Update: I burned a new live CD and have been trying to get it to boot. The screen has not changed at all-- no blinking cursors, prompts, or illumination. External monitors will not work, and booting into grub or the bios is not working. When the boot CD is in the drive and the power goes on it sounds like it gets mounted, but there is no way to get around the screen that doesn't work. I feel like I'm driving a car without a steering wheel. I'll try to swap the hard drive and see where that takes me. I'm getting desperate!