AMAZING! Strangest hardware problem ever???

[Hodgkinson]

Have a look at the flexi-track headers, make sure none of the flexi-tracks have come out and that any securing leavers are fully locked into place ;-) They're notorious for problems...

EDIT: I see a boing ball :-D Is your relative an Amigan, too?

[Hodgkinson]

>Where do you see a Boing Ball?

Background, right in the middle (Well, it sure looks like one...)

The thing is that if I came to problably ANY forum or talked to anyhardware "exper" and said, "Hey, I have this idea. I want to make a hardware "Pause" button on the front of my case that just puts everything on hold inlcuding dowloads and HD activity." I bet anything people would say I was crazy and that is impossible! Well, I guess it is possible.  

Yeh, you've found something rather special there ;-) Only thing I can think of is if it's somehow holding an interrupt line or clock signal somewhere in a particular state that just happens not to affect screen refresh...And that any downloads that are being attempted just keep retrying the data block until the laptop is “unpaused”…

Hodgkinson.