Cant install Intel ME

[Bogart]

The Asrock Intel ME driver will not complete it's installation. I have tried uninstalling the CD driver, rebooting, then installing the new driver. I have tried installing over the old one installed. I can not get it to install through device manager. I can not even re-install the old driver from the CD, I have to do a system restore. However I am able to install the latest Intel ME from Intel's site using the Device Manager have disk searching through the unzipped Intel file. Every time I try to install it it hits a "Can not start one or more services" error and stops the setup. The driver version changes in the Uninstall Programs but none of the ME files startup that normally do with the old and official Intel ME. The only driver that do not do this is from the Intel site. Board is a z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3Any idea?

[parsec]

Re: Cant install Intel ME

Looking at the ASRock download page for your board, the IME version for Win 7 64bit is version 8.0.2.1410. That is the only one available, and includes this text:

Intel Management Engine driver ver:8.0.2.1410
To support Intel's 3rd Generation (Ivy Bridge) CPU, corresponding BIOS and drivers update are required.
Click here to download required BIOS
Click here to download required AXTU
Click here to download required VGA Driver (Windows 7 x64 / Vista x64)

If your system info is correct, you have UEFI/BIOS 1.3, and ASR states you need 2.10, along with a program and driver that match up and work together. I'm guessing you haven't done that. It is also meant for Ivy Bridge CPUs.

The Intel download IME version is generic, or smart enough to detect your i5-2500k CPU, does not have requirements the ASR version does, installs appropriately, and does not put you into Ivy Bridge land.

Why do you want the ASR IME version, it is for Ivy Bridge CPUs, which you don't have, and the Intel sourced IME works fine apparently? Once you update the UEFI, you can't go back without replacing the UEFI/BIOS chips, if your Sandy Bridge CPU does not work well with an Ivy Bridge oriented UEFI. Some owners of these boards are complaining about issues when using SB CPUs with the UEFI's that support IB.

The problem with reinstalling the old driver sounds like during the installation of the new driver, that fails, a registry or some other setting was changed, and not cleaned up/rolled back when the installation failed. Which explains why the system restore fixes the problem.

It is odd that ASR only provides the one, IME driver on your board's download page. I use many drivers downloaded from Intel on several different manufactures boards, all of them newer than the ones supplied on the boards download page, and have never had a problem.

[Bogart]

Re: Cant install Intel ME

I cant change my system info to update new drivers I installed since making this account. I do not know why it just loads a blank page.

About two months ago I had hardware issues due to a poor installation of a hyper 212 evo cooler from the store I bought the PC from. The MB was replaced with the same brand and model, although if there was a revision of the MB I do not know if it was the same or not. All my old drivers were not replaced by the Tech so I had the same software/drivers I had before except for the older 1.3 bios. I had a video crash shortly after getting the system up and running at home. The screen froze but the mouse was still responding to movement but couldn't interact with anything on screen. The mouse froze a few seconds after the screen did followed by unfreezing then freezing again for good. I reset the system with the reset button. As I have had hard locks with previous systems reset never worked before I always had to hold the power button down for a few seconds. This led me to believe it was a software issues and not hardware locking up the system.

At this time I found the cooler was installed even worse than before. So I took my PC down to a local store ran by friends to remount it. They flashed the Bios to 2.3, reseated the cooler, ran OS and Dos based stress tests for a week but couldn't find anything wrong. About 3 days after getting my system back I had another freeze like the one above. I found the dmp file which listed the issue as a TDR recovery failure with Virtuwddm.sys as the probable cause. I uninstalled the program then proceeded to uninstall/reinstall all my hardware drivers. Seeing as the old drivers before the MB replacement were still installed I thought maybe one of these was the issue. This is when I ran into issues with Intel ME as I couldnt reinstall ME from the CD or Asrock's site. As I mentioned the only ME that worked was directly from Intel's site.

If your system info is correct, you have UEFI/BIOS 1.3, and ASR states you need 2.10, along with a program and driver that match up and work together. I'm guessing you haven't done that. It is also meant for Ivy Bridge CPUs.

The Techs that worked on my system updated my Bios to 2.3 before I got my PC back. The IB Bios was never installed to my knowledge, I believe the Tech just updated from 1.3 to 2.3. The listed VGA and AXTU drivers are installed already from before.

Why do you want the ASR IME version, it is for Ivy Bridge CPUs, which you don't have, and the Intel sourced IME works fine apparently? Once you update the UEFI, you can't go back without replacing the UEFI/BIOS chips, if your Sandy Bridge CPU does not work well with an Ivy Bridge oriented UEFI. Some owners of these boards are complaining about issues when using SB CPUs with the UEFI's that support IB.

When I tried to reinstall my CD version of Intel ME it would stop. "the setup failed to start one or more services. Setup will now exit" A restore wouldn't work 100% as none of the old programs/services would run that did before the MB replacement; LMS.exe *32 and UNS.exe *32 off of the top of my head. The Asrock site's version also failed to install with the same error. Holding back on a full format I tried the Intel version which installs via the setup.exe and have disk search, both ways worked fine without issue. I haven't had any issues with the Intel version but it has only been on the system for less than a day. I wasnt sure if I should have the Asrock version as the Intel site said to get my manufacture's version in case there are changes made for their MBs.

The problem with reinstalling the old driver sounds like during the installation of the new driver, that fails, a registry or some other setting was changed, and not cleaned up/rolled back when the installation failed. Which explains why the system restore fixes the problem.

As above the restore only work partially, none of the services would start.

It is odd that ASR only provides the one, IME driver on your board's download page. I use many drivers downloaded from Intel on several different manufactures boards, all of them newer than the ones supplied on the boards download page, and have never had a problem.

I assume I should be fine with the Intel version? Seeing as the only way I think I could get the Asrock CD version of ME back would involve a full format of the OS drive.

[parsec]

Re: Cant install Intel ME

Ah, don't you just love "techs" (at the original store) that don't know what they are doing. I'm familiar with the 212 Evo CPU cooler you have, and its mounting style should not allow it to move around when you took the PC home, short of the fan possibly moving. That is, given it was installed correctly.

It doesn't look like your board had a revision, so I don't see that as an issue. If it did, the replacement you got would have an appropriate UEFI/BIOS. Would your previous OS installation being used with a new, identical board cause issues? You wouldn't think so, but it is possible.

IMO, the bottom line for you is: If the Intel sourced IME driver installs fine, and your PC is then stable, you have nothing to worry about. As I said, I use drivers from Intel on my PCs, including IME, all the time, and I have had zero problems on multiple PCs. Intel will always recommend that you use the board's manufacture drivers, just in case of unusual situations, like the Ivy Bridge BIOS and driver thing that now exists with your board that I mentioned earlier. In my experience, that BIOS, IME, and driver requirement that ASR has there now is very unusual, I've never seen other manufactures do that. Granted, the point of it is to make the board compatible with Ivy Bridge CPUs, but will that work Ok with your Sandy Bridge CPU?

Next, if your PC has issues, like you described with your mouse, the best fix for that will be a new installation of your OS. But, the potential problems with that is the limited BIOS and drivers that ASR now has for downloading. You could use your driver disk for drivers, which should be fine. As I said, you can always use drivers from Intel for their Z68 boards, as I do for the chipsets on my boards. The BIOS you now have on your board should be fine, but of course you can only use a BIOS from ASR. Talk to your friends at the other PC store, and see if they can help you with this.

[Bogart]

Re: Cant install Intel ME

Yah I ended up having the new guy work on my system. They were down to one tech when I dropped my PC off only to hire a new one the next day.


I haven't had any issues with the Bios, except for the two freeze which seem to be software related. Ram was detected along with the XMP setting which matches my rams listed settings, settings confirmed with CPUZ. All my previous settings I had used before work correctly with 2.3. The two freezes happens with different Bios versions, once with p1.3 and once with 2.3. A friend has a similar issue solved by disabling HDMI for the GPU via device manager. He used one of my 560s to troubleshoot but had the same issue. So I figure I might as well try it.


Is the 2.3 Bios only for Ivy Bridge? Looking at the website the only warning about Ivy Bridge is only for 2.1 which is misleading for the other versions without a warning. With Asrock only making three Bios versions available, with only one warning, I can see why so many had issues. They should repost the latest Bios for SB to avoid this issues for themselves and customers in the future.


Should I be concerned if the current Bios, 2.3, is not for my SB Cpu? What are my options?

[Bogart]

Re: Cant install Intel ME

Quick correction. The only anomaly I see is my 8g of ram is read in Taskmanager as a total of 8155mb instead of 8192mb. I have no idea if this is normal or not.

*Seems normal when I google 8gb ram. I used Window's Resource monitor, the missing 37mb is being used/reserved by hardware*