Not sure what happened to my CPU

[Redline24]

I'm not even sure if it's my CPU, but it all started a few hours ago. Listening to music/surfing the net, comp froze. Rebooted, froze again within five minutes. Declocked (FX55 San Diego @ 2.7, 1.375v, 12x255) to stock settings, froze again. Reinstalled windows, froze in the non-graphical part of the setup, reboot, and now, instead of my usual harddrive ID name (Samsung SPN1041 or whatever) I have some weird symbols that look like a bunch of garbage. CPU never saw about 45c, voltages are well within spec (3.3v @ 3.34, 5v @ 5.08, 12v @ 11.84), and the system has been chugging for a good two years.

Did the overclock fry it? I don't see how it could given these decent running conditions. I'm freezing up in the BIOS, so I don't even dare and flash my motherboard (ASUS A8N-E)... any ideas? PLEASE.

 

[Redline24]

I finally forced myself to flash the BIOS, which worked.
Temporarily.

Not long after, my system bogged down, but I noticed that my HDD LED was on and solid, when I was playing a simple MP3 file. To make a long story short, I fried my IDE controller... somehow? Anyone heard of this happening before...?

Might as well get a DFI this time... second ASUS board that's quit on me.