Oddity?
 

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:mad::confused::ugh:
This morning, similar results, so tried putting an XP cd in the drive and restarting. Whoopee! normal desktop appears:D:ok: but then, tried mouse - frozen:(:oh::hmm:. Unplug machine and open up to remove suspected failed HD. Lifted HD mounting frame and ... power supply plug fell off!!:eek::eek: Replaced it but it was very loose. Some applied high tech input (read pin bending) reconnect and :ok::ok::D 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 :ok::D

Time was when I could have expected favors from the Rivetess if I'd done something like that. Nice G&T and me slippers fetched. (Yeah, right.:rolleyes:)

Golden rule when PCs have weird issues: Make sure all connections connected.