Well I can’t think of something else to get the Flash Descriptor unlocked. You said the problem occurred after a BIOS update and that the chip that was sent to you was initially working. What BIOS version did you have before?
If we can’t unlock the descriptor then we can only mess with the BIOS region which is unlocked by default. I have to say that there is a chance of an unbootable system from now on in case we do something wrong.
You can try applying the latest F.61 BIOS from HP directly, the only things that you will lose are serial numbers etc but honestly these should have been lost the first time you bricked the chip either way. If the clean HP BIOS does not cause the issue, it’s BIOS related.
The latest HP 68SCF F.61 BIOS (3MB in size) is attached below. You need to use Flash Programming Tool with the command:
fptw -rewrite -bios -f bios.bin
We already have the dump of the bios you currently have in case it’s needed later on.
Do you have a minute or two to check this issue? It seems BIOS-related to me. Do you think the action above is “dangerous” apart from losing minor board data? The conversation starts here if you have some time to look into it.
I don’t see an easy way out and it would be far better to buy a programmer. If you already replaced the chip once, then you should have no problems in this field. From what I’m reading, OEMs recommend the classic reset CMOS, update BIOS, update ME Firmware. This doesn’t always works and it only hides the real issue, that the firmware is corrupted for some reason. This doesn’t appear to be the first time it happened to that line of laptops, the issue must be deeper or HP is in the cloud. Removing the locks is not possible, as this is Insyde based, thus AMIBCP/AMISCE wouldn’t work and I don’t see a dedicated setting in PlatformSetup (using Universal IFR Extractor).
My suggestion is the same as OEMs. Start with reseting CMOS, remove main and CMOS batteries, leave it for 10 minutes. From HP site install the 3 tools from BIOS - Tools and Diagnostic. Run the diagnostics, there should also be one in BIOS menu. HP needs a dedicated partition for doing their crazy update with encryption/decryption crap, so you need to install the software from BIOS - Tools and only after that flash the latest BIOS. Try to flash an older BIOS version, if it fails. Flash the latest ME Firmware. Reset to defaults. If it is not fixed, send HP a nice love letter.
Alright, seems lordkag is giving the same advice I gave here. I now remember why I previously said I never got a reply to my questions. Did you try the clear CMOS by removing the motherboard battery? That’s what I mostly wanted to hear. Could be leftover/corrupt settings from the previous BIOS or similar.
Also, apparently the -rewrite command is only available at ME8 and later tools. You can ignore it if you want or use FPT for ME8 as that version was compatible with both 6 and 7-series systems. And as lordkag said, if you can dissolder and solder a chip, it stands to reason to have a programmer at hand as well.
I’m sorry to hear you missed the answer on the cmos clearing. Your question was on page 105 #1588 and I replied page 105 #1589. The cmos clearance didn’t help. (I left the system without batteries for 30 min and pressed power-button numerous times to clear capacitors.)
I should try and use the ME8 FTP than.
You guys are right about the programmer, but that is a next topic. I did tell you before that I soldered a new chip twice on this board because the first one was incorrect and I received a new one. The board was damaged a little and that was repaired correctly. I’m reluctant to do it again since the board might not survive third time. All that heat. Besides that, I have Parkinson disease, which is a bitch when you work on these “freaking” small components. All my life I worked in electronics and was pretty good in assembling, until the disease came and made that difficult. Being unable to work, it leaves me with a very tight budget and therefor without programmer. Not the onliest pro equipment I’m missing.
Lordkag wrote about 3 Bios tools and diagostics, which did he mean? The link was not working.
I’m sorry to hear about the disease, I understand why it would be difficult to do this constantly. Forget about that then, if the software solutions do not work, you should contact HP.
Check BIOS-Tools which has one download and Diagnostic which has two downloads.
So what BIOS version did you have before flashing F.61? We could try going back to that version in case it's an HP screw-up with some systems and newer bios releases.
Reset cmos for about half an hour, went ok, (time and date was reset ) Created a HP_tools partition on HD from 10GB, Fat32. Copied SP52507, SP65264 and SP52407 to that partition and executed them. Ran HP Advanced System Diagnostics, Start-up, System tune up, and Run-in test (6x) and all were ok.
The Bios version in the second pre-programmed chip I received was version F60. Recently (as I wrote you), I managed to update to F61 with the flash in MSDos modus.
Ok, you now have installed the HP recovery partition etc. I think lordkag implied that it’s needed for the HP Flash Utility to work properly. Maybe that’s why you were having trouble updating to F61 in the past.
Since you had F60 and it worked, can you try downgrading to it via the official HP package? Hopefully such a small downgrade is allowed.
The diagnostics have 2 options, update and roll-back. Neither one is working now, because the diagnostics is newly installed and does not have a history. On the HP_Tools partition there is a directory "bios" with sub-directories "current", "new" and "previous". They are empty now and I wonder which bios file have to go in there. Is it the bios.bin file like you send me or is it the 68SCF.bin or the rom.bin that I extract from the update file from HP.?
Executed sp70943 and the F60 was flashed correctly. According to HP rolling back is not possible but I think it worked because there was no history in the hp_tools. Regretfully the "ME is in recovery" is still there.
by the way, now these files are put in the hp_tools partition: 68SCF.bin and 68SCF.sig
You can check what BIOS you have now from inside the BIOS if you are not certain. Otherwise I guess you can dump the bios using fptw -bios -d bios.bin and check manually by searching for $SIG with a hex editor.
If you have indeed rolled back to F60 and the problem persists, it’s some kind of BIOS corruption. Other systems are having this issue so it must be HP’s fault one way or the other.
The Flash Descriptor is locked so we cannot reflash the ME Region just to test if that’s the issue (don’t think so, the problem occurred with a BIOS update at which the ME was not touched at all).
The only thing I can think of would be to reflash the clean HP BIOS region as I said here which I don’t think will cause issues other than loosing some serial numbers etc but I cannot guarantee that.
If these do not bring results, only HP may be able to help.
You are right, you can use ME Analyzer to view your current firmware & driver versions. There is a separate tool provided called MEA_Info which does exactly that. You can run this via the MEA_Run executable or manually via a command prompt with administrator privileges.
It is possible that these monitoring utilities were sending commands to the MEI interface and thus you could not do both at the same time. Before flashing, it’s always best to disable everything running in the background either way. Anything that could interfere and cause issues.
HP told me that I have to contact the local office to have the unit "branded’, which only can be done by authorized personnel. With the branding they mean put in all the data like s/n etc. So I do not reach there any futher. Is that the little program I got from the chip suplier?
Maybe if these “brand” info are missing the BIOS forces the system into a “recovery state” of sorts. Or at least the ME. Why, I don’t know. It shouldn’t be important to any actual functionality. Indeed, maybe that’s the reason behind that program you were given by the supplier.
Today I read by chance an HP document which mentions that the ME can be disabled by (and I quote) “RightArrow + LetArrow and hit PowerButton in S5”. ACPI state S5 means that the system is shut down mechanically or via Hibernation. HP probably means the system to be Shut Down completely. So let’s see if that can give us access to the ME Region by unlocking the Flash Descriptor. First try with the system shut down and test via FPT as I said in the past (no error 26, full 8MB dump). If that fails, try while in Hibernation as well but I’m fairly certain HP means “mechanical” shut down by “S5”.
