Dead ... kaput ... non-functional. Damn.
I tired everything that seemed plausible, but was unable to coax it back to life. I suppose that the very deadness of it was useful, as it suggests to me that the problem is in the power supply. After all, were that working, the on button would light up when pushed and other stuff would at least make a gesture at trying to function before failing, but I get nothing from trying to turn the system on, so my guess is that the 200w power supply that this thing shipped with has given up the ghost.
I'm currently updating from down at the CTC (where I had a 9am "peer group" session), and will run up from here to Circuit City which has some 350w units in stock.
What's really bad with this situation is that when MY computer's down, our whole wireless network at home goes down ... I'm not sure why (the wireless signal is OK, just the internet connection is screwed), but I'm under a lot of pressure to get this fixed NOW since The Wife can't do her e-mail, Daughter #1 can't do parts of her homework, etc., etc., etc. Makes me crazy!
Of course, if it is a toasted power supply, that might have been what was causing me problems with Second Life, so if I fix this, I may end up fixing that as well. Keep your fingers crossed for me!