Stripped computer down. Went over all contacts with isopropyl alcohol. Cleaned up processors and reapplied heatsink compound. Hoovered the bastard. STILL DOES NOT WORK. Ordered new motherboard. Not happy.
This is out of date. The new motherboard I ordered was no use as it's a server board and doesn't have the right PCI-X slot or whatever it is for my video card. It was a "fucked" purchase, wasn't paying attention. £20 down the drain. It seems next to impossible to get a socket 940 motherboard these days, I have a Tyan K8WE, saw one second hand on eBay, in the US, for about £250. Jesus!
Anyway, all is not lost as my computer works just fine with only one CPU, so 2 cores. Tried swapping CPUs, it's the board that's faulty, only runs with one CPU, which means I can only populate half the RAM sockets, so only 8GB. SteamOS works fine, and Metro Last Light works just amazingly, graphics up to 11, no audio stuttering which I was getting before. So the new graphics card made all the difference and even losing 2 CPU cores and 8GB RAM has had no negative effect, it all just works beautifully. I'm annoyed about losing the ability to use 2 CPUs but it's made absolutely no practical difference.
So quite happy with my Linux gaming set up, and it's very very quiet now for the first time in the 8 years I've had this box, thanks to the Scythe coolers. I've got a spare one now, cost £30. I've actually got quite a lot of stuff I need to put on eBay now.
I got a raspberry pi ages ago and it's now sitting in the living room connected to my wireless headphones. Connects to my file server via NFS, runs MPD (Music Player Daemon) which I can remote control in various ways, so now I have a low power system for my headphones, very happy with it. But I can't wear the headphones in the shower, so I got another raspberry pi and I've connected that up to the stereo I've got at the bathroom door, which is where my router sits, so it's powered from the USB port on the router.
As my first pi is also hooked up to my amp in the living room, I thought it would be cool if I could synchronize audio output on them, so I hear the same thing in the living room and the bathroom. Like the expensive Sonos system, or the cheaper Logitech Squeezebox system... Quick google, squeezebox server (aka "logitech media server") is actually open source and there are open source clients which can turn a Pi into the equivalent of a Logitech squeezebox radio, so I've done that, and it works very nicely too
