Yes, it's quite a pleasant surprise. But it happens once in a while.
Thanks for the info posted. It helps. I'm still getting ready to replace some of my MB capacitors, which have bulging ends. I think that's the cause of my occasional boot up hangs. I've replaced the power supply and no difference. Also have replaced some of the fans. All those are working ok, and the temps are ok.
If compatible MB's were available for my 8 yr old PC, I'd go that route. $100 or so is no prob. But much of the data I have on my hard drives depends on a lot of added apps to run. And my apps and even OS settings depend on the components, peripherals and drivers installed. Most new MB's don't have enough of the right type of slots for my cards, etc.
Rather than a new MB, I'll just get a new PC, probably when they get the dust to settle down enough on Vista. I like apple pc's ease of use and reliability, but I don't like their proprietary (and expensive) hardware any more than I like being forced to upgrade my OS by Microsoft every 3-4 yrs.