A strategy for dealing with a flaky computer

I did try a number of different approaches to fixing the problem
before doing a new system install, the machine was simply too important
to me to spend any more time messing around finding a solution.
I still have the old system disk around, although I have very little
motivation to try to debug it now that I have a well-functioning system
with a newer version of Ubuntu. Sometimes the Windows "wipe and
reload" method is the right solution.