SWMBO's Compaq 'pooter was bought S/H and has been absolutely super - fast, quiet and reliable. Last night I unplugged the external speakers to use elsewhere and some while later found the machine was 'frozen'. No mouse movement, no keyboard input - zilch!! Ctl,Alt,Del had no effect so did the 4 second switch-off. Switched on after a few seconds - partial boot then 'freeze'. Repeated and text message reporting no IDE drive present. Continued in that vein for several more attempts. Gave up and went to bed
This morning, similar results, so tried putting an XP cd in the drive and restarting. Whoopee! normal desktop appears
but then, tried mouse - frozen
. Unplug machine and open up to remove suspected failed HD. Lifted HD mounting frame and ... power supply plug fell off!!
Replaced it but it was very loose. Some applied high tech input (read pin bending) reconnect and
all's well again.
Why the post?
Just an example of an unlikely source for a problem which I was beginning to believe was due to all sorts of other causes. Had the plug not fully detached, I probably wouldn't have considered it as a possibility. So, cautionary tale, of a sort and happy SWMBO and happy me