MSI bootloop - error code A2 in bottom right

[esojscratchem]

Hi all,

I have built a PC with an MSI H61M P31 (G3) motherboard, and after I flashed my BIOS with seeming success I was stuck in a bootloop state with no display being shown. I reset the CMOS by removing the battery and it didn't bootloop but instead showed error code A2 in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and nothing else. I turned my PC off and then on again and the bootloop resumed. I repeated removing the CMOS battery at least 4 more times with all the same result. No, I do not have any hard drives, SSDs or optical drives connected. No I cannot return the board or RMA or whatever. The CPU, RAM and everything else work fine - I just need to know how to get out of this horribly frustrating scenario so I can reflash the BIOS.

[Falkentyne]

A2 means IDE detection error or IDE initialization error.

A board can also show "A2" in the BIOS after an overclock has failed as well.

[esojscratchem]

1 minute ago, Falkentyne said:

A2 means IDE detection error or IDE initialization error.

A board can also show "A2" in the BIOS after an overclock has failed as well.

I can't boot to BIOS - it doesn't show anything else other than A2. I haven't overclocked anything.