Z200 switches off after exactly 30 minutes

[lwoody7110]

I'll reply back a little later as there are a number of steps here to try.

[lwoody7110]

So far, nothing has worked.  I have screen shots of everything attempted.  

Please see screen shots.... It seems the ME can't be seen?  Note that I've toggled Trusted Execution Technology on/off whilst attemting the firmware updates referenced in the softpacks.  I haven't tried motherboard #2 as I'd need to switch out this motherboard into the case.

SP50543 fails and weirdly wants to connect to MEI driver?

HP drivers will not installBIOS update fails

[DGroves]

based on your screen shots you provided your ME firmware is corupted, or AMT is disabled in the bios........................no doubt about that

a quick side note, do not confuse the onboard "TPM" (trusted platform managment) with "ME", they are two seperate things

tpm, is sort of the gatekeeper of crypto keys and anti tampering via hardware checks

TPM , AMT, and "ME" can and do work together in some functions but are still diffrent things

let me see if it's possible to unlock the Intel Flash Descriptor on this model HP, if so then you can do a full ME firmware restore, if the descriptor can not be unlocked, then it's impossible to do a full flash of the "ME" firmware

just to confirm,

you have a z200 CMT (microtower, or a z200 SFF (small Form Factor) model..............other models can not be updated using this Service Pack

you tried running the sp81826 file from within windows AFTER INSTALLING THE INTEL AMT PACKAGE, and making sure the intel AMT option was enabled in the bios (com 3 was sucessfuly installed in device manager)

you can also extract the SP81826 and copy the files in the "ME Flash" folder on to a bootable usb key and run FWUpgrade.bat (again the intel AMT needs to be enabled in the bios for the updater to work)

[lwoody7110]

Hi again

Thanks for your ongoing interest withi supporting me. Good to know about the versions of ME.

I have the full sized Z200 (and a spare motherboard for it which behaves the same as the one we're looking at)

Whilst trying to figure this all out, I understand that within the BIOS boot up that Ctrl+P should display an AMT config screen?  I do see a MEBx logo but nothing happens in terms of taking me into a config screen of some sort.  The PC continues to boot into Windows and then subsequently is switched off with the 30 minute thing.  I guess this is further evidence of the corrupted BIOS.

I've revisited the BIOS.  Please see that AMT appears to be enabled in the BIOS 'about' screen.  I have set the BIOS options in the security page as per BIOS screen shot. Nothing here specifically says AMT.  Within Windows, SP56816 (the AMT driver package for z200) required as a pre-req for SP81826 firmware fails with "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software" and that Device Manager currently looked 'clean'.

This is the current BIOS setup for ME/AMT as far as I can tellBIOS summary shows 'AMT' and a ME Firmware version

 

I cannot find any other options for AMT in the BIOS via F10.

Fingers crossed there is a way to reapply the ME/AMT firmware?

[Jo0404]

I have exactly the same problem. It occurred after a bios update from 786H3 v01.03 to 786H3 v01.22. The behavior of my computer is exactly as described by Lwoody7110. The screenshots there correspond to what I see on my computer. I am very interested in the solution of this problem, especially since the computer before the bios update has worked properly. Please apologize for my bad English writing.

[lwoody7110]

Out of interest, have you tried any troubleshooting steps before you found our shared experience?

It's good to know that I'm not alone on this.  I wonder how many people might have had this problem and just thrown away their PC because of this.

In my case, 1x motherboard came and the 1st thing I did was upgrade the BIOS.  The 2nd motherboard effectively came with a case I needed to home the 1st motherboard as the PSU isn't a standard ATX pinout.  The 1st thing I did here was update to the 2nd BIOS too.  I've no idea if either had the 30 minute problem before I updated the BIOS or not.

Do you happen to have a backup of your older BIOS?  If so and you'd be happy to send me a copy, I have access to a flash programmer that can update the bios directly and I could share the outcome with you.

[DGroves]

the bios firmware and the "ME" firmware are seperate chips on the motherboard and updating one will not corupt the other

when you get a "ME" is corupted error it's usually because someon tried the wrong firmware by forcing the flash bypassing the built in checks the update program runs using the batch script in other words running the firmware update program directly

or having a interuption during the "ME" update like a power fail or interupting the update while it's running which people do thinking  it's crashed because it hasen't appeared to have done anything within their time frame of what is acceptable for it to complete

last trying to downgrade from the latest bios (while possible) can not normally be done and this is by design as HP does not want the system to be vunerable to the spectre flaw trying to do so will give no benefits and run the risk of add a failed/corupted bios to the "ME" coruption issue

[lwoody7110]

In my case, the BIOS was updated to latest via HPQFlash from SP75207.  It seemed to have gone well.  There were no errors and the PC was rebooted immediately following the flash. 

Note that at this time, I had just installed Windows 7 and I was installing the drivers from the HP support site.  In SP75207's readme's, there is no mention of having to do anything with ME/AMT.  Up until this point, the system hadn't been on continuously for more than 30 minutes due to the WIndows and driver reboots.  I only discovered the 30 minute thing after completing the Windows 7 installation/Windows Update/HP driver installations were completed.  I then had a week of reinstalling and swapping out RAM/CPU/GPU etc to eventually notice the switch offs were exactly 30 minutes after a reboot.

BIOS flash log...

10/27/2018 15:18:32.407  System name = HP Z200 WORKSTATION
10/27/2018 15:18:32.407  System ID = 0xB40
10/27/2018 15:18:32.407  System Serial Number = CZC1029G24
10/27/2018 15:18:32.407  AT-p supported = 0 (0:  not supported, 1 supported)
10/27/2018 15:18:32.423  Version of BIOS in system:
10/27/2018 15:18:32.423     Family = 786H3
10/27/2018 15:18:32.423     Major version = 0x1, Minor Version = 0x15
10/27/2018 15:18:32.423     Release Date = 09/09/2013
10/27/2018 15:18:40.918  Version of BIOS in ROM update (in CAB file):
10/27/2018 15:18:40.918     Family = 786H3
10/27/2018 15:18:40.918     Version = 1.22
10/27/2018 15:18:40.918     Release Date = 02/11/2016
10/27/2018 15:18:46.500  Don't need to Backup BIOS files.  Either system is not a laptop or BIOS does not support backup from USB device.
10/27/2018 15:18:47.513  ***** Start FLASHING *****
10/27/2018 15:18:47.544  Start Saving Original BIOS Contents
10/27/2018 15:21:03.662  End Saving Original BIOS Contents
10/27/2018 15:21:03.678  Start flashing (Write)  Attempt #1
10/27/2018 15:21:03.678  Start Flash Rom Image (Write)
10/27/2018 15:22:06.211  End Flash Rom Image (Write), bStatus = 1
10/27/2018 15:22:06.227  End flashing (Write)  Attempt #1
10/27/2018 15:22:06.227  ***** END FLASHING PROCESS *****
10/27/2018 15:22:16.617  Flash has completed.  System will be restarted automatically
10/27/2018 15:22:16.617  Exit hpqFlash:  Return Code = 0x0
10/27/2018 15:22:16.633  --- END HPQFLASH SESSION ---

I'm currently thinking that the HP BIOS presents the entry point to the ME BIOS via Ctrl-P.  In previous screen shots, AMT is seen enabled and a firmware version of ME is seen.  If I can flash back to an older BIOS then *perhaps* I'll regain access to Ctrl-P and *maybe* recover the motherboards.  I've nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying.

[lwoody7110]

Hi Jo0404

Do you still have the 786H3 v01.03 BIOS?

[Jo0404]

Hi Lwoody7110,

when I did the bios update came first the message that the bios is backed up. Afterwards the update was carried out. I searched the disk, but could not find the backup.
I also tried unsuccessfully to install version 1.21. I think I remember the error message was that the file was corrupt.