That is why I mentioned it to you. After going through all of the power drain process, I was surprised to see settings not changed. By the way, I did, which it was unplugged, press the power on button on my machine for some 15 seconds, just to make sure I covered the more than 10 seconds you indicated. The 10 minutes took place after all that was done.
I am happy to implement your latest instructions, and hopeful. Be back here a little later with the results.
Extract the ME region from the latest stock/official ASUS SPI/BIOS image via UEFITool and re-flash that via “fpt -me” parameter followed by a restart.
Is the 8.1.70.1590_1.5MB_PRD_RGN no good for this board? If yes I’ll have to make a note of that and try to remember Or do you think some issue with FITc? Will do though, thanks!
No, never said that. When problems occur, the best thing to do is try the stock/official firmware to rule out all other variables. If that works, you work your way up from there. Generally, be very careful with ME 8 at X79 as FITC 8.1.40 is bugged, as explained at the guide. It doesn’t mean that the problem was caused by FITC.
I did see the warnings, this may be a case/situation that needs added to the warning mix for 8.1.40 too then, if we can narrow it down to that.
@ClarenceE - if the above fails once you get back up and running do as noted below, using this file - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…395897814169073
FPTw.exe -me -f Stock_ME_Region.rgn << Fixed this command, thanks plutomaniac!
Then shut down and reboot, then check ME in BIOS.
I implemented the last rewrite command you sent to rewrite the bios. The result was Erasing Flash Block [0x180000} - 19% complete…Error 7
Please see attached results and instruct. Would a regular reboot be alright to do?
I also see now that Plutomaniac has chimed in with additional instructions. Please advise.
@ClarenceE - Dang it! No, do not reboot! This shouldn’t happen, you have full access! Maybe some byte ranges are going bad in the BIOS chip itself?
Please run this now
FPTw.exe -f P9X79_Fix.bin
If that goes without error, then reboot and make sure board is still bootable 
sorry, and then if yes, do the power drain test.
Then if ME still N/A do as mentioned in post #45
Hello Lost N: Here is the result of implementing the cmd: FPTw.exe -me Stock_ME_Region.rgn
Error 200: Invalid parameter value specified by user . Use -? option to see help. Instead of doing that, I appeal to you. See the attached screenshot to confirm I enter cmd correctly. I tried it 3 times. Same result.
Just got you Dang it message. Will run it now.
Please do as I replied above first, at #47. You can’t star doing things before hearing reply back, especially when there is error. Slow down
For the above error, when you get back to doing that step again, please rename the file to Stock_ME_Region.bin
Yes, important to make sure you can write full BIOS now before you shut down, due to error mid-erase above, otherwise board will be bricked and you will need to order a flash programmer to fix it.
Please assess the results of your last command to fix Bin. It looks to me to be a bit fishy, but you’re the man, man. Here it is in upper and lower screen shots.
I have renamed to .bin the Stock_ME_Region.rgn file and standby for your next instructions.
Not good! Don’t reboot until you hear the OK! Otherwise system will be bricked (ie will not start until you purchase a hardware flash programmer - CH341A = $2.50 on ebay but 3-5 weeks in shipping)
Lets try this, use BIOS from your full FPT backup, then if OK and looks normal reboot - then we’ll try to fix the ME how plutomaniac mentioned. Of course we’d do that now like you already wanted to, but this is critical now to fix the BIOS itself more than the ME due to how it stopped and error during that erase
FPTw -f BIOS.ROM
I’ve not seen this before, and due to the ME not getting fixed like it should have been already, I think maybe you do have a BIOS chip going bad?
Lost N: a million thanks for staying with me. I know it is getting late there in Duetchland.
Here is the screen shot of the -f BIOS.ROM cmd results.
You’re welcome, sorry I’m not next door I could fix this in a hurry with a new chip! No Bueno!!! I think BIOS chip is going bad, there’s some block in there that’s not letting you erase or write to it, and this was probably the cause of the original issue too.
Please tell me you have another system you can use for a while? I think you will need to order a flash programmer and probably should go ahead and order a new BIOS rom too (only $2-3 too)
Board will be OK as long as you do not shut it off
plutomaniac have you seen anything like this before? Failed mid-erase during -rewrite and now will not write back original FPT dump either stalling on similar error
No I have not, but I have a bios chip on hand. I learned many years ago when I purchased new ASUS boards to have one handy so back when I purchased this P9X79 Pro, I purchased a bios chip too, but i’ll need to confirm it because I also have one for a P5 board that is now my wife’s machine.
The problem I would think is how to program the new bios. I did a hot swap of my previous ASus board years ago, twice and they went all right. But days are different now.
By the way, is it alright for my machine to go into sleep under the current state/conditions?
I was wondering about using the original recovery usb bios file that would take the board back to the pre-CAP bios? Would that be helpful? Start all over to revitalize the chip? Probably nonsense, but just my desperate wondering thoughts.
Good you have BIOS chip already, see if it’s same size (in MB) You will need a programmer to program the chip, if this board was still rebootable you could hot-swap flash, but that’s not an option now unless you can safely pull the chip out right now without getting it ready first before starting up the machine.
I mean, you can pull it out in windows, but usually that’s planned for and gotten ready (Loose, or something already underneath it) to be able to easily pull it out without shorting anything while in windows. Not really something you can easily do now when you didn’t plan it before, hope you get what I mean.
I do not know about sleep, but I wouldn’t just in case, and I’d be sure to disable sleep now in case it can’t come back out of it.
For now, before plutomaniac replies again, please run this command and post image of the result
fptw.exe /i
No, you cannot go back to super old BIOS. Cap BIOS is rom BIOS anyway, none of that matters to this issue.
Sorry, but I think the only fix is hot-swap which will not be easy after the fact while not ready, or getting a programmer. Unless you have fried close with same/similar Asus X79, you can hot-swap on another board to program your other chip.
Here is the result of that /I command.
Thanks, looks like from that report everything is correct and nothing is reserved/blocked as expected. I think it has to be some problem with the chip, hopefully plutomaniac can confirm my thoughts, or see the issue maybe?
I still have not run the Stock_ME_Region.bin command.
The fail happens at different offsets each time so it’s either a bad SPI or something is using/locking the SPI and in the latter, such thing can only be the ME because it needs access to its File System. The first failed offset 0x180000 is at the end of ME, where the BIOS starts, and the other two fall within the ME region. Run FPT with -me parameter which theoretically tells the ME to stop writing/reading during the re-flash and re-flash the stock/official ME firmware via “fptw -me -f me.bin”, as said at posts #44 and #45. Btw, post #45 is missing the -f parameter and that’s why the command fails.
That does not matter anymore - about stock ME @ClarenceE I think other parts of the BIOS were erased and can’t be fixed properly now.
Plutomaniac, so you don’t think any of the erased regions that subsequently can’t be re-written will all be OK? Post #46, erased up to the 180000 you mentioned, so that erased the FD + GbE too which will need re-written before reboot
Thanks for the catch on #45 command, I edited it now in case anyone looks back at some later date and tries wrong command.
* Edit -
Well, fingers crossed, based on what plutomaniac says, hopefully this will be OK and nothing else in BIOS region was erased!
Run all of these, in this order, then reboot with fingers crossed (Only reboot if no errors during these!)
FPTw -me -f Stock_ME_Region.rgn << If error, rename to .bin
FPTw -desc -f BIOS.ROM
FPTw -gbe -f BIOS.ROM
FPTw -bios -f BIOS.ROM