I have an old SuperMicro X9SRI-F server board. The last O/S it was certified to run was W7. Installing a late release of W10 will work - Unless The "Intel Management Engine Update" is selected when doing a separate driver search/update (just to get the proper ChipSet and USB drivers for instance). Once updated/installed it crashes the W10 installation completely and this is a known defect. The BIOS has no option to turn off the ME hardware interface. W10 startup hangs in the middle of the spinning dots. Sometimes, the process goes a little bit further just before the LogIn GUI is presented. Thats it. I tried to retreive some information using Intel MEI-Info tool only to receive "E39 PCH Not supported" and "E620 Unknown H/W Platform". A further attempt to use some /"Flags" with the AFUDOSU.EXE and the .BIN-file did not resolve the issue. There was no otion to blank or disable the ME parts of the BIOS. The BIOS simply indicates "ME BIOS 1.2" and "Version 2.1.7.328". The original version for the Engine software is "10" but the FTP at SuperMicro is and has been down for several months (At least the link provided in the support area is dead). Searching the WinRaid forum, which has a section devoted to Intel ME is of little help. Since Microsoft (at last!) provided the option of deselecting the ME Engine Update, it is of course the simplest thing during an installation just to never ever select it and the board with it's CPU runs perfectly. The question is: Where does this ME driver software reside once installed? Booting into the recovery environment, I cannot find it in the DeviceManager tree, not in the APPS, nor in the update history. ?
Actually I did. It seems that most of the BIOS mods done by talented contributors are for ASUS, HP, DELL etc. SuperMicro seems to be almost non-existent. I have in the past "hacked" binaries and used manufacturer "forgotten" JTAG-interfaces in order to rescue dead motherboards but this X9SRI-F is not worth spending to many hours on. And I think the risk of bricking it is high. And - As long as I do not tick that "Intel ME Update" check-box amongst the optional drivers offered my Microsoft I am safe...