Hello everyone,
I have a problem which occured after bios update. I see on the forum that lot of you have similar issues. I have read many posts related to this topic and it’s even more confusing so I am writing here because I am afraid that I will burn the mainboard with a wrong approach.
Basically, Dell Optiplex 7040 (service tag: B7T4XD2) (HWinfo states maindboard DELL 0Y7WYT Intel Q170 (Skylake PCH-H), i7 6700,16gb,256nvme + 2*2tb sata in raid1) after bios update from 1.2.8 on the last 1.15.5 and after POST a message has appeared with following text: "Error sending End Of Post message to ME: HECI disable, proceeding with boot"
I have established that the BIOS is updated to new version but ME firmware is not, for some reason the process was not finished. During BIOS update the following error has appeared: “ME Firmware Update Faild: Image loading”.
I have tried with different BIOS versions, but unsuccesfully. I have also tried to perform BIOS update from windows, dos USB stick, BIOS recovery console and always the same error appears, firmware update failed.
Sometimes HWinfo provides different results:
Intel AMT Support: Not Supported a and enable https://prnt.sc/suu5oy
Intel ME Version: v0.0, Build 0, Hotfix 0 and now https://prnt.sc/suu5xk
https://prnt.sc/suu8pa
https://prnt.sc/suu82p
I cannot enter to MEBx menu with ctrl+p nor with f12, error is always appearing.
There was an option “Enable UEFI Capsule Firmware Update” included in BIOS which enables BIOS update and firmware via windows update services. I believe that the issue has started at this point or maybe I am wrong.
From what I have understood, firmware update is required because the firmware is corrupted, read-only etc.
I kindly ask your help and instruction from where should I start. step by step
Unfortunatley the computer guarantee has expired one year ago.
Also, for consolation, my colleague has identical Optiplex 7040 with BIOS version 1.4.5 and everything works perfectly, ctrl+p in order to enter MEBx menu also.
If necessary, I can download BIOS backup and firmwarea from his computer, just tell me how.
Thank you in advance.
Greetings from Croatia
To re-flash the CSME firmware, you need read/write access to its SPI/BIOS region. On the right of the white PCI slot, there should a 6-pin jumper. Look at the explanation/diagram at the bottom of the motherboard and set it to SERVICE_MODE. Boot the system, download ME System Tools v11 from Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools, dump your current SPI/BIOS image using Flash Programming Tool via “fptw64 -d spi.bin”, follow [Guide] Clean Dumped Intel Engine (CS)ME/(CS)TXE Regions with Data Initialization on your SPI/BIOS dump and flash the result back via “fptw64 -f outimage.bin”. Set the jumper back to its original position and run “fptw64 -greset”. After the hard reboot, the CSME firmware should be operational again.
dear plutomaniac, thank you for help but, I have a problem … I’m not very skilled
please i need help
1. I set the jumpers to service mode
2. fptw64 -d spi.bin (spi.bin attach 2 part)
3. download CSME System Tools v11 r42
4. download CSME 11.0 Repository r55 -> 11.0.12.1003_COR_H_D_PRD_RGN.bin (.bin is att)
[b]5. i run fit.exe. -> I’m not sure, looking at further instructions I do not find "platform integrity"
7. please help me with these steps
spi.part1.rar (5 MB)
spi.part2.rar (2.47 MB)
11.0.12.1003_COR_H_D_PRD_RGN.rar (3.62 MB)
Your solution worked flawlessly on my mechine, thanks!
Also my BIOS Flash Update have a display glitched before, now it’s gone!
Section 7 is for CSTXE platform, but Optiplex 7040 is CSME, so you can skip that.
It’s been three years already, I hope it may help if you still struggle with it.
I realise this is a super old topic, but it’s the first result for this issue and I want to share the fix I found.
Like dubioza, it appeared that my ME engine version was incorrect, and any attempt to update using the Dell BIOS updater would give a "ME Firmware Update Failed: Image loading” message.
Thanks to Plutomaniac’s excellent instructions I was able to dump the flash, clean the Intel Engine (CS)ME regions and re-flash. However, unlike others this did NOT fix the problem.
I did notice something interesting - the Dell BIOS update .exe always tells you what the current ME version is prior to running, and this would always reflect whatever I had last attempted to update to. However, the dumped flash content would always report a different, older version in ME Analyser.
I tried building a cleaned BIOS binary using a firmware file based on what should have been on my system (rather than what ME Analyser reported), but this also didn’t work - dumping the flash afterwards still showed the old ME version.
What finally seemed to fix it was to take my cleaned image per Plutomaniac’s guide, but to first enable a few settings relating to AMT which were previously disabled. I can’t remember exactly which settings I changed, but I basically turned everything on under the “Intel AMT Configuration” section of the Intel Flash Image Tool.
I flashed this tweaked binary, rebooted and then ran the Dell BIOS update utility. This time, the update succeeded, including the ME firmware update section. The message about ‘HECI Disabled’ on POST also vanished.
I then dumped the flash contents again, reverted the AMT settings I’d changed, re-flashed and rebooted. The errors did not reappear despite AMT now being disabled.
I’m really not sure what I did, as I was clutching at straws at this point - all I knew is that AMT was related to the ME, and for whatever reason adjusting these settings seemed to be the key to getting the normal BIOS update utility to work.
Hopefully this is helpful to anyone else who’s picked up an old Dell thin client and is pulling their hair out over this cryptic boot error.