Curious utility MEBLAST from HP (Sept 2012), lots of good ME related strings:

[bibikalka1]

@mostav02

Not sure if this place is still alive ...

I've discovered an interesting HP utility from Sept 2012 named MEBLAST for HP workstations Z420/620/820: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59501-60000/sp59991.html https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59501-60000/sp59991.exe

It clones the ME section from a full BIOS file to the flash chip after the FD jumper moved, and then changes 1 byte from FF to 01 at address 0x400 within the ME section. Upon reboot ME initializes, and the ME is all fresh and working, something like this: https://github.com/SuperThunder/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BootBlock_Upgrade/issues/8#issuecomment-2163267030

It was discovered that by not changing this byte to 01 and keeping FF there, the ME will persist in a weird state, triggering permanent "Manufacturing mode" upon boot. That mode can be readily existed by writing a pre-existing good ME back to that flash region, or by setting a proper "01" trigger as before.

We have learnt to use this "Manufacturing mode" to get full flash chip write access via software only with fpt instead of external programmer: https://github.com/SuperThunder/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BootBlock_Upgrade/issues/12

Now I want to mod MEBLAST to keep that byte as FF after ME re-write, so that the flash write access (Manufacturing mode) can be achieved with 1 MEBLAST step.

Any advice regarding this MEBLAST is appreciated, I've attached a file of its strings for easy skimming of what it actually does. It seems that executable is very relevant to this GitHub topic.

meblast_strings_all.txt

A few strings here: ME firmware is Disabled via writing all 0FFh to ME Region. ME firmware is Disabled via PCHSTRP10 bit[7] - HAP-Full. ME firmware is Disabled via HMRFPO HECI Message. ME firmware is Enabled via FDT (Read/Write mode).