Short story. Last week I picked up a 4790k and dropped it into my Gigabyte z97mx-Gaming 5 motherboard. Overclocking adventure killed my bios 
Longer story. While testing my 4790k which seems like a decent overclocker so I went for the magical 5GHz mark. Guess didn't up the vcore enough so it bsods at windows and gets stuck in a constant boot loop....Ugh!
Clears cmos....Nope doesn't work boot loops.
Removes battery, clears cmos....Nope still boot loops.
Removed 1 stick of memory and it boots.
Restart and load optimized defaults, boots fine.
Shutdown and put stick back in, doesn't post with black screen.
Removes 2nd stick and it boots.
Figured stick went bad. Ordered 16GB kit from Amazon.
Install ram boots up fine.
Enter setup and load optimized defaults. Doesn't post.
Thinking cpu? Swaps 4690k back in.
Nope same results.
Rinse and repeat steps above.
Figure MB took a dump.
Ordered a ATX motherboard and case so I can play around with the 4790k while I rma the mATX motherboard.
Today while waiting for the new case to be delivered I decided to troubleshoot some more. Ripped the rig down to the bare motherboard. Figured I try everything I could as it would at least kill time as I hate waiting for deliveries.
Spent 20 minutes or so with a magnifying glass and thoroughly inspected motherboard and socket. No problems seen.
Bare build on box with another power supply seemed like the next logical step.
Motherboard powers on no visible post with a black screen blinking curse upper left.
Didn't have a speaker hooked up to the MB so snagged the one out of the old ladies rig.
Boot up and hear a tic sound from speaker, it would repeat every couple seconds. No beeps. Pulled memory out and got beep,beep,beep....Put one stick back in and got beep followed by post. Shut down and decided to hookup my SSD. Posted but got windows startup error greating, restarts and no post. Shut down rig. Disconnected SSD. Needless to say I was back at the no post black screen blinking cursor again. Rinse and repeat I get it to post with one stick. At this point I was pretty much sure motherboard was toasted.
I didn't think flashing the bios again would fix it but decided it was the only thing I didn't try.
Enters bios flash utility.
Selects bios file from USB stick and flash away.
Sees message from utility restart is required to finish flash and hits OK.
2 reboots later it posts and I enter setup.
Load optimized defaults and restart and it posts.
Shutdown rig and drop in 2nd stick. Boots right up.
Shut down and hook up SSD and it boots right up.....Go figure!
Maybe it'll help somebody in a similar situation some day. Google didn't help much when I searched for no post black screen blinking cursor. Most hits pointed towards a possibility let power supply or gpu issue.
Guess I'll clean out the case thoroughly while it's apart.
Longer story. While testing my 4790k which seems like a decent overclocker so I went for the magical 5GHz mark. Guess didn't up the vcore enough so it bsods at windows and gets stuck in a constant boot loop....Ugh!
Clears cmos....Nope doesn't work boot loops.
Removes battery, clears cmos....Nope still boot loops.
Removed 1 stick of memory and it boots.
Restart and load optimized defaults, boots fine.
Shutdown and put stick back in, doesn't post with black screen.
Removes 2nd stick and it boots.
Figured stick went bad. Ordered 16GB kit from Amazon.
Install ram boots up fine.
Enter setup and load optimized defaults. Doesn't post.
Thinking cpu? Swaps 4690k back in.
Nope same results.
Rinse and repeat steps above.
Figure MB took a dump.
Ordered a ATX motherboard and case so I can play around with the 4790k while I rma the mATX motherboard.
Today while waiting for the new case to be delivered I decided to troubleshoot some more. Ripped the rig down to the bare motherboard. Figured I try everything I could as it would at least kill time as I hate waiting for deliveries.
Spent 20 minutes or so with a magnifying glass and thoroughly inspected motherboard and socket. No problems seen.
Bare build on box with another power supply seemed like the next logical step.
Motherboard powers on no visible post with a black screen blinking curse upper left.
Didn't have a speaker hooked up to the MB so snagged the one out of the old ladies rig.
Boot up and hear a tic sound from speaker, it would repeat every couple seconds. No beeps. Pulled memory out and got beep,beep,beep....Put one stick back in and got beep followed by post. Shut down and decided to hookup my SSD. Posted but got windows startup error greating, restarts and no post. Shut down rig. Disconnected SSD. Needless to say I was back at the no post black screen blinking cursor again. Rinse and repeat I get it to post with one stick. At this point I was pretty much sure motherboard was toasted.
I didn't think flashing the bios again would fix it but decided it was the only thing I didn't try.
Enters bios flash utility.
Selects bios file from USB stick and flash away.
Sees message from utility restart is required to finish flash and hits OK.
2 reboots later it posts and I enter setup.
Load optimized defaults and restart and it posts.
Shutdown rig and drop in 2nd stick. Boots right up.
Shut down and hook up SSD and it boots right up.....Go figure!
Maybe it'll help somebody in a similar situation some day. Google didn't help much when I searched for no post black screen blinking cursor. Most hits pointed towards a possibility let power supply or gpu issue.
Guess I'll clean out the case thoroughly while it's apart.
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