ntel® Platform Trust Technology (Intel® PTT) Recertification Service Uses 30–40% of CPU Usage

[RobLatour]

This link (https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca/en/support/articles/000036941/intel-nuc/intel-nuc-kits.html ) describes the exact problem I am having (except the CPU load can go up even higher than 40% - approaching 50% at some times).

I have run the  Intel® Trusted Execution Engine driver update program and confirm I am using the latest drivers according to it (although I don't see the PPT listed).

I am however not using an Intel NUC machine, rather a Guzila machine: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08PJSK1H8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00

There are several posts for update drivers on the Intel site available, but each post is for a list of specific NUC machines - never the Guzila box that I have.   Some of these links have widely varying version numbers associated with the drivers - for example, some may start with 1.x while others 3.x.

I have described this problem to the vendor and asked them for support and a link to where I could get the latest bios.  All they did was send me a bios that was a year older than the one installed in my machine and when I called them on that they told me "This is normal. A bug in Microsoft's update patch will cause an extremely high CPU usage." and suggested "1. You can reinstall the system and close update 2. It is recommended that you can update after a while. Maybe Microsoft will fix this problem. Update will always fix known bugs and increase notifications.".  Heavy sigh.

The bios installed in my machine is from 2020-09-25 so fairly recent. 

In any case, not sure where to go or where to post.  Can't find a sub-forum for the PPT technology - so if this is not the sub-forum please let me know where is.

For now, I have end tasked the PPT software, but I don't know what security exposures that has left me with.

Any advice on getting this fixed would be appreciated.

xx

[Alberto_Sykes]

RobLatour, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

In reference to your inquiry, for this specific scenario, as stated on the link you gave us, there used to be some problems with some specific Intel® NUCs about a high CPU usage due to the Intel® Platform Trust Technology (Intel® PTT) Recertification Service, those problems got fixed by updating the BIOS version and the chipset driver on the Intel® NUCs.

The thing is that all the drivers and the BIOS updates that we have available, as you mentioned, are for the Intel® NUCs and most likely they will not work with your Guzila Mini PC. You said you already contacted your vendor, in this case, that is what we recommend to do in order to try to fix this problem, they should be the ones to provide all the drivers and the BIOS updates for your platform that were tested and validated by them, to contact them directly again will be the next thing to do.

Just to let you know, on some Intel® NUCs, some customers, as a workaround they disable the Intel® PTT, but that means that some security features will not be available like for example, bit locker, passwords, and other settings, on that option also the manufacturer of your device is the only one that will be able to let you know which security features will be lost by disabling that option in their BIOS. I looked for the support site for Guzila but it was not showing.

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[RobLatour]

Thank you, I have followed up a second time with the vendor of the PC and for a second time they sent me a version of the bios which was over a year old.

The only way I’ve found to deal with the problem so far is to end task the recertification service.  This however makes me somewhat nervous.

I will share your note with them and see what they say – but my guess is I’m not going to get much more out of them – and why I was looking to Intel to perhaps correct things with their software.

Thanks, Rob

[Alberto_Sykes]

RobLatour, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing that information.

Yes, in this case, that will be the next thing to do, to get in contact directly with your vendor once again since they handle all the information related to the BIOS on their computers, like firmware updates, BIOS updates, and drivers as well as the features the can be enabled and disabled and the possible results of changing those settings in the BIOS.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[RobLatour]

I was able to get thru to the tech forum supporting this machine.  They are saying the issue is not for them to resolve, rather it is an issue between Microsoft's engineers and their clients.  https://www.iacepc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=839

However, from the other posts I have read, Intel is suggesting:

a. an update to the bios

and 

b. an update to the Intel drivers for their recertification service.

The problem is all references to b. above are couched in the context of NUC machines, which this is not. 

Ultimately, however, it is an Intel program that is misbehaving/consuming all the resources.

Is there a device-independent version (that is to say not tied a particular NUC) of the Recertification Service/App/Driver/whatever which I can try updating to in order to see if that would resolve the issue?

[RobLatour]

bump