I have this old Dell OptiPlex running 98SE with 256 and it is coasting on a 'wing and a prayer'. I boot up every am when I get to work, and about 1 time out of 4 it will go thru the boot-up routine and before it gets to the screen that asks me for my passsword, it turns off. Just shurt down and all the power lights turn off. Its as if I had shut it down. Then I re-boot and it boots in safe mode. I never hit F-8 or requested safe mode, but it just goes there.
Then I hit the resart button and it boots up in normal mode (most of the time). I dunno why, it just does. Its not worth taking into my fixit guys caus I know they'll tell me that for ten dollars more than fixing it, I could get a rebuilt one with XP and more RAM. but it still works and does what I need it to do (mostly). Medical bills and other expenses haver put a new CPU (that's all I really need) down low on the priority list.