Zitat von Lex im Beitrag #3375

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Asus is offering many different drivers on my mainboard's webpage to download. These are drivers for Chipset, Audio, LAN, USB, SATA and, also, Intel Management Engine Interface. The problem is that I know what all of them do except one: this last IMEI "driver".

I know that, for example, Chipset drivers allow to identify chipset devices to let them do their jobs, SATA drivers allow to increase drives transfer rates, Audio drivers allow to increase sound quality, Graphics drivers allow to work/play in greater resolutions etc.

But what does IMEI give to "average PC user" like me? I've installed all drivers except IMEI and I can't see any more unidentified devices. Do I need to install IMEI even then? What are the main benefits? Are there any applications that require IMEI to be installed?

Here is a quote from 3rd post:

Zitat

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What is MEI: (...) it is an interface that uses the Intel ME hardware features to enable an interaction between high- and low-level hardware systems in a system. With this Intel feature, the administrators can now handle the tasks without intervention of the human beings. This has simplified various tasks in a computer system. Intel Management Engine Interface allows you to work in both low as well as high level hardware environments.

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Based on this quote, my closest idea "what does IMEI do?" is: it provides more accurate data required by system monitoring applications (like HWiNFO) or when we would like to test overall system stability (like OCCT) - with no IMEI installed such monitoring applications could display incorrect values. Am I right?

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In consumer systems, the ME mostly works independently from the OS and does not require drivers to function. Drivers are needed in the following situations:
1) To get rid of the "Unknown Device" entry in the Device Manager.
2) There is some software which communicates with the ME and to avoid issues it should do so using the driver instead of poking the PCI bus directly. I *think* that, for example, Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU) is one of those. Maybe there are others. I expect they will notify you in case they can't communicate with the ME, but it's possible they may also fail silently.
3) Intel's integrated video drivers may communicate with ME to enable playback of some DRM-protected media via PAVP (Protected Audio-Video Path), so if you use integrated video you *may* get playback issues without MEI drivers.

when u say "The 100,200 & 300-series systems initially come with CSME v11.0, v11.6 & v11.7 firmware respectively, but are all upgradable to the same or higher minor versions up until v11.8." does that mean a z170 COULD upgrade to 11.8 but no higher, or 11.7 & no higher? im on 11.7.0.x now with z170 with no issues.

can someone help me.. i flashed to 11.8 firmware PCH H for HM170 Chipset ( Alienware 15 R2 laptop) which came with 11.0 firmware.. they released new bios 1.3.12 with microcode update and intel GOP update.. after i update to 11.8 i always get PCH temperature throttle.. around 82c.. is there anyway i can force downgrade to old 11.0, i know intelfwupdate wont let me downgrade, any other tools i can try ?? sadly dell Doesnt want to update new ME firmware on their BIOS..

I read the first post again, and realized I had absolutely no idea what most of the technical klingon meant.

Never flash RGN firmware to the Engine region without first configuring them for your specific system (EXTR) via Intel's Flash Image Tool.
Does this mean I need to do _something_ with every ME file that has RNG in its name? All of the v11 ones are RNG, so I hope I didn't break something up by flashing those onto one of our PCs.
Do I need to do something for this particular board? https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z170-A-PRO#down-bios

@ plutomaniac:

ME 8.1.70.1590 1.5MB (Stock)

Hey Plutomaniac,
can I update v8.1.70.1590 EXTR to v8.1.70.1590 RGN, via FWUpdate?
Will it be safe to do it?
Thanks in advance

after the chipset replaces the hard drive does not deteck if this is problematic about the biosn firmware .. thanks for everything

Intel MEI Driver v11.7.0.1045 (FCU)