Hello i'm new and it's my first post on you forum, i found it looking for an updated guide on the subject, the one i had before was on tweaktown forum.

I have an asus k46CM that needed the bios to be reprogrammed after a failed flash, flasher after many attemp said that it couldn't find a match between the bios file and the bios chip, i sent it to a laptop repair lab who i work with and they fixed it right away with the latest 317 bios version.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/K46CM/K46CMAS317.zip

Problem is that (as i read in the numerous pages before deciding to reply and ask for help) Asus provides only 6 Meg bios which means the ME firmware isn"t contained in it and thus my machine has zero ME firmware in its bios chip.

The main symptom is the exclamation mark in the device manager with the following remark : (Code 10) STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE

In the event viewer it's this one :

Intel(R) Management Engine Interface driver has failed to perform handshake with the Firmware (FWSTS0: 0x00304181, FWSTS1: 0x153B0100).


Here's the log of the ME tools as recommended on the forum :

E:\Windows64>Meinfowin64

Intel(R) MEInfo Version: 8.1.20.1309
Copyright(C) 2005 - 2012, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.


Error 9458: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (FW Update client)

Error 9459: Internal error (Could not determine FW features information)


E:\memanuf>memanufwin64

Intel(R) MEManuf Version: 8.1.10.1286
Copyright(C) 2005 - 2012, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.


Error 9256: Communication error between host application and Intel(R) ME FW

Error 9255: Internal error

Error 9296: MEManuf Test Failed


E:\flash>fptw64 -d SPI.bin

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 8.1.60.1561
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) HM76 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid

--- Flash Devices Found ---
W25Q64BV ID:0xEF4017 Size: 8192KB (65536Kb)


- Reading Flash [0x800000] 8192KB of 8192KB - 100% complete.
Writing flash contents to file "SPI.bin"...

Memory Dump Complete
FPT Operation Passed

I have uploaded the SPI.bin at ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/qzkm0y9hbg9pvpr/SPI.bin?dl=0 ) just in case, now to my understanding i'm supposed to do this next in an attempt to solve the problem :

1) fptw64.exe -greset
2) FWUpdLcl64.exe -f 8.1.65.1586_1.5MB_PRD_RGN.bin

Is that correct command and file for my platform?

Is there any chances that it might render the laptop one more time bricked?

thanks in advance for your help

Thanks for your quick answer,

i started the procedure as detailled in the guide but then it crossed my mind to check my SPI dumps to see if they match, to my surprise they don't, it'd seem that they do match when they're dumped during the same windows session, if i reboot then 5-7 differences (total commander file comparison by content) do appear between the different session dump(s) .

Is this something to be concerned or is it normal because of the broken ME engine FW?

I reflashed Yesterday and everything seems to be in working order.

I just had Error 217: Setting Global Reset Failed but after a shutdown and removal of battery for a few minutes everything seems to be in working order., no more exclamation mark with windows 10 default ME driver.

I've been browsing the forum, it's real base of knowledge and i'll order a cheap usb programmer as recommended in case in my future experiments i make a brick of my machines.

the multicore enhancment is an Asus, asrock, gigabyte and probably other mainboard makers that tricks the intel turbo to run all four cores at the max turbo speed the processor can reach on 1 or 2 cores.

i had once purchased a second hand asrock mainboard and while the 2500K was recognized properly, no multiplicator setting was available, the ME engine version was stated as unknown in the mainboard uefi, after a little chat with asrock it appeared that they allowed boards with sandybridge CPU to be updated with a BIOS that was to be used only on ivybridge and the upgrade process was in two step, first flash the bios, then on reboot the ME part was updated BUT if you were unaware of that and removed the usb stick containing the firmware you just happened to screw up the ME firmware part, asorck offered to send for free a bios chip but i simply returned the board to the seller.

Thanks again for your help, i'll continue to browse the forum and gain knowledge from it :)