CPU Failure on my DAW computer?!?! NOOOOO!!!! [SOLVED]

I had an unpleasant Christmas surprise...

I was poring over Facebook and watching an embedded video when all of a sudden the screen suddenly went black and the audio turned into a looped tone. My monitor went into "sleep" mode and I thought it was some glitch, so I rebooted...

When the computer went back up, I fed a blank CD-R into the drive (I was burning CDs earlier in the evening and trying to make more copies) and then the computer went blank again after about a minute after Windows (Win 7) started back up.

Sensing whether it was a Windows 7 issue or a system issue, I rebooted and booted up my XP partition that runs my DAW...
When XP booted up, the icons for "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin" were missing, and as soon as I noticed that...the screen turned black again.

Obviously this is not an OS issue. What do you think coule be the cause? CPU failure? CPU fan failure?

My big issue: My nearly-finished album is in there. I seriously doubt it's a HD failure, so I'm not horribly worried about my data, although I have no means of accessing it, and even if I did back up my data, I would need to have another system run everything again (I'm typing this on my Mac laptop, so that won't necessarily help, unless I install Windows via BootCamp or something). 

My system is over 6 years old (I built in late 2005), it's an old AthlonXP processor with 2GB RAM. I held off on getting a new system until after my album was done...

If it were a processor issue, would I just need to find the same kind of processor and I'd be good to go?

And if the fan went bad, I could just get a new one, right?

If it were RAM failure, I could just find some old RAM sticks and replace them?

Could there be other causes to the problem? What's the best way to check it out and be sure?

Heat?
John

John6528


Heat?
John

My computer isn't any hotter than usual, this is Winter too...but it could be some sort of cooling system failure.

I agree that the PSU should be looked at and tested (with normal system load) meaning, testing a PSU that's been removed from the system defeats the test results. I would also look to replace the thermal paste (CPU and cooler) as this has a tendency to lose it's heat transfer properties over time.

After 15 years of building machines... I can still count the number of defective CPUs I've encountered on a single hand.
The problem isn't the CPU, it's either the PS or the motherboard.  (This assumes you've ruled out the CPU cooler)
The PS is relatively easy to test... so I'd start there.

When my antecedent PCs gone bad, the accepted botheration is the PSU (power) unit. Get it change, 6 years is a continued time for the PSU, even admitting it may still accumulation power, but the ability had become unstable, harder to check, but the arrangement shutting off may be the sign. While you're at it, you may aswell wish to exhaustion abroad the dust, and analysis on the fans.

I just went to the local Fry's electronics store and picked up a new 600W power supply...plugged it in and...

It didn't shut down but the BIOS gave me a CPU fan warning right away. Looked at the fan and it wasn't spinning. Turned the machine off and back on, and it spun, but it gradually slowed down...should have checked that first, but I guess I wouldn't have to worry about the power supply anymore. I'm due for an upgrade once my album is done, and I'll probably give the computer (well at least transplant most of the components, my Antec case is still lookin' good) to my parents...they're even more due for an upgrade than I am.

Now I'm on the hunt for a Socket 939 CPU fan...the store I went to had one...but just my luck, they're about to close right now...oh well, at least I know what's wrong now. Thanks, folks!

Both Window 7 and XP "shut down" shortly after boot up.

 
It is not clear from the description if the computer is shutting down or if you are just losing video contact. Hard drive "activity," meaning movement of the heads not just spinning of the platters, would tend to suggest that the computer is still running.  You do not say if Win 7 continues to run in safe mode or if you lose video after a while in safe. If you keep video running in safe mode, then it is less likely that you have a hardware problem. You might still have a video card hardware problem that is not manifested by the low resolution default windows driver that loads in safe mode, but is brought out by accessing functions called by the card-specific driver you installed with windows. It is very very unlikely that you have simultaneously corrupted video drivers in both XP and Win7 installations.
 
If you can get into Win 7 in safe mode you can check the logs to see if there is anything there that might help.