[mothman]

I've noticed that none of the Gigabyte X79 boards have the latest Intel Chipset or Management Engine Interface Drivers. For instance there's an MEI 8 Series driver available that Asus and other board manuf. have. Why not Gigabyte ?
The latest X79 and MEI drivers don't seem to be available via Intel Download Center either, just for Intel brand boards.

 

[Sin0822]

you can install those intel drivers on your board, they are intel drivers, no gigabyte's drivers.

 

[mothman]

I'll try that, but i thought Mobo Manuf may Alter Intel's drivers

 

[Sin0822]

no they don't you can even goto intel's site and download it.

motherboards really are just circuit boards that support intel's chipset technologies, everything from the way memory is routed(example= t-topology for ivy bridge, is an Intel specification), then you have the VRM which needs to be built to Intels standards(example= VRD12 for Ivy and Sandy, VRD12.5 for Haswell, VRD11.1 for X58 and P55). Then you have the UEFI, also Intel provided through AMI who they chose to spearhead it, a basic template for the UEFI is sent to all partners and then they customize and add modules for things like profile sharing, or 3d mode, or memory profiles, it is no coincidence that all the boards use the same basic UEFi flashing tool in different ways. Then you have the chipset, which basically controls everything on the board from memory initialization to shutting down your CPU when it gets too hot.

Everything is built to Intel standards.

There are some things, like the PCI-E 3.0 standard which has to be built to PCISIG standards, SATA standards are based on SATA, USB based on USBIF.

Intel ME and Intel PCH come from Intel, no motherboard maker can change the drivers for it, they can maybe at their logo to part of it lol, but the basic drivers are the same.

If you want the latest drivers, stasio from TweakTown forums has a thread there, he is very good about updating things.

 

[mothman]

Thanks Sin. Much appreciated ! +rep

 

[ericeod]

I actually just delved into this exact issue. From what I've read you should be installing the version of ME that is built for your motherboard's ME firmware. For example, As of the latest 3305 bios (X79) available Jan 2013, ASUS has not updated the management engine FW past 7.1.21.1134, while Intel has moved to version 8.1.10.1286. There is a way to flash the firmware manually to the bios, so I thought I would give it a try, and did so easily. I posted on this subject here:
ASUS P9X79 motherboard owners, where are you at?
Quote:

Originally Posted by ericeod

Note for those running windows 8 on their X79 ASUS board (there doesn't seem to be software for the newer version on Intel's website for Win 7, so it looks like this is specific to Win 8).

I wanted to post information on Intel's Management Engine firmware (FW). As of the latest 3305 bios available Jan 2013, ASUS has not updated the management engine FW past 7.1.21.1134, while Intel has moved to version 8.1.10.1286. There is a way to flash the firmware manually to your bios, so I thought I would give it a try, and did so easily.

I've attached all the files you will need. Start by unzipping the attached file to your main C drive. Note this is a "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK". Having said that, I tried the newest 8.1.2.1318 version for Z77 which caused the system to restart whenever I tried to shut down, but it still load into windows. So I was able to easily reflash the backup I made of the original, reset bios, and update back to 8.1.10.1286, which has been perfectly stable for me.

When you extract the zip file to your c: drive, you will have an MEFLASH folder:



You will need to open the CMD as Admin. to do this, press [windows key+X]

From CMD, type "cd c:/MEFLASH" minus the quotes



At this point you can backup your original ME firmware by entering the following command: "fptw64 -ME -D backup.bin" minus the quotes. It will overwrite the backup FW I've already saved from my own bios, which is version 7.1.21.1134

Then flash the new firmware by typing: "fptw64 -ME -F ME8_X79_HED.bin" minus quotes

There will be a message about no region or something, then it will continue to flash. Once complete, you will have to power down, not just a restart. For Win 8, move the mouse off any active windows and press [Alt+F4] and select shutdown. After the computer restarts, enter bios and verify Management Engine version. It is listed in the upper left corner in the Main bios tab.

And last, get the corresponding Intel management Engine Software:

Intel ME 8.1.10.1286 Windows 8 x32 and x64

For those wondering how important the ME is:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=P8P67+DELUXE&id=20110121215331816&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
Quote:

You need MEI to do "anything related to the CPU under OS".
Want to change the CPU Vcore / multiplier / BLCK.... anything.

Without it, your system may not even be able to display the BCLK right. It is that important.

And to your questions.
1. Yes, it is essential to have MEI installed before installing AiSuite II, else TurboV EVO and Auto Tuning won't work.
2. The reason why it is huge and installs fast is because most of it is windows update related.
3. If you want more performance, enable TPU. For more power saving, enable EPU. For both, enable both.
4. Yes, BIOS settings can override the configuration of these switches.

I scratched together from a few sites, but this is where I started, and the main source for my info above:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?24150-Intel-MEI-amp-ME-Version-8.1.10.1300-amp-8.1.10.1286-(driver-and-FW)

 

[Sin0822]

GIGABYTE UEFIs update ME Firmware automatically every flash depending on the UEFI version, that is why it takes so long in the middle of the flash as opposed to the ends, and why when you first boot the system will fail to boot, as the BCLK is being reset.

ASUS's updates usually occur after the flash on the first bot up, as that is when their EC is also updated, all those ROG features like flash back and such.

stasio updates the drivers here:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/30530-latest-overclocking-programs-system-info-benchmarking-stability-tools.html

Intel® Management Engine Interface(MEI) Driver 8.1.30.1349

THe drivers are designed to be backwards compatible as people are able to flash back their BIOS to the F1 BIOS if they really want.

 

[ericeod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sin0822

GIGABYTE UEFIs update ME Firmware automatically every flash depending on the UEFI version, that is why it takes so long in the middle of the flash as opposed to the ends, and why when you first boot the system will fail to boot, as the BCLK is being reset.

ASUS's updates usually occur after the flash on the first bot up, as that is when their EC is also updated, all those ROG features like flash back and such.

stasio updates the drivers here:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/30530-latest-overclocking-programs-system-info-benchmarking-stability-tools.html

Intel® Management Engine Interface(MEI) Driver 8.1.30.1349

THe drivers are designed to be backwards compatible as people are able to flash back their BIOS to the F1 BIOS if they really want.

I thought they were backwards compatible, but I was having some restarting issues (when I would shut down, the PC rebooted) when I was using ME 8 drivers with ME7 FW. After updating my FW manually, the problem went away. This was all happening with the PC at stock. This was at least my experience.

 

[Sin0822]

ahh okay yea that would make sense. I would imagine that the BIOS updates which say windows 8 compatible would be with those with the proper firmware to support windows 8. It is handy how you figured out how to flash the ME firmware alone, it could be useful to some people on Z77 who flash and get issues stuck at 16x. On some brand you need a ME flash to take care of it.

 

[ericeod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sin0822

ahh okay yea that would make sense. I would imagine that the BIOS updates which say windows 8 compatible would be with those with the proper firmware to support windows 8. It is handy how you figured out how to flash the ME firmware alone, it could be useful to some people on Z77 who flash and get issues stuck at 16x. On some brand you need a ME flash to take care of it.

I actually flashed the latest ME FW to my board, which is 8.1.2.1318. But it turns out it is meant for Z77. My system still booted, but the ME FW showed in bios as N/A. So yeah, the above method does work for updating the ME 8.1.2.1318 FW on the Z77 boards. Side note, I just reflashed the bios, then updated to the latest X79 ME FW.

 

[Sin0822]

yea haha sorry you are right. I just saw 7 series and thought it was okay.

 

[mothman]

I thought the Intel Management Engine was software and you just install the .exe driver. What is the Firmware you guys refer to ?. I don't see any firmware update on gigabyte downloads or anywhere else for that matter ?

 

[ericeod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mothman

I thought the Intel Management Engine was software and you just install the .exe driver. What is the Firmware you guys refer to ?. I don't see any firmware update on gigabyte downloads or anywhere else for that matter ?

The firmware is integrated into the bios. Intel released a firmware updater to update if the bios version is not updated.