I've got a custom built PC using an ASUS P5E motherboard and Intel Q6600 CPU. I plugged in my mp3 player to the USB port yesteday, and when I came back to the machine after about an hour or so, the Windows 8 automatic repair message was on the screen. It seemed to stick there for an hour, after which I decided to just hit reset and try and figure out what was going on.

However, the machine rebooted to a black screen before even getting to the BIOS, with the monitor lights just blinking indicating there was no signal. Tried powering down completely, waiting a few minutes and then powering back up again with no difference; black screen with monitor lights blinking.

Tried leaving it on for a while and then pinging from another machine or accessing it via something like LogMeIn, but everything showed the machine as being offline. There were also no error beeps or anything like that. Also tried unplugging all of the memory and rebooting and that also caused no error beeps. Removed one of the display cards and left the other one in there, and still only a black screen.

I'm inclined to think that the motherboard or CPU is fried, but there is no indication of damage on any components and the CPU fan seems to be working fine as it always has, so overheating seems unlikely. It's also plugged into a surge protector. The motherboard also has a green light which still lights up.

As everything was still working fine before hitting the reset button during Windows 8 automatic repair screen, at which point everything stopped working, it seems unlikely that this problem is down to component failure.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this or have any ideas on what could be causing this behavior?