HP Z420 Unable to upgrade ME Firmware to v8.1

Hi guys,
I’m new here and I apologize in advance if I’ve created this thread about a topic already covered in this forum.

My Z420 workstation has latest BIOS J61 v03.91 and Windows 10 Professional 64-bit.
Boot Block Date is 12/28/2011.

I was able to update its ME Firmware Version from 7.1.21.1134 to v7.1.86.1221 (sp71010) from HP website.
However, now I cannot update ME Firmware Version from 7.1.86.1221 to latest download v8.1.65.1568 (sp72520) from HP website.

The command:
FWUpdLcl64.exe -f 81651568.bin -generic
results in:

Error 8193: Intel ME Interface: Cannot locate Intel ME device driver.

If I try update to ME Firmware v8.1.52.1496 from UEFI shell,
the command:
fs0:\efi\boot\FWUpdLcl.efi -f 81651568.bin
results in:

Error 8727: Firmware update tool failed to get the firmware parameters.

Is there any way to succeed to upgrade ME from v7.1 to v8.1?

Thank you very much in advance for any support, feedback or advice.
Michele

You cannot upgrade from ME7 to ME8 yourself. The latest BIOS from HP already has ME8. So first update the BIOS and only when you are at ME8 can you use FWUpdate to update ME8 to a newer version.

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Hi Plutomaniac,
Thank you very much for your very quick response.
I tried to reflash BIOS 3.91 Rev.A (sp78208) using HPQFlash tool.
I tried reflashing in both positions of Bios ME/AMT Flash Override Header jumper (1-2 shorted and 2-3 shorted) but IME firmware version is still showing v7.1.86.1221.
Could you suggest any alternative procedure to succeed with upgrade to 8.1?

Thanks for your help, it is most appreciated.
Michele

HP should have instructions on how to properly set the ME_Disable jumper and what tool to use to upgrade. For HP I always suggest users to use their own tools because they can be very weird with motherboard provisioning, at least at their laptops. Since the ME_Disable jumper exists and HP provides a full SPI image at their BIOS releases, you can use a 3rd party (Intel) tool to quickly get the job done. Before that, try contacting their support to ask them how to transposition from ME7 to ME8 via their latest BIOS. If they do not care, we can use the 3rd party tool with the full SPI image from HP.