I have seen an old PC misbehave somewhat like this before. It was an MSI mothrboard, if memory is not faulty this morning...
Thing boots up but there is a "suite" of MSI tools that monitor various operating conditions, but it sometimes seems that they get into something of a tizz and appear to start looping, such that in a few seconds the CPU activity indicator goes critical and the machine then locked up.
I wonder if this is something that might be happening with yours? Thing is, that before Windows starts proper ( and thus loads and then reports processes in the Task Manager) the whole shooting match has effectively seized up?
Unlikely I know, but if it IS an MSI Mobo, then this might help you flag the culprit.
Conan