Susan Hastings wrote:
won't switch on at all. he presses the little button on the front, and nothing happens. A hardware rather than software problem.

a few days ago the ethernet card wouldn't work, then it started working again.

mysterious failures, may be psychological (perhaps he secretly wants a Mac)

Hi Susan

Pop the ethernet card out and see if it starts.
If not, pop the graphics card in and out.

Keep trying things like that untill you are a technician;)

(...mac mini...)

Have fun
Paul