Intel Management Engine

Yammer · 9 Jun 2013 at 12:47

I'm running an OCUK Asus P8Z77-V system. When I installed W7, I had to install Intel Management Engine driver to get rid of the Device Manager error. But it looks like it's no use to me. As far as I can tell, it's for remote management, so it's just wasting space and cycles.

I looked in the BIOS, but I couldn't find anywhere to switch it off. Is there a nice clean way to get rid of it? Or is it actually useful?

jeffa123 · 21 Jun 2013 at 14:27

It handles RPC and ACPI. In other words its like a searant major, keeping the troops in line. It installs the SMB during its installation which may answer some of your queries.

8 Pack · 21 Jun 2013 at 17:10

Just uninstall if you dont need it.

Yammer · 24 Jun 2013 at 11:59

jeffa123 said:
It handles RPC and ACPI. In other words its like a searant major, keeping the troops in line. It installs the SMB during its installation which may answer some of your queries.

Raises more questions than it answers, unfortunately

Surely the basic chipset ACPI stuff is handled by the chipset driver?
RPC is an OS function, isn't it?
SMB?

What I actually did, in the absence of an answer, was un-install the driver and disable the resulting unknown device. Seemed to work fine, without any errors in event manager.

jeffa123 · 24 Jun 2013 at 15:54

I can only offer my advice and if you have a driver which is missing, install it or you may regret it later. Ask Intel, what the SMB is for and ask them what ACPI is? They invented the terms and they wrote the protocols. But if the system is there to be installed I would do it as assurance nothing went wrong with my setup.

Yammer · 24 Jun 2013 at 16:41

I know what ACPI is, that's why I assume it's handled by the chipset driver. Also, the only SMB I know is SaMBa, which is a networking protocol. None of these things sound like a remote management driver's function. Where did you get your information?

8 Pack · 25 Jun 2013 at 00:18

I have tested fairly extensively and found both to slow up the system in all benchmarks including game ones. I personally never install this stuff on my machines and have never found a reason why I would need em.

jeffa123 · 27 Jun 2013 at 06:23

SMB Also handle you Directory services protocols. How your Drives are set in Devicemanament. These all have assigned resources. Plug a USB device like a Hard drive into a USB Host port and it reads the directories.