Following a power failure, the PC rebooted as expected, but Packet Express did NOT auto-start, despite being in the start group, until the Password/Pin box popped up following a <Return> key press. This is not the expected behavior (the start items should start on their own). Exploring why that is an issue. In the mean time, the PC is now on a UPS (it was on a battery supply with auto fail-over).
My Dell's power supply let the magic smoke out yesterday. I have a new one that should be showing up this afternoon along with some thermal grease for the CPU, which was all dried out.