Computer Fixed

The Dell technician came by yesterday, and the upshot is that I'm back in business with my home computer. It's still not entirely clear to me what happened, but I've now got a new power box, mother board and front panel (all replaced under warranty), so with any luck the issue disappeared with the removal of those original pieces (one of which was apparently the culprit). I just thought I'd mention that the folks at Dell could not have been more accommodating in taking care of my problem, from the operator who walked me through various troubleshooting steps over the phone when the problem first materialized last Saturday, through the dispatcher who left me several messages tracking the shipment of the replacement parts, to the local tech guy who came and installed the new hardware. Everyone was courteous and patient, and in the end everything worked out. One hears so many horror stories about tech support of this type that I wasn't looking forward to the hassle of dealing with this; but in the end, the process could not have been less stressful and everything worked out well in the end. So kudos to Dell-- I look forward to doing business with them in the future.