Hello everyone,
Two years ago, I bricked my laptop BIOS because of force-removing the battery and AC adapter during BIOS update, then I bought the CH341A SPI programmer to reflash it myself, using the correct firmware for the laptop model downloaded from the official ASUS website, and the laptop went back to life. Because I had no plan to hackintosh the laptop at that time, I didn’t aware of how important the Intel Management Engine Interface is. Now, I have plan to hackintosh it, and in order to make the QE/CI hardware acceleration work, I have to bring back the Intel ME. But, when I checked it through the Windows Device Manager, the Intel ME was missing.
Few days later, I planned to clear the ME region of the firmware before flashing it using the same chip programming device, and the ME also finally brought back yesterday. But the onboard ethernet adapter had a little bit malfunction. It’s detected in Device Manager, like there’s no problem at all, but it won’t recognize the LAN cable at all. Reflashed again with the previous firmware without Intel ME, the ethernet LAN cable worked again.
The important thing is, I want to make both Intel ME and the Ethernet fully working like before the brick two years ago. Anyone has the solution?
Note: I also don’t forget to clear the CMOS every after reflashing.
Motherboard and BIOS details:
Asus X450C Laptop
Intel Core i3-3217u
AMIBIOS Aptio version: earlier than V
Chip: Winbond 25Q64FVSIG
ME version: 8.1.2.1318
The original downloaded firmware (without the Intel ME)
The firmware with Intel ME (but the Ethernet has problem)