Q9650 + BIOS Flash = Corrupted Win7 Install?

[nightelph]

Rig in sig.

So I just purchased a Q9650. Installed it in my P5K deluxe wifi/AP mobo, which reported that I needed a bios update to fully 'unleash the power' of this cpu. It booted Win7Prox64 just fine. I updated my bios from 0812 to 0902, the most recent (a year old) non-beta bios without issues. I set Linpack to run for two hours on standard to burn in the thermal grease. Came back later to find my computer had rebooted itself and was stuck at the 'Loading Windows' screen. Only problem was that the animation doesn't play and I have to force it to reboot.

Now when it boots it offers the option of 'Launch Startup Repair' or Windows. Selecting windows, gives the same error as above, and selecting repair shows a loading bar, which finishes and hangs there indefinitely. Booting to safe mode hangs at a driver indefinitely. Booting to the Win7 disc loads the bar and hangs indefinitely. Booting an XP disc gets pretty far and BSODs. Reverted back to BIOS 0812, but no change. Any ideas? I may load Win7 to a flash drive and try to fix it from another windows install.

Dang, this sucks.

 

[Sunburn74]

bios flash shouldn't do anything to your windows install. Maybe you damaged your CPU with a faulty thermal grease application is what I think...

 

[Daddyjaxx]

Overclocking can bork SATA drives and Windows and force a reinstall. You raise the PCIE bus past 100?

 

[jgv115]

You should try USB.

Overclocking has stuffed up countless of my OS'. It happens a lot

 

[nightelph]

I haven't OC'd yet. Although I usually run the PCIe bus at 101, and I did have it at that yesterday.

As far as a reinstall, I can't really boot the disc, so I think I'm going to have to touch the primary HDD from another windows install.

Edit: I unplugged my HDDs, and still can't boot the setup disc. I'm going to have to try swapping my E8400 back in. If everything works fine, then I suppose the problem is the CPU. If somehow I did do a poor job applying the TIM and Linpack got it too hot, I would think that the cpu would have protected itself and shutdown. I won't be able to test the old proc this weekend unfortunately. :/

 

[jgv115]

Run the PCI Frequency at 100 and set it manually so it doesn't automatically go higher. You don't need to raise it any higher.

 

[georgelogy]

Flashing your BIOS typically resets everything to default values. Sometimes the mode of your SATA devices may change (AHCI, RAID, or IDE), causing Windows to fail to load or may bluescreen.

You could also try disabling all onboard devices (including sound).

 

[jason4207]

And make sure you don't use a saved profile from a previous BIOS. Write down your settings, manually enter them again, and then re-save over your old profile.

 

[nightelph]

So I haven't been able to get at my machine for over a week. Finally I booted it again, no hdds connected, and went into bios to check the AHCI setting. It was disabled, as it was previously.
All I really had left in my bag of tricks was to swap the old cpu back, but upon restart machine successfully booted the OS disc! So nothing has changed, the machine has just been sitting. So I hooked up my hdds, startup repair found nothing, and windows booted to desktop where I'm typing this.
It bothers me that I don't know what the problem was, but I'm happy that my machine is back and I'm not out a $300 cpu..