I have some Intel DQ45CB's (running BIOS version 0075) inside MDG desktops that seem to be exhibiting some sporadic behavior. When I power on an affected machine, immediately after POST, I sometimes see a message that says:
WARNING: Intel ME Initialization Failed
When this happens, the Additional System Information section of the BIOS reports:
Intel Management Engine Information
Firmware Version: 0.0.0.0
However, sometimes the initialization succeeds and the version of ME is reported as 5.2.0.1018. There is no reliable way to reproduce this behavior though.
I have tried:
- Disabling Intel ME from within the BIOS (the message still appears)
- Changing the motherboard battery
- Clearing the CMOS
- Flashing the BIOS to version 0101 (this also flashed Intel ME to a newer version)
- This succeeded, but I was forced to use the Recovery BIOS update method (described here: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-023360.htm?wapkw=%28recovery+bios%29)
- Flashing with Intel's IFLASH2 tool did not work; the machine simply rebooted when it was attempted
Is this a hardware issue, and if so, do the boards need to be replaced?
