Intel Issues Updates to Protect Systems from Security Exploits

Yep, the hits just keep comin.'

Thankfully I only have 2 Intel Based Systems in household, and 2 In Use AMD Systems, I think i'd go nuts these days like years ago when had 6 in the household many years ago lol

Used one Intel 386SX for tv tuner lol, shared family computer, gaming system/school work back then, business phone answer computer--father tried a home computer business, didn't go well lol. think i'd go crazy if had that many systems now trying to patch, update bios, ME firmwire, remove 3rd party antivirus if update didn't wanna install, had to do that with all systems here just to get the Meltdown patch, May reinstall the 3rd party antivirus Tuesday, not sure yet

Used Avast antivirus for last 10 years or so lol, but i'm fine using Defender if I can get my brain to leave Avast alone lol

Agree on that. If I had anymore computers I would prob go nuts too. It’s bad enough as it is not to mention all the other stuff in the house that needs to be updated. Our iPhones, iPad and other Apple TV keeps me busy too as Apple likes to throw an update out everytime the wind changes!

for the meltdown/spectre, it beats me how they can expect most people to update their bios. assuming there's even a bios fix.
if ms can send out microcode to their machines via windows update... why can't other manufacturers do that instead of via bios? what's so special about the way ms does their thing? they update their bios via windows update?

your average mainstream news just say keep the os patched (automatically) with no mention of bios at all.

i went around to my uncle's to check the patch was installed on his crappy acer celeron notebook thing.. it was weird.. it said 100% and do not shutdown machine and then just froze XD after a long while we just rebooted it.. seems to be working.. it's a cheap rubbishy one and oddly the cpu/hdd meter thing on the task manager is practically 100% all the time... so slow. it's always been slow, but not sure if it's always been 100% ish on the hdd/cpu bit. really wary of having to update bios on that thing and borking it.

for the intel mei thing, i wasn't even allowed to patch it until i updated my bios (a few weeks back) and updated the me component (or did i update the component after the patch?).. it's an asus z170 board..

To sum up for those with Asus motherboards, download the latest BIOS file, the Asus Update tool, and the Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) driver, all supplied by Asus on the support page for your motherboard under Drivers and Tools (having first chosen the correct operating system, for example Windows 10 64 bit). I made the mistake of not seeing the MEI driver was supplied by Asus on that page further down under Chipset and instead I looked all over Intel's site only to find some files for their NUCs.

Update your BIOS first, then the MEI driver, and then use the Update tool. The MEI driver program would not work from my regular account using the Run as administrator command but will only flash for a second then not run to do its work. It did work from the true administrator account. The Update tool will not run, or do anything, until you have run the MEI driver update so the above is the order you must use, BIOS, MEI, then Update tool.

Hope this helps those with Asus boards and gives some idea to those with other boards just what to do.

antspants said:

LMFAO. I don't think I should of read this thread, I was happier before I did. I am kind of lost mainly because asus hasn't given a toss about my motherboard since 2015, 2014 was the last BIOS update that I can remember. I cannt see any info on ASUS, I could of missed it.

I don't know where to go or what to do or even if I should be worried. My specs have been the same for years, as listed in my "My Computer" under my post

Went to the support page for your motherboard and yes there isn't any help for your board right now and the last BIOS update was in 2014. This Intel vulnerability goes back beyond your processor so yes you should be concerned. Perhaps Asus will supply updates for your board eventually so I'd check the support page every now and then. That's all you can do and yea it stinks.

Something more new about the update:
Emergency Windows Meltdown patch locks some AMD PCs into endless loop

That headline copied from
Emergency Windows Meltdown patch locks some AMD PCs into endless loop - TechRepublic
I think the only 'old' AMD CPU I have is on a WinXP computer in my storage shed.