z170 fatal1ty pro gaming MB seems dead

If you have not already, pull the CPU and check for warping and or bent pins in the socket. If that is all good put it back together, clear CMOS again and try again. You may also want to try pulling all power from the board for an hour or so while you check pins and clear CMOS.

Xaltar wrote: This is what a warped CPU looks like, note the deformed substrate. This was a known issue with Skylake (possibly Kaby Lake too) where heavy or over-tight coolers could warp the substrate. I would imagine this could also happen over time if the cooler is too heavy, the system got bumped hard or a water cooler was buttoned down too tight.

That looks terrible! I haven't seen anything that said Kaby Lake is any different than Skylake regarding the processor substrate thickness. Given they use the same CPU socket, I doubt the substrate thickness could be changed without other side effects, such as damage to the substrate surface from extra pressure from the clamping mechanism.

I have a feeling that warping is at least partially caused by the design of the CPU cooler mounting hardware. Some designs like Noctua's cause the weight of the CPU cooler to be applied more to the mother board, instead of the processor.

The bending of the substrate seem asymmetrical, the right half of the substrate seems fairly flat, while the left half appears convex in the picture. I can imagine the CPU cooler pulled by gravity pressing down more on one half of the substrate, and either neutral or less pressure on the opposite side. The convex appearance of the substrate would be concave if the CPU was mounted in the socket.

Regardless, the thinner substrate is also a factor. If Intel tried to blame the CPU coolers, which could be valid in some cases, since they did not supply a CPU cooler with the 'K' model processors, do they have a CPU Cooler QVL list?