I have double and triple checked that bios is erased and programmed, verified. Issued fptw- greset power disconnected and battery out for half hour still the same either the chip or bios is stuffed either way thank you and I’m done with this board getting removed now

BIOS chip can't be stuffed, or you wouldn't get verified after write. Something else is wrong here, either user error, tools error, or something on the board is broken (ME Is only in the BIOS, so not sure what could be "Broken")

Only one minute power drain is needed to reset ME, no need to wait half hour or anything like that.

Hello, im having the same issue with a Z97 ASUS Maximus Hero VII motherboard , in bios it showed "ME N/A" i tried taking everything off.. booted with just motherboard no ram CPU or anything
It resets at exactly 30 min from pressing the start button , after leaving it a day with no power / bios battery , and reconecting cpu and 1 stick of ram , went into bios and it showed ME version 0.0.0.0 instead of N/A, went to windows still no drivers / still reset after 30 min exactly.
In device manager it appears under show hidden devices and on properties -> Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer.
Tried to reinstall driver , then uninstalled it (with check + delete files) and now it wont reinstall at all.
Ordered a new bios chip online, (left the pc off with no power / bios battery for days/weeks untill new chip came), installed the new bios chip.
It booted up and cycled through some codes on the motherbord display "thing", then went to bios (code A2), checked the ME version = 0.0.0.0
Went to windows - checked device manager - stil no Intel management engine driver, left it on and it stayed on pass the 30 min timer of death.
Watched some youtube for 10-15 more min .. i thought the nightmare was over , asembled everything back in the case , screwed in the last screw.
Turned it back on again started working , after 30 min again - turned off, went to bios version N/A again (from 0.0.0.0 wich it showed previously)

Tried to update the ME version from windows but it wont recognize ME at all , MEInfo shows :
Error 9256: Communication error between application and Intel(R) ME module (FW Update client)
Error 0099: Unknown error code
Error 9459: Internal error (Could not determine FW features information)

Dumped the bios regions with fptw64.exe -DESC[BIOS/ME/GBE/PDR] -D DESC[BIOS/ME/GBE/PDR].bin
Atached all i could dump , the ME region gives error :
Error 26: The host CPU does not have read access to the target flash area. To enable read access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to give host access to this region.
And the last one : PDR Region does not exist.
Cannot flashback the FD region :
Error 25: The host CPU does not have write access to the target flash area. To enable write access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to give host access to this region.

I tried to lookup a pinmod to unlock fd but i didnt find the realtek audio chip.. its a supreme fx with a shielded led cover over it (didn't see any other service mode pins to short)
I searched for solutions but cant seem to get anywhere on my own so any help would be apreciated (don't have a programmer and it would take weeks to get one where i live, even the new bios chip was ordered in december last year).

The regions i managed to dump atached in DUMPS.zip

Unlock the FD first with GRUB then u do the dump, not while its locked.
Then fix the ME [Guide] Clean Dumped Intel Engine (CS)ME/(CS)TXE Regions with Data Initialization
Use Bios flashback to flash it back in to system

Thank you for the quick response .. ill try to get a programmer , i thought about it before, but just went for a new chip instead and save me the hassle of figuring out how and what to flash.
What does "removing its 0x800 sized AMI Capsule Header" mean ? i just zero over it, or delete it from the file alltogether.
Where do i get the latest full ASUS BIOS? on the support website its just 3503 beta bios with downloads a ".CAP" file for flashing with theyr EZ flash tool. (as i understand it its just the actual BIOS region, without FD, ME, GBE), how do i get the full BIN
Could the problem be CPU related since i changed the bios chip with a new one and it broke again on the second boot ? its an old sistem (2015) never repasted it untill now, changing paste / cooler didnt have any impact on behaviour.

edit : allready tried flashing the bios from the EZ flash utility and using the onboard flashback button and usb stick, downgraded it to 3003 and back to 3503 , no change in 30 min death behaviour (didi it with both the original board bios chip and the new one)

As long as the ME FW is as IT IS, no matter what bios version flashed it will behave like that.
U still have to fixit as i said or as Plutomaniac posted
CAPSULE is removed with UEFITool
The ME operates independent from bios.
The bios update file 3503 on the Asus website is full with ME 9.1.25.1005

ok i got UEFITool, im still not sure how to remove the capsule, but i'm trying to get it unlocked first

i searched to the reflash setting :
0x127695 Grayout If: {19 82}
0x127697 Variable 0x3A9 equals 0x1 {12 06 A9 03 01 00}
0x12769D Setting: Me FW Image Re-Flash, Variable: 0x40D {05 A6 FC 07 FD 07 2D 03 01 00 0D 04 10 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00}
0x1276C3 Option: Disabled, Value: 0x0 {09 0E 05 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00}
0x1276D1 Option: Enabled, Value: 0x1 {09 0E 04 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00}
0x1276DF End of Options {29 02}
0x1276E1 End If {29 02}

from that i take it i need to change the 0x40D setting from 0 to 1 => setup_var 0x40D 0x01
but i can't get into efi shell to run the command (big red screen atached).
i made a GRUB bootable disk, but GRUB is just a bootloader, what should i do in it?



later edit : the red screen was caused by not clearing secure boot keys, even thought i disabled secure boot still needed to clear keys
booted to GRUB shell => setup_var 0x40D 0x01 - completed succesfully rebooted to shell again and checked it remained at 1, but still locked in windows, cannot dump or write the ME region

i finally received my ordered CH341A, i dumped the full chip and cleaned ME with the tutorial "https://www.win-raid.com/t1658f39-Guide-Clean-Dumped-Intel-Engine-CS-ME-CS-TXE-Regions-with-Data-Initialization.html", didn't work, pc boots up but in bios ME version is still N/A (i couldnt find the exact version (9.1.25.1005) so i used the closest one 9.1.40.1000_1.5MB_PRD_EXTR.bin)
i flashed the oficial bios from ASUS, i decapsulated it with uefi tools, cap => rom (renamed to bin), same rezult

i also got another brand new bios chip dumped that one and flashed it over on the original chip, nothing seems to work .. can't i just disable the 30 min timer ? is there anywhere i can edit that in hex? at least change it from 30 min to 99?

also my motherboard is ASUS Maximus Ranger VII not the Hero, got confused earlyer - but i cought it before flashing i did flash the corect BIOS

ROG MAXIMUS VII RANGER beta bios 3503 has the ME 9.1.25.1005 and in the ME repository u have the same FW version, so use it.
Not the 9.1.40.1000.

ok, finally found the right file : "9.1.25.1005_1.5MB_PRD_RGN.bin" and the fitc i used is from "Intel ME System Tools v9.1 r7", followed the steps again, still same behaviour
i take out the chip, i flash it on another device while i let the main PC drain out with no wall plug or bios battery , i put the bios chip back in and boot up, the boot up take a while longer as it initializez the bios if i go into bios at first boot it shows ME version 0.0.0.0 , after a normal restart it goes to N/A, it always shuts me out after 30 min

i did use the oficial ASUS bios file previously as i said which did have the corect ME version = 9.1.25.1005 and that still didint solve it - (after failing with the guide, i also tryd changing some other settings in fitc but i don't really know what im doing)

i have 3 bios chips right now :
1. the original motherboard chip . which i flashed multiple times with the cleaned bios as specified in "https://www.win-raid.com/t1658f39-Guide-Clean-Dumped-Intel-Engine-CS-ME-CS-TXE-Regions-with-Data-Initialization.html"
2. a brand new bios factory flashed (that i think got broken in the initialization phase) booted once and got past the 30 min windows , then i restarted PC ad went back to turning off at 30 min (i used the CH341A to reprogram this with the oficial ASUS bios decapsulated using UEFITool - extract as is)
3. a brand new chip factory flashed that i never pluged in the motherboard but i used it to dump a clean bin file with the CH341A programmer (later compared it to the oficial ASUS bios and it is identical), i did the clean guide with the original bios dump and this fresh clean one

this is getting so frustrating .. i do not know what to check or how to debug the problem any further .. i ruled out any other PC components , booted with just CPU and 1 stick of ram , so im thinking i need to buy either new CPU or new motherboard, any way to make the decision safer ? i cant afford both just to test things out.

Even if changing the timer from 30 to 90 min would be a great help.. 30 min is just to low to do any usefeull work on it

I did verify after every flash, i did erase -> blank -> load the bin file -> program -> verify every single time i tried, also removed power plug no bios battery and hold down the power button for 30 sec without power plug to drain all capacitors

So i take it there is no way even to increase the time limit ?

I tried the python script (https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner) thats guts out most ME firmware on the oficial asus bios, flashed that, it stabilized the ME version at 0.0.0.0 even between reboots, didn't go to N/A and the device apeared in device manager again (where previously it was in hidden devices with status = "Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer.") now it apears as STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE and i can reinstall the driver, shows up as working properly while the driver instalation is in progress, but power failure after a few moments, it has no impact whatsoever on the 30 min timer which starts as soon as i press the start button (was hoping to at least reset it starting with the driver reinstall, but no).

Must be a hardware problem so the board phisicaly can't comunicate with the firmware properly .. ill get a new motherboard, and hope its not the CPU, i checked the RAM in memTest and mostly showed no errors, it didn't get to finish a full test in under 30 min.

OK thanx for all the help and support :) learned a lot.