Things worked OK, more or less, until last month when all of a sudden the repurposed computer started turning itself off unprompted. I could still boot it back up, but after a few minutes it would shut down again on its own even if I wasn't stressing it with any operations. Then it stopped booting up, and after that it wouldn't even beep or POST at all.
Over time, the WMC system has built up a store of hundreds of recorded programs, most of them protected, so as you can imagine I really really would like to save this machine. Based on my (imperfect) knowledge of such things and on the research I've done, here is a list of the measures that I have tried during troubleshooting:
- Dusted the inside of the PC case with compressed air
Checked all the connections to the motherboard
Plugged the power cord to a different electrical outlet
Tried a different power cord
Replaced the CMOS battery with a fresh one
Reset the CMOS
Removed RAM sticks
Took out the graphics card
Replaced the power supply unit
Wiped the old thermal paste off the CPU and applied new paste
Replaced the motherboard (with a matching one), using the original CPU
Replaced the CPU (with a matching one)
As far as I can tell, having replaced so many major components I have pretty much a whole new computer inside the case... and still, the thing won't boot up. Before giving up, what's left to try?