Troubleshooting i5 9400f Compatibility Issues with AsRock B365M Pro4 Motherboard

Hello, fellow tech enthusiasts!

I recently found myself facing a perplexing problem that I wanted to share in hopes of gaining some insights from this knowledgeable community. A friend of mine set out to build a new PC, but we encountered a significant hurdle: the system would not boot.

Initially, it appeared that the culprit was the Intel i5 9400f processor. This CPU is listed on the AsRock compatibility page for the B365M Pro4 motherboard, leading us to believe that it should function without any issues. However, it seemed that the motherboard required a BIOS update to support this specific chipset right out of the box.

To address the problem, I temporarily removed my own i7 8700k processor and installed it in the new build to perform the necessary BIOS update. This process went smoothly, and we successfully upgraded to the latest BIOS version—P4.40.

Unfortunately, despite having the most up-to-date BIOS and trying two separate i5 9400f processors, the system still fails to boot. This situation has left us scratching our heads, especially since the compatibility chart explicitly states that the i5 9400f should work seamlessly with this motherboard.

I’m reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced a similar issue or has suggestions for potential solutions. Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated as we work to get this build up and running!

Thank you in advance for your help!