Intel Password Reset

[Su Mcdowall]

The MEBX/Admin password issue is sort of tricky. The first time you enable AMT (changing the password from "admin" to your chosen secure password, the two will be in sync. If you then, for example, go into the WebUI and change the AMT user/admin password, you are now changing the AMT Admin password, but not the MEBx password.

You might want to sync the AMT clock with the system clock. I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't want that, but it is an option that the admin can check. Also, I like it if my AMT client will respond to ping (nice to have in a troubleshooting situation where you may be having connection issues - if you can ping it, that is one less thing to check.) The other thing I noticed was, indeed, your password: @PPle_314 You might try unprovisioning your system and getting rid of the "_" this character might be causing some problems. The @ should work (although some interfaces don't want the special character to be in the front - I have not tested this. The ACU config also may not be checking to make sure the user enters a valid password.

I'm pretty sure that a full unconfig does not return the MEBx password back to the default (but you can test that easily - if you sign on and "admin" works, then it set it back to factory mode and you will need to change the password.

Your link has given rise to more questions. I assumed the MEBx password used the Digest (?) "admin" user and that changing the "Intel AMT admin" above was affecting the same thing. But the thread you linked says that they can become unsynced. Are these two separate accounts then...?

I never logged into the MEBx prior to provisioning this laptop via ACUConfig. But that doesn't mean someone else had not previously went in and changed the default password (since it makes you if you log into it). It's not my laptop so I can't be certain. I didn't think it would let me provision the laptop if the admin account had a non-default password (unless I specified it in advance somewhere?).

Does not being able to log into the MEBx hinder any of the features? For instance, I still can't figure out how to get remote power-up/power-off to work despite being able to log into the WebUI or through Commander and wonder if this might have something to do with it?

I didn't figure out why I couldn't do power management on the laptop but using that profile on a different AMT enabled machine (with version 9 this time) allows me to so it must be something weird. That laptop has lots of UEFI security features turned on (TPM, Computrace, fingerprint scanner, etc.) so maybe one of those things is interfering.

I'm not going to worry about it because it's not really the target computers we were thinking of using AMT on; it was just the most accessible one with a high enough AMT version to do some quick testing with. And while I couldn't change or reset the MEBx password, I did get it from the previous owner.

But since this thread is about passwords and such, I do have another relevant question: is there a way to reset the MEBx password back to default? For example, if we were going to donate equipment to someone and wanted to return the ME to default... is there a way to get it back to "admin"? It seems like once you change it, it only wants a relatively complex password.

I know one method for BIOS systems is to remove the CMOS battery. But I don't think this method would work for (all?) UEFI systems, and may be too much of a hassle for (U)SFF/laptops. And working in IT for schools also makes us fairly reliable on donated equipment which means we might encounter previously-configured ME environments with no straightforward way to reset it. Just wondering if there are reliable ways to do so.

According to the Implementation and Reference Guide, performing a "Full Unprovision" should set the system back to factory mode. (Search for "Full Unprovision" when you open the doc and you should be able to find it. While removing the CMOS battery works great, it is difficult to get to it on a notebook so it's best to do it programmatically, if possible. Sometimes if AMT is just not working right and you can't figure out why, removing the CMOS battery resets the system - I have had a few occasions where a simple CMOS removal is what was needed to get my system working. (Maybe that is the issue with your other system. I have also had systems where I had to reflash the firmware to get things working.)

Hmm, so as far as I can tell, the only way to reset the MEBx password is to remove the CMOS battery (or maybe via some motherboard jumper). Oh well, I suppose as long as the AMT admin is reset, the system can be re-provisioned through that user.

The Admin/MEBx password issue is very confusing and I have to admit, I really only provision via the MEBx because I'm just enabling one system that I use for checking things out. It sounds like is it possible to enable amt without resetting the MEBx password? The MEBx password is only used to get into the MEBx menus so I can see why you don't really need to have that changed to enable AMT - especially since you are using a utility do do so.

I'm figuring that when you specifically set the Admin User password, it is doing so through an API which affects only that password (it has nothing to do with the MEBx menus.) So when you enter a password in that field in the configuration menus, you are indeed, only setting that password. If you configure using the MEBx menus, the passwords are automatically synced until the admin user password is changed.

I have the same issue on a Dell E6520 and somehow one of the passwords on the Intel AMT isn't working but isn't the standard "admin", so I need to reset. You mention that the BIOS has its own Intel AMT section, however, I can't seem to find this!!! I can try to login to the AMT engine from the boot-up options, but of course I then need to supply a password, which is incorrect.

In most cases, you can shutdown, pull the power cord (or power source) and remove the coin battery (at least 15 seconds I believe) to do a reset of the password to default). (Search on AMT password reset.)

"According to the Implementation and Reference Guide, performing a "Full Unprovision" should set the system back to factory mode. (Search for "Full Unprovision" when you open the doc and you should be able to find it. While removing the CMOS battery works great, it is difficult to get to it on a notebook so it's best to do it programmatically, if possible."

However, there is no real set of instruction that I could find that point to a way of doing this. Her continue quote (the page from the above link) outlines what you need to do, but not how it should be done. The links lead you on a merry dance until you eventually get to a page -us/blogs/2012/01/20/how-to-configure-your-system-to-run-the-intelvpro-powershell-module which stepped you through setting up PowerShell to interact with vPro, but the instruction where broken (Edit - Gael has just fixed this, so maybe now I can get the Code snipit to work.....)

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I installed Intel Active System Console 4.0 ond Windows Server 2008 R2 and setup the Password for the user admin. But now its allways wrong. First I thought my mistakte and I deinstalled the software and reinstalled it but still the password ist wrong. So how can I reset the password?

No you cannot reset the admin password, but by uninstalling and re-installing IASC you should be able to set a new admin password... Make sure you reboot the OS after you uninstall IASC. Then re-install it.

It's possible to reset the password without reinstalling. I found a way and =blog&blogid=14496&showentry=1718 publish it in my blog on Russian version of IT Galaxy. Sorry, only in Russian, but with pictures. In a few words - it is necessary to obtain a new hash with salt (another server with IASC is required) and then manually edit one of the rows of the "User" table of the SMS.db file (IASC database) on the target server.

When I install Intel Active System Console, IASC_v4.2_windows, the user name is set as "admin" , no quotes, and grayed out. There is no way to change the user name. I have installed and uninstalled 5 times, and tried all combinations of password and other tricks noted in this thread, but I always get the username or password invalid error message. Will this software run in Windows Home Server?

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