What does this new MEI firmware do exactly ?

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I keep seeing this on most MSI Intel boards that MSI wants to update the MEI firmware to "- ME Firmware ver: ME_16.1.30.2264"
But they do not say why I need this . see here
www.msi.com

PRO Z790-A WIFI

PRO series motherboards tuned for better performance by 16 Duet Rail Power System, DDR5 memory, Lightning Gen5 PCIe, Pre-installed IO, Extended Heatsink, M.2 Shield Frozr, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G LAN, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
www.msi.com www.msi.com
So what exactly are the changes and why should I bother to update it ?
 
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brothergc said:
I keep seeing this on most MSI Intel boards that MSI wants to update the MEI firmware to "- ME Firmware ver: ME_16.1.30.2264"
But they do not say why I need this . see here
www.msi.com

PRO Z790-A WIFI

PRO series motherboards tuned for better performance by 16 Duet Rail Power System, DDR5 memory, Lightning Gen5 PCIe, Pre-installed IO, Extended Heatsink, M.2 Shield Frozr, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G LAN, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
www.msi.com www.msi.com
So what exactly are the changes and why should I bother to update it ?
Click to expand...


the MEI firmware it is pointing to usually if its saying you should its a bunch of BUG Fixes to things that should be there that are not working properly. i know one of the things its there to fix is the broken APO on the board to make them work correctly.

if they list things that are separate downloads its because without you updating them the other things the BIOS is trying to fix will not work right without them.
 
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Usually ME Firmware needs to be updated, which means fixing some known problems or doing optimization.
It should not be able to list the updates one by one.
 
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yes if they listed exactly what its for it would be a 50 page list of things it does and would be terrible to work out what is going on
 
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Before, the BIOS update also does the ME update at the same time. Now, it's just a separate file so you can only update ME but not BIOS.
 
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I see a lot of reply's but no answers , what does it fix ? I have personally owned a few other boards that toted some MEI update and when I installed it , the board lost major performance .
The fact that MSI does NOT list any clue why or what this new MEI update fixes . What, I am just supposed to have blind faith that MSI just knows best ?
Don't get Me wrong I appreciate all the replies , but I have not seen one post that really answers the question .
Maybe I should put it this way . I run Linux only , No windows here. So You see just downloading a tool from MSI and using that is NOT going to work . So I am not really fond of the idea of wiping my drive, install windows, update MEI, wipe the drive again, reinstall Linux without a real answer to the question , What does this fix EXACTLY ? :)
 
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badboy2k said:
yes if they listed exactly what its for it would be a 50 page list of things it does and would be terrible to work out what is going on
Click to expand...
but the fact is that they list nothing , not even a clue is at least concern . Come on MSI throw Me a bone here
 
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The updates for the Management Engine, or as Intel calls it, the Intel Converged Security and Management Engine (CSME), just like with the microcode updates for fixing CPU errata / adding features / adding newer CPU model support, those are all supplied by Intel. MSI just add the newer versions to their BIOS, or in cases like these, provide a seperate updater.

If the ME FW update fixes a big security flaw, chances are it would be listed here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/default.html
But the last really serious one was this, but it was already fixed in ME version 15.0.23. And usually, to exploit those flaws, it requires local access, either in front of the computer or with an otherwise compromised system. Beyond this information, the ME is mostly a black box. You can't be sure what exactly they fix or change there. MSI don't even list most of their changes for each BIOS version (there can be dozens of changes for each version, yet they only list a couple main ones). So to expect them to list changes for the ME or microcode which they haven't even worked on, forget about it. Sometimes you can deduct the major change when there is a new feature being introduced, most of the time not.

Here you can read more about the ME: https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/i...-engine-drivers-firmware-and-tools-2-15/30719
 
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Yes, but that was first posted ages ago, that's an old vulnerability with old ME versions, up to 8th gen CPUs, we're at 14th gen now for the newest CPU models.

Also, "The attacker gains physical access by manually updating the platform with a malicious firmware image through a flash programmer physically connected to the platform’s flash memory." So, don't worry too much about these kinds of ME security holes, nobody bothers to exploit stuff like that, there's much lower-hanging fruit like people opening email attachments or clicking on spam links and downloading stuff. Complicated exploits are only used for lucrative targets that can pay a big ransom money to the attackers if they enter the network and encrypt all their data and their online backups.
 
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OK, so I want to thank all the replies , every one is appreciated ! :) I suspect that this MEI update has to do with the 14th Gen CPUs and APO which , since I am running 13 gen , is just a waste of time , so I will just skip this unless I can get a good reason not to. Thanks again !
 
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I have flashed the latest BIOS updates on four different Z690/Z790 boards within the last month, it always updated the ME firmware again as well, in one go. Meaning, there is no need to update it seperately later in Windows anymore, like it was with some older updates.

The only thing that happens now is that a new BIOS default drives up power consumption, so my guide should come in handy to greatly improve that situation.
 
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That's weird. For me, it was the newest ME version straight after updating the BIOS, i saw it under Settings\System Status. So maybe it depends on the board model? But i did it on four different boards... including the PRO Z690-P DDR4 which i think you have! There i went from some old factory version to 7D36vAJ (because 12th gen), and the ME was updated alongside.
 
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I have a PRO Z790-P wifi ddr4. Did you by any chance boot into windows after that? Maybe you got the ME with a sneaky windows update. Or maybe it indeed varies with different boards
 
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You know what, it's possible that it comes via Windows Update. Now that i think back, i definitely checked the ME version in the BIOS itself and not with any tools, but i can't be sure when exactly i checked it. I thought it was straight after updating, but now i'm not sure anymore. Or it was really after updating and somehow it can vary if it's done? But where is the sense in that? Hmm.
 
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msi support just says
Thanks for contacting MSI technical support.
Regarding your concern, we are really sorry, this firmware update tool is used in Windows, it may cannot work in Linux OS.
Thanks for your cooperation in advance!
Click to expand...
:angryfire::biggthumbsdown::wall:
 
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