[Guide] Clean Dumped Intel Engine (CS)ME/(CS)TXE Regions with Data Initialization

The quoted config.txt is the unchanged. Bold are the enabled and disabled packages and the default value. . Replace 1677423 with 1, 2,or 3 depending which behaviour you wish for AMT

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The file “outimage.bin” is not in the FITC folder, but appeared in the Build subfolder with 3 similar files of different sizes. Here is the screenshot:
Build subfolder

Which “outimage.bin” should I use? I assume it’s the 4MB one, am I correct?

Oh, I forgot… I’m cleaning ME 8 (HM76 Mobile, Intel 7 Series Chipset)

I thank you in advance

Seems your 6 MB firmware is distributed on 2 chips, a 4MB and a 2 MB one. Normally it’s both, but it depends on how the firmware is distributed over the chips. Sometimes there are changes just in one chip. Use HxD or any other hex editor to compare chip content before and after.

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The notebook has 2 bios chips. The bios dump with the ME is 4MB. In this case, I would have to flash the 4MB one, right?

It depends

I get it now… The 2MB image produced by FITC only has FFs in it.

Very grateful for the help!!! :pray: :pray: :slightly_smiling_face: :slightly_smiling_face:

5 posts were merged into an existing topic: ASUS All In One: Intel ME Firmware needs to be Repaired

I have flashed the bios dump but the laptop turns on with a black screen. The bios chip of this laptop has already been flashed by someone else. The laptop works randomly, so I am assuming that it is a problem with the bios. But, I noticed that MEA shows an error message:

Error: Firmware is incomplete/corrupted, expected 0x600000 not 0x400000!
Warning: Firmware size exceeds Engine/Graphics region, possible data loss!
Note: Adjusted buffer to Flash Descriptor 0x0 - 0x600000!

I downloaded several bios dumps from the internet, exactly 5 bios dumps, but MEA displays the same error message in all of them. Are all the bios dumps I downloaded corrupted? I don’t quite understand what this MEA error message means. So, I don’t know exactly what to do…

I doubt it!

The one 4 MB chip isn’t a working bios, MEA expects the sum og buth chips!! And you may flash the 4 MB chip as often as you want- if the 2 MB chip isn’t flashed with the proper image- part the machine will not boot!

outimage(2).rar (212 Bytes)

Does FITC also expect a 6MB bios dump? Should I merge the 4MB bios dump and 2MB bios dump to make it work in both MEA and FITC? Is this correct?

FIT expects a full firmware image to work (or in older versions the ME region alone can be used).

MEA compares firmware size given in FD with real firmware size and complains, but it works fine.

Both don’t care what it is in the bios region- you could givr the an image with a bios region filled with just FFs and they wouldn’t complain - but your machine wouldn’t boot, of course.

EDIT

REgarding the 2 MB chip: FIT works with what you give to it, bios region (which the 2 MB most probably contains part of) is copied unchanged when FIT builds an outimage- there’s no check if this is a valid region…

So it might simply be a misplaced soic clip that gave you just FFs for the second chip.

What machine are we talking about and please post the dump of the first 4 MB chip

Lenovo G480 (LA-7982p motherboard)

I’m posting the bios dumps that I downloaded from the internet and the backup I made of the bios:

G480 (LA-7982P).rar (6.2 MB)

Very grateful for your help!!!

Flashed both SPI chips (4 MByte and 2 MByte)?

When the machine has 2 bios chips, I usually have flashed both of them

OK, that sounded different earlier and you posted a 2 MB file which just was FF while your backup looks like a valid end- part of a bios region.

Then it’s possibly not firmware related…

I have tried to clean a (CS) ME Region of a dumped file, however during the process of building image the following error was showed up in FIT environment:

Error 197: [Fit Actions] Invalid settings combination. If “EOM on First Boot Enabled” is set to: “Yes”, Then "Boot Guard Profile Configuration " cannot be set to: “Boot Guard Profile 3 - VM”

Error 20: [Csme Binary Gen] Error executing pre-build actions.

Error 2: Failed to build.

I have two doubts:

  1. What is the best way to solve this error: Change the EOM parameter to NO or change Boot Guard Profile to another value, for instance: 4-FVE?

  2. Why was it possible for LBE to clean (CS)ME Region of same file keeping EOM as YES and Boot Guard Profile as 3-VM, considering that they are invalid settings combinations?

Dumped and LBE files

Hello.
I’m wondering if you guys could help me (and many others, each one with it’s own) with my old laptop Dell, model Inspiron 5557.
Since it’s BIOS was updated via Windows Update (from 1.6 to 1.9) after a replace SSD and OS reinstall, an annoying screen with “…invalid configuration blablabla…” appears everytime that we turn it on! Trying to downgrade to 1.6 again was successful, but Intel ME with final error 2236. Installed Intel MEI version still same as 1.9 BIOS: 11.8.77.3664, when 1.6 is 11.8.60.3561. I believe that’s related to dirty MEI Region. If I was correct, can you help us? Sorry for my bad english, and thank you for now…

Link for laptop BIOS:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=k9n6w&oscode=wt64a&productcode=inspiron-15-5557-laptop

PS: IDK how to dump current BIOS nor extract from Dell package.

It would be nice to get a “real” translation, preferable a human reading of that “BLABLA” of yours… and maybe we get a “picture” of what is the SSD related to the Intel ME FW of a system.

Bios updates only upgrade the Intel ME FW when they’re required to (system has lower/old version) than the payload package and ME FW is never downgraded by normal flash methods.

Do you mean the backup is probably not corrupted?

Just one question: The 4MB bios dump does not correspond to the Engine region, am I correct?