Z87 Deluxe edition Won't boot with Core i7-4790K

The solution is quite simple but not so well documented. It's the same for a lot of motherboard with FlashBack capability.

The trick is that some new processors are not supported by the firmware of the motherboard out of the box. You then have to update the firmware of your motherboard with the flashack. This video show you how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcdnwMjd_I

But, the more tricky part is to find the good firmware to apply. In the case of the mother board Asus z87 Deluxe edition, I found it here: http://asus.com/fr/Motherboards/Z87DELUXE/HelpDesk_Download/

Be aware, don't download the "BIOS updater for New 4th Gen Intel Core Processors" that's a software that needs windows to be launched.

Instead of this, download only the firmware. In my case, version 2004 and 2003beta didn't work. I then downloaded the 1802 version (http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z87-DELUXE/Z87-DELUXE-ASUS-1802.zip).

After that, the only think you have to do is to

• rename the firmware file (in this case: Z87-DELUXE-ASUS-1802.CAP) to Z87D.CAP (some refs recommand to rename it Z87DQ.CAP, but it didn't worked for me).
• format an usb key with FAT32 partition (choose an key with activity led, it's easyer to check if it's working)
• copy your Z87D.CAP file on the root of the usb key.
• Unmount your key
• Try the flashback as descibed in the youtube video above.

Asus proposes a tools in order to rename your CAP file here: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-M/BRenamer.zip But as I only have linux computer, I had to find out by my self the filename to use. A google search for "asus bios rename rule" is a good start ;-)

Kind regards

Hadien is absolutely correct in his posting however, for me, I got my Asus Z87-Deluxe motherboard to post and boot up perfectly using the Asus 2103 Bios firmware. Key wording is you "must" use the Asus Flashback utility and NOT EZ Flash2 which is what I did. I spent over 47 hours (on and off) before I gave up and emailed Asus support. If you use EZ Flash2, one of 3 firmware utilities put forth by Asus, it does a incomplete flash. Even though cpuz will display the correct bios name it is a incomplete firmware upgrade which is what happened with me. Symptom was, as I attempted to power up the Z87-Deluxe with installed i7-4790 the motherboard would show a bright red cpu lit led on the motherboard and refuse to post/boot. Once I re-flashed using the very same 2103 firmware this time using Asus Flashback (versus EZ Flash2) I could cleanly post and boot into my desktop. BTW, I immediately changed a few bios settings and now have a mildly overclocked Z-87 Deluxe motherboard running 4.5GHz with a 10+ year old Zalman 9900 heatsink/fan cpu cooler. Son now gets my 4770k.