Yes, type now fptw -greset. Your PC will reboot and inside Bios you should see the relative ME Version.

Yes rebooted i didnt clear cmos .
load into bios still N/A @Sylar76
Is it worth doing your other suggestion with reprogramming the bios chip ?

I don't have any other options to suggest you mate. Only one word : It's 100% strange your issue.

You could try to flash a different ME firmware of 9.1.xxx family.

Like the one attached below.

I think i will put this down to the board at fault or locked somehow from a previous owner not updating the bios correctly.
i can get my money back from the person i bought it from so might do that as its still got a random shut down issue.
Just out of curiosity if windows is not activated would this have any bearing on the problem ?

Is that file you linked the bin file to run with the same commands i just did ?

No because Bios info don't depend from OS (Windows or Linux or any other OS).

@Sav

Yes, you can try fptw -rewrite -me -f MEFIRMWARE.BIN

When i run that it goes successful but i notice PDR Region does not exist is this the issue ?
brb running reset command

PDR Region warning is right, don't worry about that.

Nope no good still the same. I wonder if that jumper is blocking it somehow?
Does all the me and region info get stored in the bios chip ?

is it worth trying the original bios version ?
or your unlocked one through bios flashback?

Try to remove that Jumper please.

and run the commands again ?
Did you see the post i linked talking about the jumper ?

@Sav

Mate, do exactly what has been written here please.

"Got FTK9 (9 stands for chipset - mine is Z97) from: https://github.com/LongSoft/FTK/releases
Downloaded latest bios, renamed it to bios.bin inside ftk\windows directory.
Under command prompt (as admin) i did:
1. fptw -d backup.bin
2. fd44cpr -n backup.bin bios.bin
3. fptw -rewrite -me -f bios.bin
Turned off pc and also psu. After turning it back on everything worked fine. Got ME installed and DIP5 successfully."

But I wasn't doing this correctly since command prompt was telling me fptw was unrecognised so I just ran the merefi.bat file inside the folder and it did everything for me. Then turned off PC and PSU as instructed and ME came back.

PSU = Power Supply Unit !!!!

C:\WINDOWS\system32>
C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd /

C:\>cd C:\Users\smass\Downloads\FTK9_0.11.1\FTK9\Windows

C:\Users\smass\Downloads\FTK9_0.11.1\FTK9\Windows>fptw -d backup.bin

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.2.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) Z97 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 "backup.bin"...

Memory Dump Complete
FPT Operation Passed

C:\Users\smass\Downloads\FTK9_0.11.1\FTK9\Windows>fd44cpr -n backup.bin bios.bin
Capsule file header removed.

C:\Users\smass\Downloads\FTK9_0.11.1\FTK9\Windows>fptw -rewrite -me -f bios.bin

Intel (R) Flash Programming Tool. Version: 9.1.2.1000
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2014, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Platform: Intel(R) Z97 Express Chipset
Reading HSFSTS register... Flash Descriptor: Valid

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

PDR Region does not exist.

- Erasing Flash Block [0x180000] - 100% complete.
- Programming Flash [0x180000] 1524KB of 1524KB - 100% complete.
- Verifying Flash [0x180000] 1524KB of 1524KB - 100% complete.
RESULT: The data is identical.

FPT Operation Passed

C:\Users\smass\Downloads\FTK9_0.11.1\FTK9\Windows>


turning off now!!!