Intel ME n/a on a Dell Inspiron 5423 notebook

Special Topics Intel Management Engine
1

Hi, I have this dell inspiron that has the latest bios but the ME region is gone. This computer was sent to a technician that “reflashed the bios” so I’m guessing that was what generated the problem, anyway I’d like to flash the ME region of the bios to have a working computer since it has some booting issues now (it will boot 1 time in 5, but after it does it works flawlessly).
Here are some screenshots that show the status of the ME (not present) and the ME region is locked apparently since I can’t save a full copy of the bios using FPT.

FPTI
FPTI875×546 109 KB

FPTDUMPLOCK
FPTDUMPLOCK942×346 62.8 KB

fptfullbios
fptfullbios1364×295 74.6 KB

intelmeinfo
intelmeinfo1035×217 50.2 KB

Now I’m aware of pinmod but I don’t think I can do that, the pins are so small I think it’s impossible. So I modified the bios to enable the advanced menu and remove all the bios locks including the ME FW update lock but they did not work for the ME even if the lock is disabled in the bios.

Here are some photos of the unlocked bios options:

bioslocks
bioslocks481×370 36.4 KB

mefirmwarelock
mefirmwarelock481×394 36.9 KB

me_version
me_version481×387 31.1 KB

And here’s a message I get after trying to flash the original bios from Dell’s website, which I find weird because it’s just the bios region:

biosupdatedowngradeerror
biosupdatedowngradeerror481×641 26.4 KB

I found a dump of a full bios online (with the ME region), I was wondering if I can exctract that ME region from the .bin file and flash it on my notebook (if I’m able to unlock the ME region to flash it that is), how could I do that? Any comments or guidence would be very helpful since I don’t have SPI flasher to do this easily and quickly, thank you.

2

Any dump online can work or not, the image can have another system ids, mac, etc…
from Dell and only your dump has your original data.
No regular flash or just FPT the ME region usually works, since you have now full permission on read/write full spi regions, better to follow forum guide and re-initialize the CSME engine, then write back full spi.

EDIT:

Well sir… if you don’t, get it or get an SPI IC programmer, that’s all, good luck.

1 Like
3

Why do you think I have full permission on read/write full spi regions? When I try to dump the full bios I can’t so I’m assuming I don’t.

4

Okay I went ahead and did the pinmod and it worked first try! After that I edited the FD to get full access to the SPI and later I made a dump of the ME region and followed the guide to clean it and it worked great. I’ll see if I can get an external programmer in the future, it seems like something useful to have. Thanks.