I don't know this "sprom" utility so have you tested that you cannot actually dump the ME after locking down the FD? If you have reflashed the ME and the FD is locked then the problem is not at the ME. Have you made any hardware changes, mainly at the cpu? Did you modify/update the BIOS before the problem occurred? What did you do exactly before the problem first appeared?

Well, I could be wrong, but to me it looks like the former Anti-Theft kicked in. Thing is, we have certainly fixed it at the ME firmware side of things. We tried both cleaned/updated/configured 7.1.80 and clean/configured 7.1.3 from Acer with the same end results. Either the second or especially the first method should have fixed it, if the problem was only there. The only other logical explanation is the BIOS. I believe the problem lies there. Have you tried to set settings to default or even better to clear CMOS? If that doesn't help either, only a BIOS reflash should be able to fix that issue (Acer does provide the full 4MB SPI image if I remember properly) with the downside being that you may loose board specific data like Serial Number etc. If you decide to go that route, you can always keep a backup of the current full 4MB image and restore back if the problem is not solved even after such a test (very unlikely).

It makes no sense for the problem to not be fixed even after a full SPI image reflash. And it's not like 1.5MB SKU requires any OEM provisioning or similar so that shouldn't be the cause of the current problem. I said "current" because I believe the actual Anti-Theft issue has been resolved as it has been for many users of different systems who have followed the aforementioned guidelines. Maybe this sprom utility has enabled something which leaves the system at a service mode or similar. I can't think of anything else, especially since the hardware change (screen) you made should not be incompatible. Stuff that can cause such issues are replacements for cpu, spi chip & motherboard. Have you done any of these? Replacing the ME with a fixed one, doing a BIOS clear CMOS, resetting the ME, reflashing the entire SPI image etc should have already fixed the problem. If you are absolutely certain that you tested all the stuff I mentioned at the previous posts then you need to look into this sprom utility's commands and figure out if there's something else that needs to be adjusted to restore the system to it's original state. If that's a dead end as well, you can also try fpt -closemnf command to set system locks but I don't expect that to change anything.

Intel Anti-Theft needs to be disabled as it is EOL since 01/2015 and can cause issues if left activated nowadays. You need to reflash the ME region with one that is clean+configured and with AT disabled. For that you need write access to it's SPI region and thus either a programmer or the "pinmod" is required. For the latter, you need to find what audio chip your system has, find it's pinout schematic online and look for pins SDATA_OUT and DVDD. Then, short these two while the system starts during POST and stop when the OS starts to load. Once booted, check "fpt -d spi.bin" and it should dump the whole SPI image without the error 26. Remember that this process is temporary, if you reboot or shutdown you will have to do it again so if you succeed (not so easy with such small audio pins nowadays) try to do everything together. When that's done, take that "spi.bin" on another computer (to not have to do the "pinmod" again) and follow the Engine cleanup guide which has detailed instructions on how you can remove any initialization dirt while keeping OEM settings (clean+configure) and how to permanently disable AT at the same time. At step 8 of the guide, additionally go to "Descriptor Region > Master Access Section" and set all Read and Write Accesses to 0xFF (6 in total). The previous step will disable the SPI image protection so that you won't have to redo the "pinmod" if for some reason you need to reflash or change something. Once you are done and the system is fully operational/repaired, you can re-enable that lock if you so desire as Intel recommends for security purposes. When you finish the guide and have a modded SPI image with a ME region which is clean+configured and without AT, go to the laptop and flash it using "fpt -f spi_fix.bin" followed by "fpt -greset" command. Once the system resets, check if the problem is gone, if you can now see the Intel ME interface at Device Manager and if MEInfo and MEManuf tools report everything as being ok. Your system is Ivy Bridge (Panther Point PCH) so you need to use ME 8 firmware and system tools, nothing else.

Short pins 1 and 5. The numbering starts from the dot, counter clockwise. It's the only way that doesn't require Samsung or hardware programmer and thus soldering/desoldering.

Then the only way would be to get in touch with Samsung, the problem cannot be fixed while the ME is write protected. You could search the BIOS for any option to "Enable ME Reflash", "HMRFPO", "Disable Flash Protection" or similar but I highly doubt you'll find anything of the sort at such a system.

I checked your dump. It's strange, there are two me firmware inside. The first is not really firmware but either a recovery section or corruption. It's not full firmware, only the first part of it. It starts at address 0x1000. The actual ME firmware (which, once manually cut and tested at FITC, loads just fine) starts at address 0x3000. However, the Flash Descriptor shows that the ME region starts at 0x1000 which is the other entry I mentioned. Even though these ME recovery implementations are usually a little weird (OEM specific), I believe the FD should say that the ME starts at 0x3000 and not 0x1000. To verify that, can you download the latest BIOS from Samsung (you need to run the downloader tool and grab the bios file for me to check, seems to be possible only at your system) and attach it here? Otherwise, have you found any other SPI image dump online from another such system? It's important to know what's normal first.