I recently purhcased a HP Z840 worksation from eBay. It’s my fourth unit actually, and each model in the Z series is slightly different. This one had something called MEBx during boot, considerably increasing the time it takes to boot the system. Hence I was wondering how to disable it.
In case you didn’t know this, MEBx is the Intel Management Engine’s BIOS Extension. If I understand correctly, it’s a MINIX based operating system that runs on workstations and servers before the actual operating system is loaded. This allows remote administators (as well as hackers) to access a system even if the main operating system has issues.
Here’s how to disable it on a HP Z840 Workstation
- turn on the system and press ESC to enter the BIOS
- select BIOS Setup
- select the Advanced tab at the top
- navigate to the Management Application Configuration section
- disable it with the drop-down menu under Active Management Technology (AMT)
- back on the first tab, choose Save your settings and Exit
This will restart the Z840, this time without the MEBx prompt and/or related features