Boy, does some of that sound familiar. I once thought my whole system was croaked...couldn't boot. Turned off the machine, tried again. No luck. Then I turned the machine off and PULLED THE PLUG to make sure it was really and truly dead. Somewhere in the guts of the machine, a scrambled persistent memory bit finally died, and the machine booted normally when I plugged it back in. If I hadn't remembered reading that somewhere...

Also spend about $2,000 and a lot of time trying to get my Eurovan's electric problems repaired by the dealer. No luck. Went to a garage mechanic someone recommended. He kept it overnight, did some tests, and replaced a goddam sixty cent green ground wire under the hood. Bingo.

Keep up the great work! Again, if you need bucks for this, I got 'em.