Intel Management Engine Interface - Slow Restart. XPS 8700

Since repairs to my XPS 8700 carried out by Dell (including the replacement of the motherboard) and the reloading of windows 10, I have been experiencing very long restart times taking on average 110 seconds from hitting the restart button to the screen coming back up (it is the restart not the shutdown that is taking the time). This is only on restart and not when the machine boots up from being off. Whilst investigating this problem I came across an error in device manager where, under “system Devices” there is a yellow exclamation mark next to Intel Management Engine Interface. On double clicking the device status is “This device cannot start. (Code 10) STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE” The driver is listed as Intel 07/07/2015 Version: 11.0.0.1157. As per Dell’s instructions I have updated the Management Engine drivers, confirmed that I have the latest version of the BIOS and finally I have reinstalled the ME drivers. All Dell drivers including the chipset drivers are up to date.

I have discovered that if I disable the Intel Management Engine Interface (device manager - Intel Management Engine Interface - right click - disable) the restart times are acceptable at about 30 seconds or less.

Yesterday Dell took control of my PC and spent an hour or so redoing all the actions I had already taken and finally thought it might be another faulty motherboard. At that point they decided the Motherboard needed replacing. After review they have now reneged on that position and want me to reinstall Windows 10 again. I want to avoid this at all cost (I have four custom profiles on this PC and have spent untold hours recovering from the last Windows 10 reinstall) in any case I have been experiencing this problem since the installation of the new motherboard which included a clean install of windows at that time, making me believe that it is not a software issue.

I would like to know:

a) Whether this is likely to be a software or hardware fault and if it is a software problem if there is anything beyond what I have done already to remedy it.

b) What exactly is the purpose/role of Intel Management Engine Interface? Dell has not been very forthcoming and it’s not really clear to me from my background reading either.

c) What are the consequences/repercussions of leaving it permanently disabled; what will I be missing out on; why do, or might I need it?