I put all the original parts back in and it's working exactly as it was, so that's the power supply and GPU confirmed not at fault.

I'm not going as far as putting stuff back into my main PC again but I can easily test the RAM in that, and if I feel really enthusiastic the old CPU should work in the new board too, so I can eventually isolate this to the processor or the motherboard.

Of course, experience tells me that the most likely outcome here is that every component will test ok in isolation and if I then put everything together again it will work perfectly.

Because computers can get fucked.

Yesterday, after doing my main PC upgrade I put its old board and video card into my games PC box with its Windows SSD and let it update.

This worked perfectly. No notes.

Then after one last minor update, I forget what, I rebooted and - it didn't start up.

It still doesn't start, and it's not a Windows issue. I've put in different RAM, different video card, disconnected the SSD entirely - I can't even get to BIOS setup.

I reached the point of checking PSU voltages. I'm out of ideas at this point, the only things left are motherboard and CPU - which have been a working pair for years.

Fucking computers.

Fucking computers.

Urgh, just got a service notification from Aussie Broadband that "your services may experience a change to your IPv6 addressing" in a maintenance window on Thursday and if my prefix changes I'm going to have a busy Friday chasing down a bunch of crappy little issues.

Fingers fucking crossed.

Great, my UPS has a big red light on it next to a battery label. I don't need this to deal with right now.

I put new batteries in it not long ago, they should not be doing this. Grr.