(Follows on from here)
So I left my computer off for 24 hours, so that I’d have a nice stable test. I unplugged the hard drive again, and this time I plugged the DVD drive into the primary IDE interface on the motherboard (no other IDE devices connected)
Result: bad behaviour.
I then switched off and transferred the connector to the secondary IDE interface, leaving the hard drive still unplugged.
Result: more bad behaviour.
I’m pretty certain that the problem is on the motherboard. I suppose my next test is with just the hard drive plugged in, so that I can rule out the DVD drive as the culprit, but I feel like that is just a formality really. I might also try it with the power supply from Karen’s computer – a “known good” – though this power supply is actually only a year old (it was my half-hearted attempt at fixing this problem last year).
New motherboard. Question is, do I try to get a motherboard that will be compatible with my 3-year old CPU and RAM, which are perfectly sufficient for my purposes, or do I take this opportunity to get nice fresh young components. If the CPU croaks in a year’s time then I don’t really want to be tied down to a Socket A, do I?