StudioQ wrote:Update: Ghosts in the machine are very capricious.
Idem for dying HDD's - I'd not be surprised if the two were linked.
captainamerica wrote:See my Thu May 03, 2012 9:51 pm Thread from "d8b Freezes every 30-60days"
...had similar boot-up issues until I glued down the big power connectors
Also worth checking out - even though you wrote in the opening post that you've already done that (inside the console, as well?). Doing twice will probably not hurt.
I assume your HDD is the original one, which is approaching its end of life. Make a backup as soon as you can, even if you do not replace the HDD - it will be impossible later, when the HDD dies.