[Problem] LAN/Intel ME related Freezes of my Medion B360H4-EM System

Special Topics Intel Management Engine
1

I’m having some trouble with my PC. It freezes randomly and there is artifact. I know it isn’t a hardware problem and that, somehow, LAN Controller and Intel ME are related to this issue.

I don’t know how could LAN cause this PC freezing, but using HWInfo, at SMBIOS tab, I’ve seen there is a vPro capabilities section, which is related with VT-d (memory management) and Intel AMT, and one entry says that my BIOS supports “VA extensions”. A couple of websites on the internet mention that VA extensions is an ACPI Op region, and that could be a place to introduce a memory bug which could cause my issue.

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However, there isn’t much more info about this. I only know that VA extensions is related to an ACPI Op region and that it is vPro related. I don’t even know what VA means or how could I disable this feature inside BIOS.

Any info about this? Any way to disable VA Extensions with a BIOS mod? What is the function of VA Extensions?

BIOS: 360H4W0X.zip

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


Edit by Fernando: Both help request threads about the same topic merged and thread title customized

2

I have a B360 motherboard and I’m having some complex problems regarding Intel ME and LAN controller: I discovered that LAN and intel ME were (somehow) messing around with my PC, and I solved it by writing 0’s to an specific location at LAN config space and disabling ME DID message and the problem was gone. That problem returned again after a long time and now I can’t solve it by above method, so I think that something must have changed.

Anyway, I could explain the issue a little bit more, but that is not the purpose of this post.

I have been looking at the MEInfo ouput, and I have noticed that TLS is disabled, which could be one of the few connections between Intel ME and LAN, because B360 chipset doesn’t use AMT.

If a clean ME image is used to build an image with Intel FIT, almost every “Intel ME Kernel” option is enabled (Intel AMT, ME Network Services, TLS…), and when I drop my OEM BIOS image into Intel FIT, I can see that TLS is enabled, but other options are disabled. For example: Intel AMT is disabled (as my motherboard doesn’t support AMT), ME Network Services is disabled too (is this option related to TLS? In that case, should it be enabled in order for TLS to be enabled too?). Taking into account that it looks like OEM has disabled some options which cannot be used in my system (as Intel AMT), and left other options enabled (TLS), it may be logical to think that my machine is able to have TLS enabled. However, HWInfo says that ME is not TLS capable.

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Right now I’m using the OEM BIOS configured image, and I haven’t tested whether TLS is enabled when using a clean Intel ME image (with all “Intel ME Kernel” options enabled), so I don’t know if any other option should be enabled at Intel FIT in order for TLS to be enabled (like the Intel ME Services option, as I said in the previous paragraph).

Is it posible to enable TLS at Intel ME consumer firmware? How? Is there something I must change at LAN configuration / BIOS / ME in order to have it enabled?

BIOS: 360H4W0X.zip

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

PD: I don’t really understand some posts on this forum about AMT, like this one

Multiple websites on the internet say that AMT is only for Corporate ME images, how are these people supposed to enable AMT at their platforms?

3

@Neuronla
Welcome to the Win-Raid Forum!
Since you obviously don’t yet know the exact reason for the random freezing of your system, I have merged both threads you have started today and hope, that you will get help from one of our BIOS Modding resp. Intel Management Engine experts.
Good luck!