[SOLVED] Intel Management Engine

[Firewall.exe]

3 Questions:

[1]
In the Device-Manager everything is fine expect, pci communication controller.
What exactly is that thing and why would i need it?
Someone told me the warning will go away if install the Intel-Management-Engine.
Which i wont do because this is pure spyware.
(by the way if anyone out there knows how to remove IME {the hardware part..} without damaging my pc, let me know!)

[2]
Under Control Panel > Security and Maintenance i have one error, one of concern only.
I have this since day 1 after installing windows. I think its a common error with 21H1 ?
The error says: windows was not shut down correctly.
Any way to fix it? without sfc scannow and dism health cleanup...
More important, what exactly is the cause of this?

[3]
I have a few errors in the Event-Viewer.
I guess its normal to have atleast a few errors, that's correct?
Or are there some people out there with a Windows OS with zero errors?
I dont notice any issues while using the PC, but that doesn't necessarly mean its doing well.
Im worried about one error in particular, Event-Kernel-Tracing.
If any of the other errors appears to be important please let me know.
Should i leave everything as it is or is it worth fixing some errors?
After all, i have zero critical errors, those are "only normal" errors.

 

[Rogue Leader]

1) That is a required piece of hardware within your motherboard for devices to communicate. You cannot remove it, and you need the proper drivers for it to work properly. If you choose not to install those drivers, you will have this error.

2) If you're unwilling to run the proper utilities to correct the issue, that issue cannot be corrected. That error is caused by not using Start/Shutdown to shut down the PC, however it can also be caused by corruption within your windows install, missing hardware drivers, etc during shutdown. All can be corrected by the two utilities you do not want to run. So no you won't be fixing that.

3) as long as they are not critical that is all normal. You would never ever be able to fix them all. Its part of Windows operation.

 

[Firewall.exe]

1) That is a required piece of hardware within your motherboard for devices to communicate. You cannot remove it, and you need the proper drivers for it to work properly. If you choose not to install those drivers, you will have this error.

2) If you're unwilling to run the proper utilities to correct the issue, that issue cannot be corrected. That error is caused by not using Start/Shutdown to shut down the PC, however it can also be caused by corruption within your windows install, missing hardware drivers, etc during shutdown. All can be corrected by the two utilities you do not want to run. So no you won't be fixing that.

3) as long as they are not critical that is all normal. You would never ever be able to fix them all. Its part of Windows operation.

[1]
According to this Video:
It is possible to disable Intel Management Engine
But looks a little complicated.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUxfxp9dJ8


This Video explains why you should be worried about IME.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNwWQ9zGT-8


So i was right, the pci communication controller is the IME?
In that case i dont care about the error, if it was something else causing the error id like to fix it.
Actually, i dont notice any difference with and without the pci error.
The only visual difference i see is 3 services from Intel are missing in services.msc. But performance is the same.
If this is IME, even when i havent configured this pci setting, IME is still active anyway, correct?

[2]
A collegue of mine has the same shutdown error but his system is fully up to date while mine is blocking any updates, you see the huge difference? But yet we have the same error. Woonder why.
It also doesn't matter if i press the phsysicall button to turn of the pc or use the windos integrated shutdown option, the error remains in both scenarios.
The problem with sfc scannow and dism cleanup is those commands will not only MAYBE fix my problem but they will also download any files i delete on purpose such as "your phone" and "microsoft edge" so unless there is a way to use dism or cleanup for a specific repair only, i will keep the error.
What about windows troubbleshooting, is there any option to fix the shutdown error?

[3]
Alright, thank you.

 

[USAFRet]

So i was right, the pci communication controller is the IME?

No.

That is a generic control mechanism for the PCI bus, when there is no specified driver.

 

[Firewall.exe]

What task is this generic control mechanism executing?
Is it "important"? What hardware or software components rely on it?
I did an offline installation of windows, previously i did it only and didnt have this error. But i dont notice any difference..

 

[USAFRet]

What task is this generic control mechanism executing?
Is it "important"? What hardware or software components rely on it?
I did an offline installation of windows, previously i did it only and didnt have this error. But i dont notice any difference..

It is not executing anything. It is simply there.
It would talk to a PCI device, if one were installed.
It is not an 'error', but rather it is showing you it is not enabled and not doing anything.

 

[Colif]

ME is built into the CPU. its not a separate part of the motherboard.

a little complicated? might brick motherboard... need a Raspberry PI to help convert BIOS...

it seems that doesn't actually stop it running anyway, it just removes the monitoring functions from the bios, the ME still runs.

The Intel Management Engine runs firmware in the chipset, not drivers and software in the OS. The common solution is to permanently disable it in BIOS if that's an option (depends on the system OEM whether this option exists), but recognize that doesn't disable the FW, it simply disables the Active Management Technology capability. In other words, you're only reducing the footprint, not eliminating it.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2095008-remove-intel-management-engine

 

[Rogue Leader]

[1]
According to this Video:
It is possible to disable Intel Management Engine
But looks a little complicated.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUxfxp9dJ8


This Video explains why you should be worried about IME.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNwWQ9zGT-8


So i was right, the pci communication controller is the IME?
In that case i dont care about the error, if it was something else causing the error id like to fix it.
Actually, i dont notice any difference with and without the pci error.
The only visual difference i see is 3 services from Intel are missing in services.msc. But performance is the same.
If this is IME, even when i havent configured this pci setting, IME is still active anyway, correct?

[2]
A collegue of mine has the same shutdown error but his system is fully up to date while mine is blocking any updates, you see the huge difference? But yet we have the same error. Woonder why.
It also doesn't matter if i press the phsysicall button to turn of the pc or use the windos integrated shutdown option, the error remains in both scenarios.
The problem with sfc scannow and dism cleanup is those commands will not only MAYBE fix my problem but they will also download any files i delete on purpose such as "your phone" and "microsoft edge" so unless there is a way to use dism or cleanup for a specific repair only, i will keep the error.
What about windows troubbleshooting, is there any option to fix the shutdown error?

[3]
Alright, thank you.

1) if you don't have any PCI or PCIe devices it doesn't matter. If you try and plug in a GPU to your system it probably will cause you problems. PCI itself is part of the motherboard, it cannot be removed. IME is as well. Yes there is software related to running it but its there either way. I'm not going to comment on those videos. SUffice to say if your system is working properly for you, you don't need to worry about that error.

2) Your colleauges PC has nothing to do with your PC. There are thousands of things that can cause that error, its not one specific bug or thing. If you do not shut down your PC using Shutdown you will get that error 100% of the time. If you do and you still get it, then there is something lagging during the shutdown process. Could be a missing driver, or some other broken or removed piece of software. Because you have taken it upon yourself to hack as much as you can out of Windows as possible I couldn't even start to diagnose this. But suffice to say again, the error doesn't really matter either if the system is functioning properly for you.

Windows Troubleshooting is going to tell you to run DISM or sfc. Or it will run them for you in the background. You're asking Windows automated features to work for you, when you've kneecapped the abilities of Windows to do what it needs to do to fix it. Windows is made to properly work when you DON'T start cutting stuff out. Once you start, you're on your own.

 

[Firewall.exe]

It is not executing anything. It is simply there.
It would talk to a PCI device, if one were installed.
It is not an 'error', but rather it is showing you it is not enabled and not doing anything.

It is not executing anything. It is simply there.
It would talk to a PCI device, if one were installed.
It is not an 'error', but rather it is showing you it is not enabled and not doing anything.

Basically any GPU is a PCI device correct? Atleast that's what this picture tells me.
Meaning, the pci communication controller would, if installed interact with the GPU?
But then again i fail to understand what reason is there to install the missing controller if my GPU is doing just fine without it, why would i need it?
Under which circumstances would there be any interaction between pci controller nad gpu? Which programs/applications would make use of the pci controller if installed?
If i cant see any good reason to install it obviously i will just not install it. But id like to understand if there is any reason to install it.

 

[Firewall.exe]

ME is built into the CPU. its not a separate part of the motherboard.

a little complicated? might brick motherboard... need a Raspberry PI to help convert BIOS...

it seems that doesn't actually stop it running anyway, it just removes the monitoring functions from the bios, the ME still runs.



https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2095008-remove-intel-management-engine

Yeah, might brick the mainboard, unless you follow steps closely and carefully. Anyway im not going to take this risk but it was a very interesting video.
Indeed it doesn't stop IME from running, but it does the most important part, as you said it removes the monitoring functions from the bios.
Isnt that great? honestly i think it is.

I mean... even if i use Linux instead of Windows because i care about privacy, the Intel Management Engine will still be actively monitoring.
This is pretty creepy since the pc user-owner has no access to it.
It could do anything, it could even monitor every single think i ever did since day 1 i powered on this pc the first time and send this information right to intel or some governemnt, who knows?
They claim they do it to fight terrorism, but this mass-surveillance those days makes me worry.

 

[USAFRet]

Basically any GPU is a PCI device correct? Atleast that's what this picture tells me.

There are also IDE and AGP graphics devices. Old school, though.

Meaning, the pci communication controller would, if installed interact with the GPU?

What physical GPU do you currently have installed?

But then again i fail to understand what reason is there to install the missing controller if my GPU is doing just fine without it, why would i need it?

You don't.

Under which circumstances would there be any interaction between pci controller nad gpu? Which programs/applications would make use of the pci controller if installed?

The PCI controller is the conversation between the CPU/motherboard, and whatever might be installed in a PCI slot or other connection.

In your original pic, the system is detecting a PCI interface, but no hardware using it, and no driver for a non-existent hardware.
Nothing is broken, nothing needs to be installed, nothing is talking to any outside entity.

 

[Firewall.exe]

There are also IDE and AGP graphics devices. Old school, though.


What physical GPU do you currently have installed?


You don't.


The PCI controller is the conversation between the CPU/motherboard, and whatever might be installed in a PCI slot or other connection.

In your original pic, the system is detecting a PCI interface, but no hardware using it, and no driver for a non-existent hardware.
Nothing is broken, nothing needs to be installed, nothing is talking to any outside entity.

GTX 960
But i will upgrade to 2080 or 3080ti.
I just find it interesting that Rogue Leader said, "If you try and plug in a GPU to your system it probably will cause you problems. "
But the fact is i already have a GPU pluged in and dont notice any issues, how is that?
I also have a soundcard installed, that counts aswell as PCI i guess?
My headphones and speakers also dont seem to have any problems.

Thank you for helping.

 

[Rogue Leader]

GTX 960
But i will upgrade to 2080 or 3080ti.
I just find it interesting that Rogue Leader said, "If you try and plug in a GPU to your system it probably will cause you problems. "
But the fact is i already have a GPU pluged in and dont notice any issues, how is that?
I also have a soundcard installed, that counts aswell as PCI i guess?
My headphones and speakers also dont seem to have any problems.

Thank you for helping.

I did say probably yes, but not definitely. That could also be related to a device on your system thats not being recognized but you aren't using, again because the driver isn't installed. PCI is the main communication bus on your system. As I mentioned, if it all works, don't worry about it.