IMEI is still "secret technology" for me. If it's "so important" why it has its own "empty driver" (included in chipset INF)? Chipset INF should not "cure" yellow "!" of IMEI device and this way will force people to install proper IMEI driver instead.

Anyway. after more reading I decided to change installation order of Management Engine and Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 drivers: I will install IMEI driver before TBMT one.

@Lex
Here are the infos reported by HWinfo64 about MEI for my SabertoothX99:

@100PIER: I have the same Intel ME firmware version as yours, 9.1.37.1002, and my FITC version is also 9.1.10.1000.

Shouldn't they be somehow upgraded to v11 to properly use these IMEI v11.7.0.1045 drivers?

Also, I've heard a lot about Intel ME vulnerabilities...

@Lex

1) About Intel ME vulnerabilities you should use the Intel Detection Tool as I have done:



2) Absolutely no, you should remain to run IMEI v11.7.0.1045 drivers with the MEI Firmware version v9.1 branch. This is due to the motherboard hardware design.