Somewhat ouchy indeed. But thanks! I'm sure this'll get settled one way or another.

As of right now, it seems that the re-install didn't help; the real problem is probably somewhere in the hardware. Well, on the plus side, I now have a fully up-to-date backup, so data loss is unlikely even if the machine fails completely. And also, once again thank goodness for buddies who understand these things. I'll need to ask someone to take a look at it, one way or another this will get fixed.