Crash on bootup help please.

[Anfini03]

Earlier today I was working on my computer and decided to reboot. When I did so, everything was normal until windows was going to come up. It never did. I got the Windows XP loading screen, progress bar, and the screen went to black as if to load the OS, but the system hangs there. Even the BIOS froze a little after. I had to remove the CMOS battery to get the BIOS going again, but I am unable to get into windows. I have no overclocking or anything goofy that should cause it to hang. It was working one minute, and not the next. (if you had a dollar for every time you heard that, right?) Anyways, I am considering reinstalling windows, but am unsure if this will solve it. I cannot even load safe mode or a safe mode with command prompt. I can access the BIOS, but not much else. Presently I am about to reupdate the BIOS to the newest version so I can change the boot order around in case I need to boot from a CD and reinstall Windows. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing the problem and/or possible solutions? If reinstalling Windows is what it takes, then so be it. I'm not sure if Windows just up and crashed or not. I have tried removing certain pieces of hardware, such as both memory sticks, separately, and the system still hangs when it drops the loading screen to load the OS. System specs are below. Thank you.

ASUS P4G8x
512 Corsair
450 Antec Power Supply
P4 2.4 Ghz
Ti4600 NVidia
Audigy Sound
Three hard drives. One IBM, two Western Digital.
IBM being the primary master.

Could this be a fried processor instance? The BIOS still registers the processor speed, but... I just don't know.

Tech Support: "Hello, tech support, may I help you?"
Customer: (in a thick Russian accent) "Yes. Monitor is working fine but has sparks and smoke flying out back. Is ok?"

 

[TheCh0s3n1]

Does POST report any hardware problems (beeps)? If not, it's possible that XP cannot find the necessary boot files.

Boot from your Windows XP CD and enter the Recovery Console. If you are asked for an Administrator password, and you know that you have not set up one, then just press Enter. Once you are at the command prompt, type FIXMBR, then press Enter. Reboot.

This could be a shot in the dark, but it's worth a try. Something like this usually means that certain system files have either been corrupted or deleted, usually by virus activity. If Windows successfully boots up after using FIXMBR, run a virus scan.