So my computer, which is a custom built little slip of a thing with something like 80G of memory and two fans and mondo processor power, RAM, yadda yadda yadda (built for me about 3 years ago by a friend who lives in another state) and fits inside a cool red metal box barely larger than a shoebox, is giving me problems.  It has started inexplicably hanging on startup, in that Windows 2000 screen where it has that little progress meter across the bottom.  Sometimes it gets 2/3 of the way and stops, sometimes half, sometimes it makes it only one little square.  Then again, sometimes it just zings right up.  Today it zinged right up.  I happily opened my email and browser and was reading a cool message from Wayne Allen Sallee about the Monstro Cafe in Chicago, then for no reason this baby shut down and rebooted.

The friend who built this thing offered a suggestion or two and said he would put together a procedure to fix the boot problem, but he has other things on his mind right now (his Dad passed away up in Illinois). 

::sigh::