Hi MeatWar - thanks for your reply.
There’s a sticker on the inside of the case when I take it off - see pic
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Inside on the motherboard there is and FDO Jumper - its item 34 - ME AMT Flash Override- located at the bottom of the board beside Front audio - see pic
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It looks to have 1 pin removed though, when I connect a jumper 2 the 2 remaining pins the PC powers on for a few seconds then powers off.
I’ve inserted another header pin into the jumper enough that when I put it over the 2nd pin the pin inside the jumper connects to the smooth surface where pin 1 would have been.
I’ve since downloaded CSME Tools v 11 which looks to be for this series of CPU (i7-6700) and when I run the command “fptw64.exe -d spi.bin” now I’m getting this error which I’m currently researching.
Error 318: The host CPU does not have read access to the target flash area. To enable read access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to give host access to this region.
FTP Operation failed.
With regards to contacting HP I’ve posted on the support forums there also, with little response or luck I’m afraid. The system is only out of warranty in February but there is no option to extend the warranty - however my laptop I’m using now run out in January 2020 and I still get pop-ups asking if I’d like to extend. So either way, if this motherboard is done - I might as well take a stab at it - if I break it I’m gonna have to replace it anyway. 
MEInfo gives the following error:
Error 86: Communication Error between application and Intel(R) ME module (FWU Client)
Error 81: Internal error (Could not determine FW features information)
I’ve read another post where someone had something very similar…
HP Z820 Unable to detect ME Firmware & Management Mode in Bios
The guy - plutomanic said at the end that after the flashing etc the software should be running fine now… I’m willing to give it a go - its broke either way.
Some guidance would be amazing though if you guys could. I do have the exact same PC running fine with the latest version of ME installed - I wonder should I dump the firmware from that one and use it to flash this one? Can that be done?
Thanks for you help and taking the time to reply to me guys, I really appreciate it and appreciate the patience with me being a NOOB at this too.
Thanks