Hello,

My laptop is ASUS N550JK-CN090H, 8 series Haswell.

I believe there's something wrong with my Intel MEI, (when booting, it waits on a black screen for 17-18 seconds before showing asus logo and loading bios, meinfo and memanuf gives errors - see below spoiler)

Hello,
Thanks for your fast and kind reply as well as telling me that I did my homework (it really motivated me :P)
So, I've checked the files with a hex file editor and saw that our after files are almost identical as you said.
Anyways, I've extracted me.bin and desc.bin from your outimage.bin using UEFITool.
Then, on DOS, I've flashed the files with
fpt.exe -desc -f desc.bin
fpt.exe -me -f me.bin
fpt.exe -greset

Just as before the result was: The initial boot try takes ~4 seconds and after that each try takes 1 second.
(When pressing the power button it lights on for 1 second and turns of.)
Doing manual reset as you told did not change the result.
Then, I removed both RAM (I have two RAMs) and manually greset and put one of them back on to the other's slot. I pressed the power button.
Then, I swapped the two RAM again (putting the other RAM but this time in its correct slot.)
That lead to the same situation of 1 sec shut down again (however, it took ~4 sec initially)
Then, reswapping the RAM again (putting the initial RAM in the initial position)
Then I played around some more but couldn't get a different result.

Also, I've realized that the ~4 seconds that it takes initially does changes the ME region in the bios. (Changes are only in the first 269 KB of the whole ~2 MB ME region)
(I used the programmer to read the contents after trying to power on the computer)

Here are some observations:
When I make a change on the current RAM status (removing a RAM/adding a RAM/changing a RAM's slot, however NOT taking a RAM out and putting it back to the same slot) with or without manual greset, the initial boot try after doing that change takes ~4-5 seconds and the next boot tries each take ~1 seconds.
That is so when the RTC is plugged

When RTC is also removed the effect is kinda different: When replugging AC independent of RAM statuses, the power on button turns on (without press) for 1 sec, turns off for 4 sec and turns on for ~5 sec just as in the above situation. Then, if I press the button it turns on for ~1 sec and turns off just as in the above situation.

If I remove both RAM, and RTC is removed then when plugging AC: 1 sec on - 4 sec off - indefinetely on
If I remove both RAM, and RTC is plugged and after plugging AC: when pressed power button - indefinetely on (as expected :D with no RAM)

Then, I've tried the whole process again with both after.bin and your outimage.bin using my programmer but couldn't get a different result.

What do you think?

Hi, I've solved my problem!! Thanks a lot for all your help!

Here's what I did:
A. Found another dump of the same model laptop from web. Tried to flash it directly => resulted in the same meinfo/memanuf error but the pc did boot.
B. Cleaned that dump's ME Region with your guide and flashed that. Bingo! It did open and meinfo/memanuf successfully communicated with the ME. Also, my initial 20 seconds of black screen before bios disappeared.
C. I had another dump from AFUDOS when I didn't had a flash programmer (only Bios region - 6 mB).

Zitat von plutomaniac im Beitrag #4

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I would use the programmer only from now on. The fixed ME firmware should be just fine so the problem is elsewhere. Either BIOS or hardware. Probably BIOS though and more specifically, bad NVRAM. Try the attached outimage2 with the programmer which is the previous one but with the stock ASUS BIOS inserted (after removing the AMI Capsule Header via UEFITool first of course).

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