ME is in Recovery State after updating BIOS

[AC-DC]

I updated the BIOS on an old HP EliteBook 2760p running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Since the BIOS update, I see the following message every time I boot: "ME is in Recovery State." Sometimes, it attempts to PXE boot over the network and fails (I don't have PXE boot set up). Then I have to restart it. I think this means it's not seeing the C: drive (a 250 GB SSD). After two to four attempts, it boots fine to Windows 7 although it still shows the "ME is in Recovery State" message before starting Windows.

I've gone through this thread on the same topic and tried the recommended solution. Of course, I updated the BIOS to the latest version. Then I installed the Intel Management Engine Components Driver - SP54317.exe. And last, I installed the Intel Full Management Engine (ME) Firmware Component - sp80144.exe - which updates the Management Engine firmware from Windows. But I'm not able to get rid of the "ME is in Recovery State" error and multiple attempts to start Windows. I have reset the BIOS and BIOS security to factory settings and then reapplied the above updates but still have the same problem. 

I've also tried the DOS based ME firmware update tool - sp80282.exe - insted of the Windows based firmware component above, but still the same result. 

I see there are two Intel ME component drivers on the HP drivers and downloads site for this EliteBook running Windows 7 64-bit.

• sp54317.exe of October 10, 2011
• sp55757.exe of January 11, 2012

They are both 10.4MB downloads. When I attempt to start these EXE's, they both show ME Components Driver version 7.1.20.1119. Are they identical? If so, why two different sp files? If not, what's the difference? I've tried both of these but the result is the same. Do I need to apply one and then the other? Or one or the other?

Any suggestions?

[AC-DC]

I replaced the SSD with a new one and reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64-bit from scratch. That got rid of the PXE boot attempts. Now the BIOS sees the SSD every time and starts Windows at first attempt. On this clean install of Windows, I installed all the device drivers for the EliteBook 2760p and installed the Intel Management Engine (ME) Components Driver sp55757.exe followed by the Intel Full Management Engine (ME) Firmware Component - sp80144.exe. The BIOS is the latest version available. It was updated before I did a clean install of the OS.

Despite all of the above, I still see the "ME is in Recovery State ..." message every time just before Windows starts. HWinfo shows the ME Current Working State is "Recovery" but the ME Current Operation Mode is "Normal" (see a screenshot here.) Note that the Intel ME Version and the Intel ME Recovery Image Version are both the same version firmware (as I have flashed the ME a couple of times going through the steps outlined above on the previous post.)

Questions:

1. Is the EliteBook running at reduced functionality given that the Intel Management Engine is in Recovery State? Note that the ME Recovery firmware is the same version as the current firmware. I believe it’s running with all its capabilities as it is running the right ME firmware even if it insists on calling it “Recovery State” firmware. Am I correct? Any way to test this?
2. If the EliteBook is running with full Intel ME capabilities, then is the ME warning every time I boot just an annoyance? Any way to get rid of this warning? As I stated, I’ve tried all the steps outlined in the other post linked on my previous post. On another post, someone had success eliminating the Recovery State message on another model HP notebook by removing the RTC battery for 30 minutes. Getting to the RTC battery on the EliteBook 2760p is a pain. You pretty much have to disassemble the entire notebook to get to the battery. So, I’d rather not do that.

Intel ME - HWinfo Report