I don't know how to explain it, but I think I ruined my computer (or a component in my computer) by BURNING A CD. I'm trying to troubleshoot what's wrong... I'll give as much detail as I can and hopefully you all can help me figure this mess out

I was listening to music through Frostwire and burning an ISO to a CD-RW through Nero 7. Suddenly everything locked up completely (couldn't move mouse, time in taskbar didn't change, couldn't ctrl+alt+delete) and the sound coming out of the speaker was just a fraction of a second of the song repeating over and over again like a broken record. As frustrating as it was to have that RW now corrupted, I figured I'd restart the computer and wipe the disc and reburn it. I hit the restart button on the case, I get past the BIOS and such. I get to a black screen with nothing but a cursor in the middle. I can't move the cursor... it's locked up again. I reboot. This time I at least get to my desktop and the taskbar loads, but again I can't move the mouse... and ARGH, it has locked up again - the keyboard does nothing and the LED on my computer isn't doing anything anymore. I try yet another reboot, and every time since then I cannot get past this screen without the loading bar freezing during the loading proces.

So I try a few new things. I try starting it in safe mode. It loads most of the drivers... and somewhere during that it locks up and never gets out of DOS. I try running a test on my RAM with an Ubuntu disc at this point to see if my RAM is shot (as suspected, it's flawless). I try Ubuntu through a live CD. It too locks up just like XP at the exact same point (the OS loading screen).

So I've come to the conclusion that my processor is toast. I must have overloaded it when I was listening to music and burning a disc  ​

I don't know, can anyone offer their thoughts?

So I've come to the conclusion that my processor is toast. I must have overloaded it when I was listening to music and burning a disc 

No.

Sounds like your Windows installation was corrupted somehow when your computer locked up the first time. If you have a Windows disk around you can do a repair install, which will restore all the OS files to their original state. You can do this without reformatting. If you don't have a normal Windows disk around, and you have a pre-built computer (from HP, Dell, etc.) then you might have a restore CD. That CD is likely to blow away your whole hard disk, so before you use it you should back up important files from your hard disk by connecting the hard disk to another computer.

Ubuntu not starting properly is quite likely just a coincidence.

Your processor isn't toast, or else you wouldn't even get past post screen.

Try unplugging your CD rom drive and seeing if your system starts. If that doesn't work, then I suggest trying it once with the sound card out, then once with the video card out, then the network/other cards out, and then with each stick of ram by itself. Also make sure your system temperatures are good, and all the fans are fully working and unobstructed.

And if THAT doesn't work, try repairing/reinstalling windows like doozer said.

Thanks for the info guys. I can't test anything right now but I do have a few additional details that I found out from yesterday:

-Computer also occasionally locks up on the BIOS screen (the graphic that shows your mobo type/manufacturer or whatever).
-All the fans are spinning, including the vital CPU fan. In fact, they all seem to spin as fast as they can until right before it locks up when one of the fans goes quieter.

Yeah that sounded like a problem I had with my old computer, It would post and get past the BIOS sometimes and when it did get to the desktop it would freeze then reboot and over and over and over again. So I ran a memory test and it got thousands of error. If the memory test came back with no errors either a reinstall of windows or a repair could help. You also might want to try a BIOS flash that seems to fix lots of problem. If you have installed a new hardware devise and didn't flash the BIOS that could cause problems.

I'd say you broke your HD.
Maybe that'd explain Ubuntu failing to load as well.

I'd say you broke your HD.
Maybe that'd explain Ubuntu failing to load as well.

That does sound like a likely solution but that doesn't really makes sense. How the hell do you break a HD buy running programs. I mean you really cant overload a HD I assume that the HD isn't very old otherwise there really shouldn't be a HD problem. Sounds more like a Windows, ram, and or proc, problem. I still say try the Windows repair and if that dosen't work then it probably is a proc issue.

That does sound like a likely solution but that doesn't really makes sense. How the hell do you break a HD buy running programs. I mean you really cant overload a HD I assume that the HD isn't very old otherwise there really shouldn't be a HD problem.

You seem to imply in this quote that the computer stopped working due to the number or types of programs he was running. This is ridiculous.

I figured the HDD is fine because the Ubuntu install CD doesn't actually write anything to the hard disk until the user chooses to install the operating system, as far as I know.

I figured the HDD is fine because the Ubuntu install CD doesn't actually write anything to the hard disk until the user chooses to install the operating system, as far as I know.

No, you're correct. I only tried live booting it, not installing, and judging by the fact that the PC locks up even when not accessing the HDD, I'd assume the HDD is absolutely fine.

I said it sound likely I never said that was the problem. Im still sticking with the windows repair or a processor problem.

Okay guys sorry for the double post but I just talked to my hardware professor, he says to run a HD scan to see if it to see if all the sectors are good. If that inst the problem its could be that the heat sink inst seated properly and that could cause the proc. to overheat and crash the comp. but if thats good he said that a Windows repair or reinstall might fix it.

I seriously can't think of anything else.
It is most certainly not CPU or RAM, what else could it be? (If it was CPU you wouldn't get past the BIOS even, usually the same for RAM or you'd just get a BSOD)

I seriously can't think of anything else.
It is most certainly not CPU or RAM, what else could it be? (If it was CPU you wouldn't get past the BIOS even, usually the same for RAM or you'd just get a BSOD)

That's really unfortunate, because I have nothing but bad news.

Windows XP repair install locks up.
I ran a HDD scan utility and there are 0 bad sectors on my HDD.
Ubuntu locks up just like XP during startup (verified by another live boot test)

This is awful, my computer is my life. Please, any other suggestions from anyone would be much appreciated.

New bit of important info:

I migrated the HDD to our family computer and it got into XP just fine (although this family PC was a Vista PC so the thing was like SHIT SHIT DRIVERS lol). Anyway, this lets us know for sure that it's a hardware issue and something has indeed gone bad in my PC as a result of the aforementioned.

It's down to the mobo or processor, both a bitch on the wallet (luckily 939 so not really).

Man neither of those alternatives make any sense really. The likelihood of a processor or motherboard going bad but still being just good enough to get you partway through the Windows boot is practically zero! When those things fail, they usually fail hard.

I'm scratching my head on this one.

I think I'm going to attempt to flash the BIOS. I don't know much about BIOS (and this seems really unlikely) but maybe something in them got messed up during the first lock up?

Can anyone recommend or condemn this course of action? I'm also going to try to get my hands on another 939 processor (my friend has a spare 3400+ but he doesn't know if it works) and we'll see what kinds of results I get from that.

If your computer is in the habit of locking up I wouldn't attempt to flash your BIOS, because if it locks up during the flash, and the computer was salvageable before, it definitely won't be afterward.

Actually I'm inclined to think it could be the mobo.
I had a semi-bad mobo for some time before I switched to what I've got now...

Also, Doozer is half-right: If your pc locks up during flashing, you've bricked your motherboard... HOWEVER, you can usually buy correctly-flashed bios-chips on ebay... And changing the chip is well... As easy as it comes. (You don't even need tools really, just something to apply some force on the chip so you can take it out)

Hrmm, I will have to look into getting one of these pre-flashed chips.

And uh, yeah, I won't flash myself o_O. Hadn't thought about it locking up during a flash... which would be BAD.

YEAY

Got it fixed! The problem was something in the BIOS. I was sifting through the BIOS menu and I noticed something that said "Load Fail Safe Configuration". I thought, "Hey, why not." The computer rebooted and it made it into XP! All the USB and LAN and stuff was disabled so I had to reset it to optimized configuration but now everything works!

This is an epic day for the hero indeed.