After researching for a while, I found out different things, which could be interesting for other modders, so here we go:

- There are a lot of "Intel ME"-BIN-files around the net. They almost all have been extracted by the FPT tool. FPT seems to give them a fixed size of 1524kb. Since my extracted ROM was only 1304kb I opened the file with some hex editor and searched for similarities. After stripping the "header", which is obviously NOT needed (I have to search again how much space it consumes exactly) and after removing all FF's at the end (filling garbage) I got a ME8 file with about 800kb only!! This file starts exactly like my extracted ME7 file AND IS READABLE NOW WITH FWUPDLCL VERSION 7!!! (which showed version like 65536.xxx before!) But I still don't want to flash it xD

Screenshot of FWUPDLCL showing BOTH firmware versions:



1st try is my backupped ME7 version from my DX79TO
2nd try is the "modded" ME8 file read by FWUPDLCL version 7.x!
3rd try is the "uncut" version of the ME8 file from 2nd try (the "original" one!)! You see the version? :-)

Probably we would be able to upgrade ME7 to ME8 with that!


- If MEINFOWIN shows you "BIOS and GBE config lock = ENABLED" and/or "Host Read/Write Access to ME = DISABLED", but "Local FWUpdate = ENABLED", you only have a chance to update ME with FWUPDLCL (you could "translate" the name to "FirmWare UPDate LoCaL"). FPT will NOT work for you, since it can't temporarily disable the locks.

- It is easy to determine which kind of ME FW you have (1,5MB or 5MB): 1,5MB version is ME only (with a few extra things), 5MB is the full AMT version with remote access and all the stuff bundled. All X79 series mainboards (AFAIK!) only have 1,5MB ME FW.

- ME FW comes as container / capsule. So even if your ME has 1,5MB or 5MB, the real program within could be / is smaller than these sizes. The remaining space is filled with FF's or is occupied from the extraction data from FPT.EXE. If you open a 1,5MB firmware file which has been extracted with FPT.EXE with some hex editor, you will see this at the beginning:



I am at the time I am writing this about 98% sure, this is only garbage (or only needed if you update via FPT.EXE). After removing all stuff which seems to be "header" or "trailer", I got an ME7 file with 613.488 Bytes instead of 1.335.296 Bytes and a ME8 file with 827.952 Bytes instead of 1.560.576 Bytes.

- to be continued! :-)