I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 with an Intel Core i5-6500T, which has a vPro certification on the case. However, my system currently only supports Intel Standard Manageability (ISM) and lacks Intel Active Management Technology (AMT), which I need for KVM access.
I believe I lost AMT support after an ME firmware update. My current ME version is 11.8.92.4249, the latest version provided by Lenovo, and it seems there’s no official way to downgrade or obtain an earlier ME firmware directly from Lenovo’s website.
I do have access to another M900 with an older ME firmware version that still supports AMT, but I’m unsure how to extract the firmware from that machine and safely flash it to mine.
I would greatly appreciate guidance on the following:
How to extract the ME firmware from the older M900 unit with AMT enabled.
How to safely flash the extracted firmware to my current machine to restore AMT support.
If there’s a pre-modded or alternative way to enable AMT on my current setup.
It’s definitly not recommended to transfer an already initialized ME- region from one computer to another without following this procedure first to clean initialization- data;
It’s highly unlikely that you lost ME capabilities when doing an upgrade. ME- updates don’t touch configuration data when done with Intels FWUpdLcl which Lenovo uses: Only code partitions in the ME get updated, configuration data isn’t touched.
And AMT depends on Chipset, NIC, CPU and internal grpahics.
The procedure to enable AMT is described otherwise several times for several ME versions here - I recommend to do some reading.
Thank you for your detailed response and the clarification regarding the risks of transferring an initialized ME region between machines.
I may have mistaken the machines, as I have multiple M900 units with the same CPU (i5-6500T) and identical specifications. However, I’ve noticed that the units with AMT enabled are the ones equipped with a console port, while those without it seem limited to Intel Standard Manageability (ISM).
Thank you again for pointing me toward the guide. I’ll review it carefully, but any additional tips or a summary of the recommended process would be greatly appreciated.
I just wanted to update that I managed to get AMT working — it was my mistake after all. I kept digging and, despite initially thinking my CPU had vPro support, it turned out it didn’t. After swapping it with a proper vPro-enabled CPU, AMT was automatically enabled without any further modifications needed.
Thanks for the info! I’m not entirely sure if I have “Corporate H,” but I thought Intel AMT was only available when using a COR H firmware. I currently have the latest ME firmware version provided by Lenovo for the M900 (11.8.92.4249).
Would updating to the COR H version you mentioned make any difference, or is it essentially the same as what I already have?
Both M900/M910 SFF/MT uses COR H, just check your SKU with MEAnalyzer
Mine was updated also on top of the official LENOVO FW 11.8.92.4249, cant remember well but you may need to enter OEM ID using FWUpdLcl64 tool and latest 11.8.97.4739
These ME FW updates usualy concerns security issues as primary, recent FWs not always easy to find notes about the releases.
Thanks for the clarification! I’ll check my SKU with MEAnalyzer to be sure.
I’m curious, how did you get the .bin file from your ME? I have a CH341A programmer on the way is that the only option, or is there another method for extracting the firmware directly from the machine?
Also, could you share where you got the FWUpdLcl64 tool? I’m totally new to the ME scene and still trying to figure out how everything works. Finding the right information and tools has been pretty challenging for me, so apologies if my questions seem basic.
Thats a lot to explain buddy… start reading some “key” threads
Theres no need, in most cases, the use of an SPI IC programmer, at least for dump/read operations… to write yes, when the fw is locked in the Flash Descriptor and requires manual edit/unlock.
EDIT: Final note, not sure if applicable to your motherboard FRU (IQ1X0MS ?) but i couldn’t access write permissions to some regions, disabling all security features in bios and shorting ME_DIS jumper (IQ270MS) in a quick test made.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction. I know there’s a lot to learn about ME firmware, and I’m just starting to get my head around it all. I’ll go through the resources you shared and do my best to catch up.
But that’s the way it’s meant, you don’t loose capabilities by putting in a non vPro capable CPU, vpro just temporarily disabled and will work again when the configuration is appropiate.
And it’s good you found out before beginning working with the firmware!
As MeatWar writes, it’s possible to update the ME firmware. As earlier said this is done with a tool from Intel ME tools v11, FwUpdLcl which uses an update function in the ME region itself.
Try to do a dump / backup of the firmware with Flash Programming Tool from same toolset: Run fptw64 -d spi.bin to get a nackup of the firmware.
So programmer is only needed when overwriting the complete ME region and / or other parts of the firmware and no bypass for the write protection exists (as a service jumper for example) or when certain regions are protected not only against writing, but reading, too.
