As the title says, I have a Gigabyte X99-SOC-Force with the latest beta BIOS (F21C).
I recently stumbled upon this management engine thing and I became very curious.
Does this ME firmware write/override some stuff directly to BIOS?
My motherboard has two BIOS chips than can be selected/change via a toggle switch on the motherboard so in case I screw up the ME firmware will I just select the other BIOS and I will be OK if something goes wrong?
I ran the ME Analyzer v1.4.10 and according to it I currently have:
Driver Version: 11.0.0.1157
Firmware Version 9.1.10.1005
Looking at the sticky thread (Intel Management Engine:Drivers, Firmware & System Tools) I should install/use:
-A1 Intel MEI Driver Only (Intel MEI Driver v11.0.0.1177 MEI-Only Installer)
-B1 Intel ME 9.1 Consumer 1.5MB Firmware v9.1.37.1002 For 9-series systems which come with ME firmware v9.1.x *
-C2 Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7 - (Updated: 18/11/2015) for For 9-series systems which come with ME firmware v9.1.x *
From my understanding I should rename the 1.5MB firmware for 9.1 to upd.bin?
should I do the FWUpdLcl.exe -f upd.bin OR FWUpdLcl.exe -f upd.bin -partid <wcod or locl>?
First of all, thank you for using ME Analyzer and having read the ME thread carefully.
1. The ME and BIOS communicate with each other and the ME can change some small things at the BIOS under certain circumstances only (for example MEBx for Corporate/5MB systems and so on). It’s not something you should worry though.
2. The 2nd SPI chip won’t be affected by any actions of the 1st SPI chip. So yes, you can safely switch to it even if something unwanted happens.
3. The latest MEI driver is 11.0.0.1181 as of now. The MEI-Installer is outdated so using the INF is advised if you want the latest. As of today, I have added a Note at the ME thread (section A1) to explain that.
4. Correct Firmware and System Tools choices.
5. You can rename it to whatever you want as long as a) you type the same name while using FWUpdate and b) keep the .bin extension.
6. You must use FWUpdate -f file.bin for your Consumer/1.5MB system where “file.bin” is whatever you renamed the firmware file. Partid is only for specific Corporate/5MB systems.