RE:Samsung NP530U3C-A01RU Random Shutdowns

[_Duke]

I’m apologize if the questions are off-topic.

Ultrabook Samsung NP530U3C-A01RU (Lotus13-R Rev: 1.3.)
PCB: N Y BA41-02022A.
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies Ltd. P15AAJ, 23.07.2015. Macronix MX25L6406E 3,3V. 8-SOP (200mil). JEDEC ID 0xC22017h.
Platform: Chief River. (Ivy Bridge + HM76 chipset (formerly Panther Point.))
CPU: Intel i5-3317U (Ivy Bridge) 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 Processors 2x1,7GHz
Chipset: HM76 Express (formerly Panther Point)
SSD: 128GB Samsung MZ7PC128HAFU-000KN
IME: 8.0.10.1464

As I understand it, from all the IME capabilities, my system only has Anti-Theft, since the TPM Infineon SLB9635TT1.2 itself is not soldered to the PCB, but the Intel (R) AT Technology Suspend ON (Enable/Disable) menu item is there and it is active …
When this parameter is changed in BIOS, Enable/Disable, and intelmetool -m (Get the status of Intel ME) and AIDA respectively show ME Capability: IntelR Anti-Theft (AT) ON/OFF, but in Intel (R) MEInfo Version: 8.1. 56.1541 for any value of the Intel (R) AT Technology Suspend ON parameter in the BIOS, Intel (R) Anti-Theft Technology remains PRESENT/ENABLED. In addition, for any Intel (R) AT Technology Suspend ON value in the BIOS, intelmetool -m (Get the status of Intel ME) shows ME Capability: Full Network manageability: ON. Which leads to bad thoughts about the possibility of remote access without my permission via OOB.
And this despite the fact that I have never set up an account either on atservice.intel.com or on service.mcafee.com after Intel got rid of this service.
Accordingly, the first question.
What should I believe about the status of Intel (R) AT Technology - intelmetool -m (Get the status of Intel ME) and AIDA or Intel (R) MEInfo?
Well, be that as it may - I thought about neutralizing the IME, but there is a second question.

Even with a clean installation of Windows on a pure, GParted-formatted SSD, Windows itself finds and installs Intel Management Engine Interface driver v. 11.0.0.1157. And although Samsung refused support this model, but a year ago Samsung was still transfered proprietary Samsung update utility to the UWP platform, and now Samsung update utility is strongly recommended in addition to Intel Management Engine Interface driver v. 11.0.0.1157 , install also Intel Management Engine Components v.11.0.0.1158 in the pop-up prompt which says …
“The Intel ME interface driver is the program responsible for the operation of the system motherboard’s heat control module. It is recom-mended to install the Intel ME interface driver to ensure stability and improve system performance.”.
Windows itself does not know about the Intel Management Engine Components and does not offer the installation of these things, but without this the laptop starts to behave inadequately, just begins to be shut down out of the blue. Not BSOD… Laptop just stupidly turns off.
In EventViewer before and after shutdown - there are no suspicious messages - only post-statement of the fact such as EventID 41 “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. " and EventID 6008 “The previous system shutdown at 17:01:29 on 20.01.2021 was unexpected.”.
Laptop can work for a day without shutting down, or it may shut down 3-4 times a day, or even immediately after the start. I immediately turn it on - everything is fine - it starts and works. After manual installation of Intel Management Engine Components 11.0.0.1158, the lap-top will stabilize.
And besides Intel Management Engine Components 11.0.0.1158 is installed not as a driver, but as an application without a GUI.
Just folders with subfolders is appears
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel (R) Management Engine Components\DAL
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel (R) Management Engine Components\IPT
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel (R) Management Engine Components\LMS
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client
C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel (R) Management Engine Components\DAL
C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel (R) Management Engine Components\IPT
and dozens of files in them.
Hence the second question.
If I neutralize the IME, can Intel Management Engine Components work properly?

TIA

[plutomaniac]

@ -=Duke=-

1. Trust MEInfo, it’s the official tool
2. Anti-Theft had nothing to do with TPM
3. There are no “Components”, random naming from Samsung
4. Nothing ME related can cause the random shutdowns that you have, you should look elsewhere
5. Install the latest driver from the first post, ignore the OEM

[_Duke]

@<a class="nopad" href="#no_permission_userprofile" style="color:#5421e0">plutomaniac</a>

This is what I wrote about … Since there is no TPM on the PCB, Anti-Theft is probably one of the last explicit things left from the IME on this platform.

@<a class="nopad" href="#no_permission_userprofile" style="color:#5421e0">plutomaniac</a>

You’re wrong. It’s not “random naming from Samsung”, but it’s Intel’s own term.

As far as I was able to understand, the term “components” Intel means a set of drivers and services that provide interoperability between OS and IME Firmware.
But the problem is that with a clean install of Windows, only the Intel® Management Engine Interface driver is installed, but not the services.

@<a class="nopad" href="#no_permission_userprofile" style="color:#5421e0">plutomaniac</a>

Nevertheless, the fact is that without installing the services recommended by the Samsung update utility, the ultrabook does not behave stably, as I wrote in my last post. But after installing the BASW-84384A0D package including: Inst.ini, Inst.exe, SetupME.exe, MUP.xml. IntelMEFWVer.dll, Windows6.1-KB2685811-x64.msu, Windows6.1-KB2685811-x86.msu.
which is downloaded from the Samsung update server httр://sbuservice.samsungmobile.com/upload…, folders appear in the system that uniquely define the installed services
C:Program Files (x86)IntelIntel (R) Management Engine ComponentsDAL
C:Program Files (x86)IntelIntel (R) Management Engine ComponentsIPT
C:Program Files (x86)IntelIntel (R) Management Engine ComponentsLMS in exact accordance with Intel® Management Engine Installation and Configuration Guide. Firmware v. 8.1.pdf (page 11).

After installing BASW-84384A0D package, the ultrabook will stabilize.
So there is a direct relationship between unpredictable ultrabook’s shutdowns and missing DAL, IPT, LMS services in the system.

@<a class="nopad" href="#no_permission_userprofile" style="color:#5421e0">plutomaniac</a>

I have already read section “D” on the first page which advises for Intel® ME Firmware Version 7-8 to install MEI Drivers and Software Consumer v11.0.6.1194 (ME 7-8) (httрs://bit.ly/3yvDnsL high-lighted text link. Open in Chrome or Edge).
But Intel site httрs://intel.ly/3vhB2Qk this package (v11.0.6.1194) is recommended for Intel® NUC Kit and Intel® NUC Board NUC5i5MYBE, which both have Intel® ME Firmware Version 10 (httрs://intel.ly/3wdop8T)

whereas my platform has ME Firmware Version 8, so I have questions. Is this advice correct?
Will the system work stably with v11.0.6.1194 installed?
These questions arose not out of idle curiosity, but out of a desire to clear the system from IME, especially from Intel (R) Anti-Theft Technology PRESENT/ENABLED and ME Capability: Full Network manageability: ON.
But I’m not sure if then the platform temperature control subsystem will function correctly when modules and partitions are removed from the BIOS dump, which are defined as default in corna’s me_cleaner.py script.
Or should I include some additional modules and partitions in the whitelist so that the platform temperature control subsystem continues to function properly?
I saw your activity on github (Issue search results · GitHub) and I read your recommendation here (https://bit.ly/45Gke8d) to go to github with questions on me_cleaner.py, but there is very low activity on Github - Issues, so I decided to take the risk of asking questions here.
For reasons that are not clear, I have not yet been able to dump out BIOS from my MX256406E via the CH341B USB Programmer dongle, nor via CH341 Programmer, nor Colibri Programmer, nor AsProgrammer. The utilities cannot detect the chip nor automatically, nor even when I specify the chip manually.
And this is despite the fact that I do not use Test Clip, and the chip is soldered directly to the CH341B USB Programmer dongle board.

But I hope that these are temporary difficulties and I will figure out what the problem is.
I cannot find the free BIOS dump I need on the network, but I found a dump BIOS v.P14AAJ 2012.10.26 NP530U3C_A01UK, Lotus13 platform, which is similar in hardware implementation to mine platform.
I understand perfectly well that this dump is absolutely not suitable for my platform, nevertheless, I downloaded it just to study the work of me_cleaner.py.
Under the spoiler there is a log of the script me_cleaner.py -S -O modified_image.bin P14AAJ_NP530U3C_A01UK.bin.

Python 3.9.5 (tags/v3.9.5:0a7dcbd, May 3 2021, 17:27:52) [MSC v.1928 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more infor-mation.
>>>
=========================== RESTART: E:me_cleaner.py ==========================
Full image detected
Found FPT header at 0x1010
Found 15 partition(s)
Found FTPR header: FTPR partition spans from 0x93000 to 0x108000
ME/TXE firmware version 8.0.10.1464 (generation 2)
Public key match: Intel ME, firmware versions 7.x.x.x, 8.x.x.x
The AltMeDisable bit is NOT SET
Reading partitions list…
??? (0x000003c0 - 0x000000400, 0x00000040 total bytes): re-moved
FOVD (0x00000400 - 0x000001000, 0x00000c00 total bytes): removed
MDES (0x00001000 - 0x000002000, 0x00001000 total bytes): removed
FCRS (0x00002000 - 0x000003000, 0x00001000 total bytes): re-moved
EFFS (0x00003000 - 0x00004b000, 0x00048000 total bytes): re-moved
NVCL (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x00010511 total bytes): nothing to remove
NVCP (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x0000a553 total bytes): nothing to remove
NVJC (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x00005000 total bytes): nothing to remove
NVKR (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x0001151c total bytes): nothing to remove
NVSH (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x00007609 total bytes): nothing to remove
NVTD (NVRAM partition, no data, 0x00001eac total bytes): nothing to remove
GLUT (0x0004b000 - 0x00004d000, 0x00002000 total bytes): re-moved
MDMV (0x0004d000 - 0x000093000, 0x00046000 total bytes): removed
FTPR (0x00093000 - 0x000108000, 0x00075000 total bytes): NOT removed
NFTP (0x00108000 - 0x00017d000, 0x00075000 total bytes): re-moved
Removing partition entries in FPT…
Removing EFFS presence flag…
Correcting checksum (0x2e)…
Reading FTPR modules list…
UPDATE (LZMA , 0x0dea9f - 0x0dec5d ): removed
ROMP (Huffman, fragmented data, ~2 KiB ): NOT re-moved, essential
BUP (Huffman, fragmented data, ~54 KiB ): NOT removed, essential
KERNEL (Huffman, fragmented data, ~135 KiB ): removed
POLICY (Huffman, fragmented data, ~89 KiB ): removed
HOSTCOMM (LZMA , 0x0dec5d - 0x0e5980 ): removed
RSA (LZMA , 0x0e5980 - 0x0eabf2 ): removed
CLS (LZMA , 0x0eabf2 - 0x0f032c ): removed
TDT (LZMA , 0x0f032c - 0x0f6a0b ): removed
FTCS (Huffman, fragmented data, ~18 KiB ): removed
ClsPriv (LZMA , 0x0f6a0b - 0x0f6ded ): removed
SESSMGR (LZMA , 0x0f6ded - 0x1056f0 ): removed
The ME minimum size should be 696320 bytes (0xaa000 bytes)
The ME region can be reduced up to:
00001000:000aafff me
Setting the AltMeDisable bit in PCHSTRP10 to disable Intel ME…
Checking the FTPR RSA signature… VALID
Done! Good luck!
>>>

I hope that you will find the time to take a quick look at the log and maybe you will have a couple of tips on the composition of the partitions and modules that are removed by the script by default.
I saw on the network that in the IME of some platforms there are dedicated modules ish_bup or ish_srv (or even whole partitions ISHC and FTUP) for ISH (Intel Sensor Hub) that are not recommended to be deleted, but in the me_cleaner.py log for BIOS v.P14AAJ 2012.10.26 NP530U3C_A01UK Lotus13 I do not see similar modules and partitions.
Does this mean that the sensor subsystem is moved outside the IME on this platform and all default modules and partitions can be deleted?
TIA

[MeatWar]

Hello, there is some particular models of the NP530U3C that suffers a lot of a hw failure that causes such instability and random failures from the internal iSSD cache 8/16Gb
The machine posts fine and can load OS installed but crashes randomly and if trying to do clean OS installations never can finish it, this was a situation with a client machine.
Not saying that is ur issue…just a report.

EDIT: Sorry didnt noticed correctly ur HW, no iSSD then, good luck.

[_Duke]

@MeatWar

Hello, there is some particular models of the NP530U3C that suffers a lot of a hw failure that causes such instability and random failures from the internal iSSD cache 8/16Gb
The machine posts fine and can load OS installed but crashes randomly and if trying to do clean OS installations never can finish it, this was a situation with a client machine.
Not saying that is ur issue…just a report.

Thanks for participating.
I am aware of a problem with iSSD, but my first post details my platform configuration.
And as you can see - Lotus13-R Rev: 1.3 PCB: N Y BA41-02022A has 128GB Samsung MZ7PC128HAFU-000KN SSD and does not have iSSD.