This is the chip. There are lots of pins 
Do I touch two together?
I think this is the writing on it:
ALC 3240
H7C8821
QH28A3
Yes, the dot is at the bottom left so you need to short the 1st and 5th pin starting from there. The rest of the instructions as provided above. It might take a few tries but it should work.
Just got an email from lenovo that they are sending a replacement. Hopefully, I will receive an identical machine, next week. I think I will hold off on shorting the pins. In fact, to make the holiday truly enjoyable, I will leave this machine at home, when we leave later today!
Thank you again for all your help! I’ll check back in next week!
Best wishes,
The replacement laptop should arrive dec 27. I plan to get these updates from the lenovo site and do them in this order: bios, me driver, me firmware, and then windows updates, then (in no particular order) the remainder of lenovo’s driver and intel updates (from lenovos site)
Does that sound like a good plan?
Nice, it’s great that Lenovo agreed to a replacement. Yes, BIOS first and make sure that is not interrupted and that everything works before and after. Then yes, update the ME driver to the latest (MEI-Only Installer is ok) and then the firmware which, as of now, is 11.8.50.3426_CON_LP_C0_NPDM_PRD_RGN in your case. To be on the safe side, I suggest you update via DOS or EFI environment to rule out any Windows and/or background programs/services interfering (the MEI driver does not matter when using DOS/EFI).
thanks, i got and charged up the laptop today. i’m going to run some very simple system stuff on it first (passmark cpu speed and similar) to run it a bit before doing anything. i have to say, i’m a little skittish about doing the updates! I think for the first time in my life, I’m going to read the readme.txt!
as for the DOS/EFI environment for the ME firmware, that isn’t an option I think. I’ve downloaded the lenovo updates, and it’s a .bat file that calls a windows app.
edit, do you recommend downloading the drivers and firmware from here instead of using the lenovo ones??
the lenovo supplied ME driver is 11.7.0.1014
edi2- the BIOS readme says it’s for ME .3399, so i should only use that version, right? .3399 is what I downloaded on the lenovo site
Summary of changes
==================
General Information:
1YCN37WW(V2.04)
Modified:
1. Update ME 11.8.50.3399.
When I said DOS/EFI I meant for CSME firmware update via FWUpdate tool. Regarding the updates, under normal circumstances, the rule of thumb is that you do not need to update if you’re not facing issues. However, the recent CSME vulnerability which requires v11.8 firmware is important enough for people to actually care. If your current BIOS is not the one with v11.8 firmware, I suggest to do the update. As for 11.8.50.3399, it is included at the latest Lenovo BIOS update so their separate download at Chipset section could be unnecessary, depending on how Lenovo updates the BIOS on your machine. Intel says that the minimum version is 3399 but recommends 3425 or newer to also fix the WPA2 KRACK vulnerability that was published in October. As for the driver, that is easy and extremely safe, the latest from the ME thread (section A3) will work just fine. But if you want the one from Lenovo, that’s up to you.
Hi
Success!
I ran hwinfo before doing anything and then again after updating the BIOS. I didn’t see any change in the ME version. So then I did the ME driver. Finally I did the ME firmware. I am posting before and after versionsof hwinfo status. Then I did the regular driver updates.
I opened the first laptop to try to short the pins but even with a magnifying lens they were too small for me. Oh well.
I think all looks good. The only difference I can tell in the 2 laptop is that the original has a screen panel by LG and the second has it from IO, whoever that is. I wanted LG but it’s not meant to be.
I know my installed version is not the most up to date, but I am only going to install official updates, especially considering the effort we all put forth already.
Thank you for your help. I really couldn’t have done it without you. Best wishes for the new year!
