You need to find your Audio chip and sort the required pins (probably 1st and 5th) while the system boots up. If that's successful, you will be able to use command fpt -d spi.bin afterwards. The lock will reset once you restart your system but you can reflash the flash descriptor while it's unlocked to unlock it permanently and not have to do this again. One step at a time though, first find the audio chip at the motherboard. It's a laptop so this whole procedure might be more difficult (to have it open and operational at the same time).

Note: There is no need to use @myusername for me as I check the replies in this thread either way.

The full ME Region is usually 2MB for Consumer systems. The ME Regions we upload here and to SD are identical with some useless padding cut so the size tends to be around 1.7MB or so. The Update images are smaller (1.3MB or so) and only for FWUpdate.

Anyway, the error you got is the usual crap everyone else is experiencing. Until the OEMs or Intel fix that, we can only rely on the OEMs to keep the ME updated via newer BIOS releases. Otherwise, for more advanced users with systems with an unlocked descriptor or programmer-owners, changing ME settings via FIT/FITC and flashing of the new ME Region manually is the only way.

So you checked that yourself, good. Then pin 1 and 5 are the ones you need.

If you know the shorting worked I suggest Windows with a command prompt as are a lot more flexible within windows.

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.

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.