Z170M Pro4S - Failed BIOS Update from 1.40 to 2.40

Hello all,

I am extremely disappointed that my brand new computer I built last weekend for VR will not boot, even to the BIOS screen. I was receiving MEMORY MANAGEMENT BSOD's and my GeForce GTX970 card was only occasionally being recognized during boot up, so I decided that it was probably necessary to update the BIOS from 1.40 to the most recent 2.40. Since the GTX970 wasn't always being recognized, I had to use the integrated GPU in order to boot my computer. I'm not sure if this is normal but every time I'd power on the computer the fans and lights go on for one second, everything shuts off for about 3 seconds, and then it would boot up.

I formatted a flash drive to FAT32, loaded the 2.40 (Z17MP4S2.40) on the flash drive and used the instant flash option from the BIOS screen to load the new BIOS. It seemed like everything went well until my computer restarted and went to a blank screen. My fans turn on along with my fan controller, but neither my keyboard nor my screen are responding. I left the computer in this state for about 15 minutes, but nothing was responding. At this time I was using the HDMI slot on the integrated on board GPU.

I ended up powering down the computer, unplugging the power cord from the PSU and configured the jumper on the motherboard to clear the CMOS for 30 minutes. Once I put the jumper back in the correct position I powered the computer up and received the same end result.

I really hope you guys have a couple suggestions to get my motherboard in working condition!  

SPECS:

i5-6600k
MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 100ME,PCIE
GSkill NT Series 16GB (F4-2133C15D-16GNT)
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB,SATA
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1 80+ GOLD
Windows 10 64-bit

Thank you, 

Drew

You had the right idea clearing CMOS, try using this method to clear all CMOS data. By removing the battery you also clear the Real Time Clock data as well as a few other hidden registers that the regular jumper clear does not.

Clearing CMOS resolves a lot of issues so I made that little write up to link to so that I didn't have to keep retyping it  The UEFI, unlike the old BIOS system, is actually interactive with the OS and allows the OS to change hidden values that are not configurable by the user. This leads to more frequent writes which increases the chances of corruption.

Well, I just followed your steps and removed the CMOS battery for 15 minutes with no luck . I'll follow the steps again and leave the battery out for 4 hours. I really hope this works...

Hmm, interesting. Once I try removing the CMOS battery for four hours I'll give your suggestion a shot! Just to clarify...I don't even get stuck in a restart loop, the fans and fan controller are on but no display or lit keyboard at all.

One thing that I didn't mention was that right before the BIOS update Windows ran a couple updates before it restarted (chose the update and restart option). After it was done I booted directly into the BIOS to perform the instant flash. Not sure if that could have anything to do with my problems.