Sleep problems with Management Engine Driver on Asus UX430UAR

[dongary]

I am having sleep problems with my Asus UX430UAR ultrabook. The laptop works fine during the day but some mornings it will not wake up and it hot, and I have to cycle the power. The laptop always returns from hibernation, it only fails in sleep mode and it typically seems to fail after Windows woke the machine during the night for maintenance. The PC is often warm with the sleep LEDs flashing.

I read online that Intel® Management Engine Driver can create problems. I have installed v 11.7.0.1040, though on the Asus web site this is listed as version .1043.

Is there a later version? I can find IME for 8th gen i7 but my Intel Core™ i7-2760QM (Q4 2011) Sandy Bridge is not listed.

I have the latest Asus BIOS installed

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dongary,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

Due to this product being discontinued, Intel Customer Service no longer supports inquiries for it (Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Processor), but perhaps fellow community members have the knowledge to jump in and help. You may also find the Discontinued Products website helpful to address your request. Thank you for understanding.  

- Discontinued Products: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/discontinued-products.html

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[dongary]

Wow, I only bought this (expensive) ultabook 3yrs ago..

[n_scott_pearson]

To verify if the IMEI driver is responsible for the problems you are seeing, uninstall the ME driver package completely. If this does not make any difference, then you will know that this driver is not responsible and we can look elsewhere (I personally think that the BIOS is responsible, just saying).

...S

[dongary]

Hello Scott, so removing the IME driver creates an error en Device Manager, for the "PCI Simple Communications Controller"  (PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9D3A&SUBSYS_1C201043&REV_21)

On the Asus website, there are two versions of my Zenbook laptop, the UX430UA and UX430UAR. Asus has yet to clarify what the "R" means.

The IME verision for my laptop is 11.7.0.1043 on the website (which installs as 11.7.0.1040 for some reason) and V11.7.0.1052 for the "UA" version. Do you know if the IME is customised?

[n_scott_pearson]

Yes, of course it does. Simply ignore this and check for the issue.

...S

[dongary]

hello, so my laptop went into sleep mode over lunch and when I returned it was quite warm to touch and the sleep LEDs were active, but it was imposible to wake it up, I had to cycle the power buton.

The IME verision for my laptop is 11.7.0.1043 on the website (which installs as 11.7.0.1040 for some reason) and V11.7.0.1052 for the "UA" version. Do you know if the IME is customised?

[n_scott_pearson]

So, since it isn't installed, it *isn't* the MEI that is responsible for the problem. Sounds like you need to be looking at the BIOS. The default (and in many emerging case, only) 'sleep' method is Microsoft's Modern Standby. This is not a complete shutdown of the Cores (like S3 sleep) and it allows software to run while in this state. This software seems to be the cause of the heat and the 'hangs' that seem to be occurring. If your BIOS supports it, you could try changing over to S3 sleep, but this may require a reinstallation of Windows. Oops, never mind; your system is old enough that it only supports S3 Sleep, so this means that the system is either not going to sleep properly (fully) or is not waking up properly. Look for a BIOS update (but likely not one available). Also look at drivers that are not waking their hardware properly - but this too could be as a result of the BIOS support.

The MEI package is nothing more than the driver supporting communications with the Intel Management Engine. Only in vPro systems can additional software included. The ME itself is a closed, 'supposedly' secure (Intel will hate me saying that) environment and Intel doesn't support OEM modification of its firmware - but it is the OEM's decision regarding which version of the firmware they actually use in a particular system (since it is usually provided as part of BIOS update packages). AFAIK, the 11.7.0.1052 firmware is only a bug fix or two (i.e. no new features AFAIK) away from the 11.7.0.1043 firmware.

...S

[dongary]

Thank you Scott, yes it cannot but the MEI if it’s not there, though my issue sounds an awful lot like this one:

Intel-Management-Engine-Causes-High-CPU-usage

The latest BIOS from 2019 is installed and worked fine until the Windows x64 20H2 update and the new Intel drivers for WiFi / BT / Display which I installed around autumn of 2020. Unfortunately, there is no windows image on the machine and MS media creation tool always gives you the latest version. I cannot go back to the windows which worked and did everything I needed.

The machine crashes typically overnight, when the OS wakes the machine for maintenance. I cannot remember a time it happened when I closed/open the lid or used the power button.

I don’t know how to check which drivers are not waking their hardware properly- is there a tool?

[n_scott_pearson]

Since MS has screwed it up in almost every major Windows 10 update, my recommendation is to always do a clean install of the LAN and WLAN driver packages after installing one of these updates. A clean install means performing an uninstall-reboot-install process with Internet access completely disabled (so Windows Update can't screw things up).

It is very difficult to figure out what actually causes the issue. See if there are any messages in the event log that might provide a hint.

...S