Zuhl3156  No Beeps as well?

It has an LED readout. It has pins for a beeping speaker too but nothing coming out of it. I think the connector is just there for cheap models that don't have the LED readouts installed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130875
 

ASUS Z170 motherboard got here a few hours ago. I just wired it up sitting on my counter top hoping it wouldn't boot because the CPU was bad but nope! It booted right up meaning that them buzzards at MSI sent me a bogus recertified Z170 G45 Gaming replacement. Now I got to tear everything apart to replace that disgusting MSI motherboard. The sad thing is that there was nothing wrong with my Z97 Gaming 7 setup but when MSI replaced my Z77 G45 Gaming with the Z170 G45 Gaming I figured why not upgrade? Stupid me! Everybody has $500 in change hiding in their couch cushions like me to throw away on upgrades you don't need, right?

Good to Hear!

Bad that you got a bad board -- Good that you got it figured out.

Real bad that I got a bum board. MSI was my #1 go to company for motherboards up until now. We'll have to see how dependable this new ASUS board is going to be. It has a ton of features that I need to learn about. I've never heard of some of these things before so I need to do some reading to find out the full story and whether or not I need them or not. Some of them sound nifty to boost performance and others not so much unless you buy optional sensor leads. I ordered the optional 40mm fan to cool the CPU heatsinks but it is more likely to eventually coat everything with a nice layer of dust. I drained the loop last night and all I am waiting for now is for my coffee to give me a little assistance. At least a little nudge to get me going would be nice. IDK if I should wait for that little fan and install it first or try and squeeze it in afterwards. The only bothersome thing that caught my attention last night was my CPU voltage that the BIOS listed as being 1.245v. I thought that was very high for a stock clocked CPU. My 4790k Devils Canyon had a stock voltage of 1.215v I think. If the Cubs can win a World Series then I can do this! The stars are in their proper alignment for miracles right now so I'd better get a move on.

That board has a slow mode boot switch on it from what I was reading http://www.manualbirds.com/manuals/msi-z170a-g45-gaming-user-manual-675725-39   maybe that's some of the issue?!?! From the post codes you listed and what they describe: http://www.manualbirds.com/manuals/msi-z170a-g45-gaming-user-manual-675725-40  Early mem init, late cpu init, and the other two aren't listed but 00 could go either way but you def have some main components out of sync which made me think it might be that switch. If you cant get into the bios than you cant check which it is and whether it needs a flash and that's always annoying, lol.

I'm slowly making progress. I used the extra port plugs from a XSPC 360 radiator I bought to cap the rear lines and removed the rear radiator. As soon as I get done clearing the cobwebs out of my head I'll get on it. If I can keep my concentration I can get this swap out finished in under 3 hours.