Hooked up my Mk2 through the mains adapter to load some new stuff, and nothing happened. No lights, no display, no drive spinning up - nothing.

Tested the power brick - 0V. Looks straightforward enough - I've got a few universal supplies around the place. 12V 1A should do the trick.

The unit kind of starts. Drive goes click ... click ... click in time to the front panel LED which is flashing rather than fading. There is nothing on the display. I pulled the power out because something isn't right.

Screwdriver time. Take the lid off, and there's no magic smoke smell. First positive sign. Power up again. Back to stage one. Nothing.

Check the power brick with the meter. 12V. Things aren't looking so good.

Remove the drive tray. Plug it into a 2.5" - 3.5" adapter and hook it into a PC. Drive spins up fine and is recognised by the BIOS. Getting more depressed.

No signs of burntness anywhere on the board, and no indication of magic smoke either by residue or smell.

Found a thread here about going through the jumpers. Followed this, and it appears the problem is with the 5Va circuit. Tested the terminals with a meter and there is +5V on the rear terminal and 2.6V on the front terminal.

With this jumper removed, the system comes up, complaining that there is no hard disk. We know about that.

Whilst checking this, I noticed a very quiet whining, crackling noise coming from around the area of the power input. It's only there when the 5Va jumper is in place, and the unit doesn't boot.

I guess the 5Va circuit has something to do with the hard disk as that won't spin up with the 5Va jumper removed.

I think I've pretty much exhausted everything I can do with this - I guess it's going to have to go for repair unless anyone can shine any further light on my poorly Mk2.

- Andy