Intel ME Firmware upgrade wrong - (A7) Me FW Downgrade - Request MeSpiLock Failed / ThinkPad T460S

Special Topics Intel Management Engine
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At first,Please forgive my bad English,because I am a Chinese still in China right now

After I downloaded and installed the drivers from Lenovo Support Website , one of those dirvers is trying to upgrade my ME Firmware version to 11.8.50.3425
but it kept waiting and reported

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Updating the ME Firmware...
 

Intel (R) Firmware Update Utility Version: 11.8.50.3425
Copyright (C) 2007 - 2017, Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 
Communication Mode: MEI
Checking firmware parameters...
 


After keeping this status for several hours , I close the windows.
When I reboot my T460S , the error " (A7) Me FW Downgrade - Request MeSpiLock Failed " shows up on the top left of my screen
it make my laptop's Sleep Mode not work properly. If my laptop get into Sleep Mode , it cannot wake up anymore , unless I cut the power down and reboot the laptop. And the error is still there.

After that , i try to read the thread in this forum and find the solution of this error.

First , I try to use MEInfo to check my ME ,but it doesn't work and report
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Error 76: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (AMT client)
 
Error 76: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (AMT client)
 
Error 76: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (AMT client)
 
Error 76: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (AMT client)
 
Error 76: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (AMT client)
 
Error 107: Failed to create dependency list for features 
 
 


Then I try MEManuf , same result as MEInfo

I also try to upgrade my BIOS, upadte is successful but the problem is still there

When I get into the BIOS,I found my ME Firmware Version is none. it confused me a lot.


I also found a error log of Intel (R) Firmware Update Utility
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Error 108: Fail to load driver (PCI access for Windows).
Tool needs to run with an administrator priviledge account. 
 


The MEI Driver cannot install into my laptop properly , Intel Management Engine Interface & Security did not show uo in my laptop

Then I try to Follow the instruction of [Guide] Clean dumped or extracted Intel Engine region images of Initialization data
I try to flash the SPI image , but i cannot pull out the dumped SPI Image from my T460S.

Finally , I have no idea to repair my ThinkPad T460S.

And I appreciated if someone can give some help

And God bless my poor English!
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It seems that something interfered during FWUpdate operation which caused the CSME firmware to get corrupted. Indeed what you need to do is follow the CleanUp Guide. Since the laptop is new, can you use the warranty? They should certainly agree to replace it if you tell them that is was caused by an official Lenovo BIOS update. Do you see at the BIOS any option to Enable Me Re-Flash, HMRFPO, Unlock ME or similar? Everything else after that are risky or may require opening the laptop.

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@plutomaniac
First,thanks for your reply
And forgive my slow response.

Today,I try to dump the flash contents to file by using ‘FPT -d spi.bin’ with Flash Programming Tool in EFI Shell
because FPT works not properly in my Windows 10 with some drivers mistakes.
But it still worked not properly in EFI Shell with another mistakes
Here is some error snapshots saving in Google Drive

FPT -d spi.bin.jpg
FPT -D spi.bin -ME.jpg
FPT -I.jpg

It seems that the Flash Descriptor is totally locked down and I have not idea how to continue it because the SPI image cannot be dumped now.

Finally,my warranty is overdue so I am on my own.

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You have no read/write access to the Engine/CSME firmware region of the SPI chip, which is required in order to follow the Engine CleanUp Guide. Are you comfortable with opening the laptop? Do you have a hardware programmer to rewrite the SPI chip?

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@plutomaniac
I will buy a hardware programmer to rewrite the SPI chip but I don’t know how to use the hard programmer to rewrite the SPI chip.
If you can give me some advice or give some sort of Guides to learn about how to rewrite the SPI chip, I will appreciate it.

Thanks for your patience again.

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Well I don’t really know these things well but if you buy a CH341A, you can find a guide here. You’ll need the programmer and a clip to attach to the SPI/BIOS chip. You can find some more info and questions from other users at that thread.