How do I force a BIOS reflash?

[Vista2003]

Hi, I was wondering if there was a way of bypassing the same version check for this BIOS updater for my Panasonic Let's Note CF-SV7RDAVS laptop as it seemed to have suffered Intel ME corruption or AHCI issues and I'm hoping a BIOS reflash could recover it as the Intel ME update tools don't detect ME. The BIOS still shows a ME version but nothing in both Windows or Linux can detect it.
   
While no ME sounds great, it basically has lead to the system to have no power management which is not great and if Windows powers down the system, you have to release flee power to even start the thing.

   
I get a same version error if I try to flash the BIOS via the EXE provided by Panasonic (EXE attached) It's an Aptio (AMI) 2.15.1234 based BIOS. There are no newer BIOS versions so this is what I have to work with.

Does anyone know how to bypass the same-version restriction or have any other ideas to restore Intel ME functionality?