Yes, that is correct. The MEI driver was downloaded from the ASUS R5E support page under Windows 10 64bit.

Now what I am experiencing is the system will no longer boot to an OS. It will boot and hang at the F2/DEL. When attempting to access the BIOS, all attempts fail when pressing either DEL or F2 keys.

Right now, I have tried all of the reset buttons, including the one on the rear of the mobo panel.

So until I am able to at least boot to the BIOS, I am SOL in getting anything corrected, if you know what I mean.

Chino wrote:
What is the QCODE that is displaying on the DEBUG LED when your system halts? Also do any of the 4 QLEDs that are beside the 24 pin connector remain lit?

What I am seeing when the system attempts to boot then stalls, is QCODE "A2", IDE Detected. I have tried starting the system by pulling all of the SATA connected drives and attempted another boot, but the system still did not respond to DEL / F2 option to load the BIOS.

Regarding the Q-Led status, it seems that the red LED is associates with BOOT_DEVICDE_LED. I am not able to attached a screenshot for some reason, the option to attached is grayed out for me. Anyway, even though, the screenshot indicates the LED is pointing to the "Boot_Device_Led".

I am not sure what could cause the system not to boot nor to access the BIOS. The only thing that was done, was after getting the Warning MEI message, the MEI_V11.0.0.1155_20150709_WHQL_1.5M driver was to installed, which was obtained from the ASUS support page for this motherboard.

On a footnote, I am aware there are a differences between RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1 and the RAMPAGE V EXTREME support downloads. When I log into my ASUS account, I go to the RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1 support page only to get the applications or drivers that support my board. I do not know, per se, if there is a difference between the files on each support page mentioned, but I have only used the files from the RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1 page.

Sorry about not getting back with you sooner Chino. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the States and I was spending time with the family.

Thank you for your assistance with this issue.

Chino wrote:
Try disconnecting all the USB devices connected to your system. Clear the CMOS and see if it posts normally.

I removed all of the USB devices and attempted to boot to BIOS, but that attempt had failed as well. I then disconnected the SATA Blu-ray drives and was able to get the system to boot to BIOS (once). After loading the BIOS, I then exited the BIOS with the option of not saving any settings. Not sure why, but after removing the power cables to both Blu-ray drives, the system immediately prompted for F1 settings. However, after loading the BIOS once, after a reboot another attempt was made to load the BIOS had failed. So disconnecting the SATA Blu-Ray drives helped to access the BIOS, but only once. After that one time, all other attempts to access the BIOS fails.

red454 wrote:
So, what is the latest? Any luck?

Apparently, what had happened was that when I ran the MEI driver installation that was downloaded from the ASUS support site, the system did not like that and chocked, forcing the BIOS to become corrupt. I was forced to re-flash the BIOS using the flash drive on the rear panel. After re-flashing the BIOS, the system was stable.

Before all hell broke loose, BIOS v1701 was loaded. For the recovery, v1502 was loaded. Currently, I am running v1502. I am thinking that the MEI driver from the ASUS website may not like BIOS v1701, but I haven't had the real time needed to investigate this theory.

For the time being, I'll be a little bit more hesitant in grabbing MEI driver at the blink of an eye.

In conclusion, all seems to be well now.