[Tygur]

Here's the problem: All my apps would suddenly start freezing up all of a sudden one by one. It seems that they're freezing up when they try to access the hard drive. The hard drive led either remains constantly on or constantly off (not blinking). I am forced to push the reset button, because shutting down doesn't work. Then when the computer tries to restart, it doesn't detect either hard drive on the primary ide controller. So I open the computer and poke around (literally). I just make sure everything's plugged in all the way. It is, just like it was last time the problem came up. But when I close the computer back up and turn it on, it starts up like nothing was wrong (the hard drives are detected now). I've tried just shutting it off and turning it back on, but it seems that it doesn't work again uless I reach in and poke my finger around. I suppose it's possible that it just needs to be off for as long as it takes for me to open it and close it.

This did happen in the past, but it only happened maybe once or twice in the past couple months. Now it happened several times today, so I'm ready to start replacing hardware. But I don't know what to blame.

This might be heat-related, because it has been very hot here lately, and the computer isn't in an air-conditioned room. Also, I tried changing the IDE cable, but it didn't fix anything.

I'm thinking about blaming the power supply. Does that sound right? Also, what else can it be?