Hello,

1. Install the Intel MEI driver from the ME thread, section D1 (6.2.50.1050).
2. Run MEInfoWin -verbose and MEManufWin -verbose tools which can be found at the ME thread, Section C2 (System Tools v6.x 1.5MB/5MB) and show me the results.
3. Run Flash Programming Tool with command FPTw -d spi.bin and check if you get Error 26 or not. If you hopefully don't, compress and attach the resulting spi.bin file.

As always, ASUS doesn't include the ME region at their laptop BIOS releases which only houses the EC + BIOS region. However, I found online a full 4MB dump of your model so if we need to reflash the ME region, now we can with settings and everything configured. That requires you to not receive error 26 at step 3 though. Before we do that though:

a) Follow steps 1-3 and provide the results of the last two.
b) Run Flash Programming Tool with command FPTw -greset and check if after the reset your 1.5 hour problem is gone.

I think I know what's wrong even though this is the first time I've seen this problem. The new chip is probably not the same as the older one. Besides the BIOS, data can be written to the SPI chip by the ME as well. In order for the ME to work properly with the BIOS/SPI chip of the system, the OEM needs to add the chip specifications at the Vendor Specific Configuration (VSCC) table which can be found at the Flash Descriptor (FD) and is edited via Flash Image Tool. At the MEInfo picture I can see that the ME is halted due to a VSCC_FAILURE error. I assume that it cannot find the soldered chip info at the VSCC table of the FD and thus it can neither write to the SPI/BIOS chip nor work in general.

Now, just like the ME Region, FD is locked and cannot be read or written under normal circumstances for security reasons. If it's unlocked though, you can rewrite it with an added VSCC entry and also reflash the ME region fully (not possible with FWUpdate) to eliminate any issues there as well. That's why I asked for the fptw -d command result. If you get error 26 then your FD is locked, otherwise unlocked.

In your case though, FPT doesn't include the chip information for that new chip as well so that's why it cannot detect a chip as the error says. For FPT, you easily add any chip info at the fparts.txt accompanying file. You will need to know the exact chip model and it's specifications (usually found online). Do you know what chip your system currently has? Another alternative to "bypass" the lack of your spi chip at the FPT database is to use another flasher such as flashrom but you will need to use Linux for that.

Generally the fact that the pre-flashed chip is not the same as the original and the fact that whoever flashed it didn't check if it worked long enough has caused you many issues now. Basically the ME cannot initialize and thus terminates the system after a set amount of time. In my experience it's usually 30 minutes but in your case (maybe the older hardware) it's longer than that. Still, it's not something that can be ignored unfortunately.

Try the following fparts.txt file which is from the latest fpt v11 and includes your chip.

Another fparts.txt with your chip and all 9 fields instead of 7.

First observation is that whoever pre-flashed the chip did not do a very good job. The first address (0x00) should be included at the FD region as always. Check with command fptw -i to view the regions. Second observation is that your FD is locked. So you can either try the pinmod (very difficult) or reflash the chip with a programmer. That's the only way. Depending on what you plan to do, the instructions afterwards change a little bit.

After seeing that FPT reports 8MB, I checked the datasheet from winbond and the chip is indeed 8MB. Another problem there. The system originally had a 4MB chip so obviously the Flash Descriptor was set at Flash Image Tool as having 1 SPI component of 4MB, not 8MB. That's why it says that some addresses are not defined, meaning the unused 4MB. Even if there's empty space at the chip/image, FITC assigns the rest of the padding to the ME region by default, something which is not done here obviously. If the FD is unlocked I guess we can fix that as well but at this point, they have messed up royally. Yes a bigger chip will work in place of the older smaller one but that doesn't mean that the software/firmware will as well without needed modifications. If they wanted to do that they should have a) changed the component density at the FD, b) the VSCC table at the Flash Descriptor and c) using a cleaned-up ME region otherwise junk from other systems may cause issues. I can't blame them for c but especially a & b are very important.





For the pinmod to work you need to detect the audio chip, check it's datasheet > pinout diagram and find two pins (DVDD and SDATA-OUT) which need to be sorted with something metallic/conductive (tweezers etc) while the system posts and released shortly afterwards. Usually those two pins are numbers 1 & 5 but it depends so that's why I said to check the audio chip datasheet. The problem with that solution to bypass the FD lock is that the pins can be extremely small nowadays which makes this process very hard even on desktop systems where there is more space to work with.

It's temporary and will reset back to default after a reboot. However, once the FD is unlocked, you can reflash the FD and apart from fixing all the other issues, you can also disable the lock. Afterwards you won't need pinmod and can work directly via FPT while being careful of course. If you manage to make pinmod work then let me know and I'll tell you what to do. Otherwise, you should ask them to send another chip which is identical to the old one (will solve almost all your problems) or at least with properly configured firmware inside to work with the new one for some hours (verified, ME is ok) and not just at the BIOS.