[heero_yuy]

My main PC which is also my media server: It had been behaving oddly resetting or powering down out of the blue. I changed the PSU but the problems continued until it wouldn't start up at all. At least it ran long enough to get an up-to-date backup of critical data.

Seems a fault in the old PSU (+5v SB was 6.2v) had damaged the power control and reset circits on the Mobo. ( nForce3-A)

I'd almost resigned myself to a new build when on the off chance I googled the Mobo and found a tested and guaranteed one on ebay from Riga in Latvia. Amazing as it's 15 years old. Arrived beautifully packed with a CD of the test photographs.

Fitted and it works fine. (So far, fingers crossed ) The CPU supplied with it is an Athlon 64, my old one was a Sempron so a bit more horsepower under the hood. The installed XP SP3 was quite happy to accept the new CPU.