Specs:
-Motherboard: B360H4-EM (Medion)
-Processor: intel i7-9700K
-RAM: 8 GB of Samsung RAM (M378A1K43CB2-CRC)
-Storage: 1 TB SSD +1 TB HDD.
I have a 300-series chipset (B360, as the motherboard namer says) and these chipsets use CSME version 12
My PC has been freezing randomly for 2-3 years, and I’m sure it’s not hardware related, as it has “fixed itself” several times. The issue consist that it suddenly starts freezing for a period of time (let’s say 8 months) and (again, suddenly) it works fine for another period of time. I have also took it to a trusted repairman who told me he had carried out several test and it was hapening even using another RAM stick and after changing RAM stick to a different DIMM.
I found some very courious behavior some days ago:
- every ME firmware version 12.0 I have found on the internet is shown as CNP/CMP-H B,A in MEAnalyzer at “chipset” row.
- Also, every ME firmware version 12.0 I flashed to my motherboard (and almost every ME 12.0 you can find on the internet) had a PMC firmware version 300.2.11.10xx (300-series PCH with H SKU and B stepping).
I was thinking: OK, this Intel ME Sub Region supports H SKU of CNP and CMP chipsets with A and B versions, and my PMC firmware is built for B stepping, so in theory, I have a PCH-H B chipset. However, I was relying on the fact that the firmware was designed specifically for my motherboard (PMC firmware is stepping-specific, but I don’t really know if PMC B wouldn’t work on an A0 PCH system due to minor differences or a motherboard “especial design” so that PMC B could work on an A0 PCH). In my mind, it would be really weird to have a B stepping firmware on a PCH-H A chipset, I thought it probably wouldn’t even boot, so I didn’t check any further until I saw this post, which shows a B PMC firmware built with an A ME Sub Region.
I remembered that MEInfo outputs a row called “PCH step data”, but I don’t know if MEInfo gets “PCH step data” from PMC firmware or if it looks for this info using other techniques. Anyway, if I run MEInfo and I see something different from B1 stepping, something must be wrong. Result: it was showing A0 stepping.
After all this stuff, I don’t really know what PCH stepping version I have, but Since PMC B firmware supposedly supported A0 PCH and MEInfo was reporting that it had stepping A0, I deduced that I had an A0 PCH. Plutomaniac says at this post that it’s imposible for MEInfo to report A0 stepping having a PMC B firmware, so my MEInfo “Step Data” row may be bugged, but it is a symptom that something is wrong
If I have a PCH with A stepping and I build a BIOS binary using PMC A version, I can flash it and the problem should be gone. After flashing a PMC A + latest ME 12.0 version firmware, my motherboard won’t power on.
THEORIES
A) Maybe ME is detecting my PCH as A0 stepping (but in reality it is a B1 PCH) and that changes some ME internal parameters to wrong values. Perhaps, if I find a ME Sub Region which only supports B stepping, the problem could be solved.
B) Another option is that is detecting my machine as a CMP PCH and that interferes with stepping detection. As I said before, MEAnalyzer outputs that almost every ME Sub Region firmware 12.0 is compatible with CMP and CNP chipsets, but Plutomaniac wrote that ME 12.0 is not compatible with Comet Lake nor Ice Lake chipsets, so I don’t know how to take this information.
C) Possibly, for PMC A to work, it must be merged with an ME Sub Region which only supports A0 stepping and not B1 stepping. I have already built a BIOS binary with this solution, but I haven’t tested it.
CONCLUSION
It looks clear that something is preventing ME from correctly detecting my PCH stepping. I don’t know if it has something to do with:
- Any BIOS Region module which could interfere with this process (like Realtek LAN controller driver messing up with some Intel ME components related to intel AMT).
- Some kind of CPU pins problem which could be causing incorrect chipset detection
WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR?
I’m looking for ME Sub Region firmware for B stepping exclusively and ME Sub Region firmware for CNP chipset exclusively.
BIOS directly downloaded from Medion Support forum:
360H4W0X.zip (7.1 MB)
Any help on this topic is appreciated