Thanks to my friend Terry, I was able to get a new (well, used) PSU to try out in the dead computer. Lo and behold, the computer started working properly, and there was much rejoicing. However, it was not to last. Several hours later, the computer just up and died, again, without any known cause.
Terry thinks that the problem is with the motherboard itself and I'd have to agree. The "new" PSU still works to provide power to the motherboard (unlike the original) but whenever I press the button on the front to start the system, it just makes a clunking noise and continues to sit there dead until I toggle the power switch at the back. Thing is, I can't find the problem with the motherboard. Certainly, there's nothing visibly wrong... No capacitors bloated and leaking, no shorts to the case, nothing wrong that way at all.
It's nice to know that my data isn't permanently lost, but on the other hand, the hard drive with all my development work doesn't want to function in any other computer (not even the old P2). So until I can get the computer up again, and long enough to copy the 10GB development partition over to the new hard drive, I'm still without any of my work.
