Intel ME 11.6 Corporate PCH-H Firmware v11.6.25.1229



Intel ME System Tools v11.6 r7

For PCH-LP 100/200-series users:

It seems that PDM is possible at ME 11.6 firmware as well. There are 11.6 firmware which can be be YPDM and others which are NPDM. Intel has made things even more confusing at 11.6. If I had to guess, Intel releases each 11.6 kit (firmware, drivers, tools, documentation) twice, one for SPT (100-series) and one for KBP (200-series) systems. At SPT, the LP firmware are distinguished between PDM and non-PDM which is good. However, the same happens at KBP kits but the PDM firmware are just a direct copy of the non-PDM ones. So I cannot trust firmware filenames anymore without knowing the kit they came from because a random firmware marked as "PDM" can be either truly PDM (SPT) or a copy of the equivalent non-PDM (KBP). Based on user reports, we also know that the exact same 11.6 LP firmware, regardless of whether it's PDM or not, can show different status at the MEInfo's FWStatusRegister3, depending on whether that system is affected by the PDM erratum or not. On top of that, it's impossible to determine whether a LP firmware is PDM or not by looking at its data because of a proprietary Huffman compression used at the place where such info is stored. So to sum up, we cannot rely on MEA (binary analysis), MEInfo (FWStatusRegister3) and Stock filenames from Intel Kits (unreliable). Thus, we cannot do anything without knowledgeable researchers who can find a way to decompress Huffman modules. It was done in the past (anything before ME11) by UnHuffME but I don't see any movement towards doing the same for ME11, unfortunately. Which leaves me with one option:

All 11.6 PCH-LP firmware are tagged as Unknown PDM (UPDM) by MEA, database and repository. If we have both PDM and non-PDM variants of the same version and SKU, they are marked as UPDM1 and UPDM2. I've left the previous YPDM and NPDM marks at 11.0 firmware as back then it was a little easier to figure out what they were. These changes will be applied at the next version of MEA.



Last and certainly least, I won't post these 11.7 drivers at the first post at this point. Intel has apparently decided that yet another ME11 branch is a good idea. Until we know more, I advise all users to use 11.6 drivers only.

@ atomota:

No matter their support, a new BIOS for such a new board is a given. It's a matter of time. Fingers crossed that ASUS has already seen that problem elsewhere and knows that needs to be fixed.

@ yurikol:

You cannot. Engine release notes are not public. Sometimes OEMs include some changelogs of their own but they list only some Intel fixes and others that are specific to their own firmware releases.

@ atomota:

Oh it is definitely BIOS. Things is, without a new ASUS BIOS, it can only be fixed (maybe temporarily if the BIOS is the problem, and yes I believe it is) by reflashing the SPI chip (ME+BIOS). That is not possible when the Flash Descriptor is locked and ASUS BIOS Flashback deals only with the BIOS region of the SPI chip. So either wait for a new BIOS which might solve the problem via BIOS Flashback or claim the warranty. I don't have anything else to add, everything else is up to ASUS. Thank you for keeping me updated though as to your support efforts.

@ ahzhi:

User acid96 already corrected you. Now read the first post to answer your questions, it's there for a reason.

Intel ME System Tools v11.6 r8

@ ahzhi:

Yes there are differences which are mentioned at the first post briefly. Doesn't matter though, that decision is hardware and OEM, not user related. If you have Consumer you update to Consumer, same for whoever has Corporate. As for driver, I only keep the latest here. I don't know what guide you are referring to but if people want to keep older versions that's totally up to them.