Try this:
1. Make sure the system is off
2. Press at the same time WIN + Left Arrow + Right Arrow
3. Power on the system with these pressed
4. Release them after BIOS has initialized (before OS loads)
Does that work? It’s supposed to be HP-specific.
When these 3 keys are pressed from cold boot, does it reboot or turn off completely? If it reboots, it may be what you are looking for. It could reboot and when it’s back up, the descriptor is unlocked.
If that’s not the case & after the shutdown, if you power it back on manually, it the descriptor unlocked by any chance?
If that’s not the case, try turning the system on and then immediately press the 3 keys. I don’t know, it may need to start first and not do that from cold boot. I have never tested it personally.
As far as the other method is concerned, we are now certain that it’s indeed pins 1 and 5. Are you certain that the shorting is successful? From experience I know that the pins are so freaking small nowadays that this job keeps getting harder and harder.
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.
@lordkag
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.
BIOS_0F.61_HP.rar (1.76 MB)
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.
Thank you lordkag for looking into this.
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 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.
The link that lordkag mentioned is this one:
1
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=5056910&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4060
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.
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.
Yes, HP UEFI Support Environment & HP BIOS Update UEFI which are both responsible for BIOS updating as well.
I don’t know how the HP update system from the hard drive works. After downloading sp70943 (F60), why not simply run HPQFlash?
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.
The problem was that using the tools I could not verify the Management Engine could be communicated with. When I closed 3 background programs (related to reporting system details) the tools could get a response from ME and therefore I decided to flash the firmware which was successful. The post was disorganised because I was editing as I went documenting my attempts and progress.
ME Analyzer v1.3.4 tells me I have driver 11.0.0.1160 & firmware 9.1.32.1002 (other tools kept closing the command prompt immediately, after an initial attempt with certain offending background programs still running).
Opppsss…my mistake.
I don’t understand, I ran the tool ( the only one that works atm ) and it told me the driver and firmware I was using. Can I verify the driver in the device manager?
Actually MEInfo does work after I run it by opening a command prompt first and typing the command. MEManufWin64.exe -verbose
Yes: Expand the "System devices" section, right click onto the listed "intel(R) Maagement Engine Interface" and hit "Properties" > "Driver".
If you want to see the exact driver name, press the "Driver Details" button.
@ megatron:
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.
Intel ME 11.0 Consumer PCH-H Firmware v11.0.0.1178
Intel ME 11.0 Corporate PCH-H Firmware v11.0.0.1178
I am giving my nephews Acer Aspire laptop a tune-up today and wonder if there is firmware to update. It has me firmware 8.1.0.1248 and me driver 11.0.0.1166 .
As seen on the first post, latest ME8 firmware is 8.1.65.1586 and latest driver is 11.0.0.1166.
Why risk bricking someone else’s laptop?
Tune it and hand it back!