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Long BitLocker Unlock Times - I Suspect Drivers

JohnAb
Level 17
Hi All, on my 690 Hero I have a couple of HDDs which are Bitlocker encrypted. Everything still working fine, but instead of them unlocking almost instantly, they are now taking 10-20 seconds. The only things I changed before this starting happening was the following:

Updated Intel Bluetooth drivers to 22.200.0.2
Updated Realtek USB Drivers to 6.3.9600.2349
Updated Intel WiFi drivers to 22.200.1.1
Updated ME Firmware to 16.1.25.2091
Updated Intel SIO drivers to 30.100.2237.26
Removed hiberfil.sys in Command prompt (admin) using 'powercfg -h off' reduced Drive C by 10Gb

I can work my way back, but does anybody know what is most likely to be the cause? I'm thinking it's most likely the SIO drivers, any other ideas? Many thanks.
Z690 Hero, BIOS 3401, MEI 2345.5.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.30.2361, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, i9 12900K, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.
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7 REPLIES 7

Jimbo93
Level 12
Different Intel chipset and board but I have recently decided to fall back to all drivers (latest) on support page for mine and have been rewarded with perfect performance. Windows wanted to update MEI and Wi-Fi, which results in worse performance so I just roll them back. On the MEI I have to roll back all 4 associated drivers. Roll back is done in device manager. The newer drivers remain in the store but windows respects my choice.

JohnAb
Level 17
Update - I just went back to the previous SIO drivers and no change, so the next most likely thing would seem to be the ME firmware. The tool for the last release says I can't do it "ME File does not need to be updated" and Intel says the following on their website:

Is it possible to downgrade the Intel® Management Engine firmware?
Unless the system/motherboard manufacturer provides a way to downgrade the Intel® Management Engine firmware, this procedure should not be attempted.
To get accurate information about downgrading or updating the Intel® Management Engine firmware, it is recommended to contact the system/motherboard manufacturer because performing these steps may cause system instability and BIOS corruption.

Probably best not to do that then. lol.
Z690 Hero, BIOS 3401, MEI 2345.5.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.30.2361, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, i9 12900K, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

JohnAb wrote:
Update - I just went back to the previous SIO drivers and no change, so the next most likely thing would seem to be the ME firmware. The tool for the last release says I can't do it "ME File does not need to be updated" and Intel says the following on their website:

Is it possible to downgrade the Intel® Management Engine firmware?
Unless the system/motherboard manufacturer provides a way to downgrade the Intel® Management Engine firmware, this procedure should not be attempted.
To get accurate information about downgrading or updating the Intel® Management Engine firmware, it is recommended to contact the system/motherboard manufacturer because performing these steps may cause system instability and BIOS corruption.

Probably best not to do that then. lol.


You should be able to use whatever MEI driver you need to without changing the firmware. And my thinking on drivers after recent experiences is why change from the asus issued drivers unless there is a real issue with those. Â*

JohnAb
Level 17
Thanks Jimbo, I'm going to try restoring the OS from 4 days ago and see what that does. I didn't have the issue then. It won't change the ME firmware of course, but I'll report back
Z690 Hero, BIOS 3401, MEI 2345.5.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.30.2361, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, i9 12900K, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

JohnAb wrote:
Thanks Jimbo, I'm going to try restoring the OS from 4 days ago and see what that does. I didn't have the issue then. It won't change the ME firmware of course, but I'll report back


I would go with the turning off hibernation and reducing the size of C:. I don't run BitLocker so no experience but I would think on an HDD, the decryption would take longer than instantly.

I no longer run any HDDs on my Windows systems. It takes them too long and work too hard during Windows maintenance activities.
Maximus Z790 Hero,
Intel i9-13900k
Intel BE200

Saltgrass wrote:
I would go with the turning off hibernation and reducing the size of C:. I don't run BitLocker so no experience but I would think on an HDD, the decryption would take longer than instantly.

I no longer run any HDDs on my Windows systems. It takes them too long and work too hard during Windows maintenance activities.


Thanks Saltgrass. Funnily enough, HDDs do unlock near instantly with Bitlocker (well, unless you've just upgraded Nord VPN 😞 ), but I take your point. I do use NVMEs for the the OS and some other drives, but I still keep HDDs for large amounts of data (mainly documents) where I don't need speed anyway. They are just far more cost effective for large amounts of storage.
Z690 Hero, BIOS 3401, MEI 2345.5.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.30.2361, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, i9 12900K, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

JohnAb
Level 17
SOLVED - thanks for your help

I went back to a previous OS backup and the problem disappeared. Then I remembered that I had manually updated Nord VPN late last night. They have just introduced a file protection feature which was turned on by default. They have done this before, change settings without telling you. I think it's supposed to be a virus checker. Anyway, I think it was scanning files on drive unlock. Now that I have turned that off, all is well again. So not drivers at all. I've now gone back to yesterday's OS backup so all drivers are back to the latest again (as shown in first post).

Anyway, all is well again. Thanks so much for the quick suggestions guys, I appreciate it.
Z690 Hero, BIOS 3401, MEI 2345.5.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.30.2361, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, i9 12900K, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.