Intel Management Engine Error. Help!

jamieboo

jamieboo

jamieboo

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Joined
29 Oct 2009
Posts
369
Hello folks

Not sure what's going on with my system, and I'm wondering if any of the savvy folk of this forum could help me out!

I built my system in 2015: i7 5820 (at stock), Noctua cooler, 32GB RAM, Samsung SSDs, various GPUs but a 1080ti for the last couple of years.
It's all worked very well and I've never really had any problems.
Earlier today I figured it was time to open the box and clear out the dust.
So I did that - very carefully! Most of the dust was accumulated in the Noctua cooler, so I gave that a through, but gentle, cleaning. All good.

I put the side back on the case and plugged everything back in - and was faced with a 4 minute boot.
I tried a few restarts and the same thing happened.
I looked in Device Manager and saw a small, yellow exclamation mark next to Intel(R) Management Engine Interface, and it says "This device cannot start. (Code 10) STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE"
I tried uninstalling the device and restarting, but the same problem occurred.
I looked in Event Viewer and there's a bunch of errors saying "Intel(R) Management Engine Interface driver has failed to perform handshake with the Firmware (FWSTS0: 0x1E000042, FWSTS1: 0x61002106)."
I'm doing an sfc /scannow at the moment to see if that help.

But what could be going on?

Googling the problem suggests a driver error, but why would that have happened immediately after I clean out my case? I was very cautious - I didn't knock any thing and I'm pretty sure everything is still seated correctly.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
 
Thanks for getting back to me mattyfez!

Hmm. I tried that, and as a result my boot time is a tiny bit quicker, but not by much. Something is still wrong.

And also, just disabling it does not really consider the cause of this sudden problem.
Could the Intel Management Engine error be a symptom of something associated with my little dusting procedure?
I think I was pretty cautious when I was getting rid of the dust, but something must have happened, otherwise why would this odd problem have appeared immediately afterwards?
Can this error occur as a result of rummaging in the case? Could it stem from a GPU or RAM stick being slightly unseated?
Any further help greatly appreciated!

Thanks
 
Reproduce what you did to break the ME, sell it on the interwebs, profit?!! On a serious note, how do you know that the error is related to the 4 minute boots? You didn't disconnect any of the SATA cables, right? What about the rear USB cables? I've got a system that doesn't like booting with keyboard or mouse in some of the ports and another that will hang if a USB stick is present and USB boot is enabled.
 
Thanks Tetras

How or if these things are related, I do not know.
All I know is that my computer was fine. Then I opened the case to get rid of some dust, and when I put it back together the boot process suddenly took a very long time. I opened Device Manager and saw the ME error - which had not been there previously - and googling revealed people with this issue noticing long boot times.
But I think the ME error, if it is indeed associated at all, is more of a symptom than a cause because - as per mattyfez's suggestion - I have now disabled it and boot time is still not great. Slightly faster than before, but still very slow.
Can anyone think of any connection between opening the case and giving it a bit of a dust and sudden very slow boot times (which may or may not be connected to ME errors)?

Thanks
 
Hi mrbell1984

I tried checking for updates, but it says I'm up to date. The last update installed on 14/05/2020, and there have been no problems with that.
Looking at Event Viewer there were no problems with ME until after my little dusting process. Every start-up since that clean (up until I disabled ME) created the following error in Event Viewer: "Intel(R) Management Engine Interface driver has failed to perform handshake with the Firmware (FWSTS0: 0x1E000042, FWSTS1: 0x66002106)."
It must be connected.

But you're saying neither a ME problem or slow boot - or both - could result from accidentally unseating a component in the case, or any other side-effect of a dusting?
Well I am completely baffled!

The boot delay seems to be very early. Before even a signal starts sending to the monitor. The monitor flashes a 'No signal' message for ages, then the light comes on and the Asrock splash screen appears. Before disabling ME the asrock splash screen would spin for ages, but now that part of the process is pretty quick. It's the earlier part which has the delay.

What could be going on??

Thanks
 
The ME boots pretty early, I think the shortcut key to access the menu is CTRL+P, but that's usually for OEM systems, so I'm not sure if your board would even have this menu. Off-field: you didn't move a LAN cable to a different port, right?
 
Hello there
What is the CTRL+P menu that you're talking about, Tetras?
I don't think I plugged things back in to different ports - but I will have a check. Thanks.
Is there any kind of program which can somehow log the bios processes? There seems to be lot's going on before a signal is even sent to my monitor. It would be helpful to have a diagnosis of what is happening at that time.
 
CTRL+P is to access the menu for the Intel management engine, it has it's own BIOS thing.

Some motherboards have a debug LED that indicate what is happening, so you could see where it hangs, but if the hang is initialising the ME that wouldn't be very helpful.
 
Right! All back to normal - I think!

The debug LED showed error 79 - which in the realm of AsRock (I have an X99 Extreme6 mobo) means Chipset Initialization Error. That seems about right as the ME is associated with the chipset.
I was wracking my brains for a reason as to why this odd problem should come immediately after the rather innocuous process of dusting inside the case. Then I remembered that right below the socket where I plug my keyboard in on the back panel is a Reset CMOS button - and in fact the metal fascia over the panel is slightly misaligned so that part of the metal surface of the fascia actually rests ON TOP of the Reset CMOS button - so any pressure on any part of fascia could result in the button being pressed. So possibly when I was reaching blindly behind the case to plug the keyboard etc back in, or maybe earlier when I was carrying the pc through to the table - I may have accidentally nudged that button.
Does that make sense?
Anyway, I thought the solution might be to press that button again in a rather more controlled and by-the-book way. So I did. And everything - so far - is back to normal! Boot times are snappy again, and there are no more weird ME errors or silly behaviour.
What a ridiculous little episode!

Thanks everyone!
 
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