Replaced the PSU on my Acer HTPC. Bought from 7Komp. Excellent service and spares seem to be very competitively priced too. Thought that the originally installed PSU was working okay further to an electrolytic capacitor having been replaced however unfortunately the repair hasn't been a success. Will need to delve into this further.

Found the Notes from a Nerd Blog invaluable where replacing the PSU was concerned. No idea what the spare flying lead with 2-Pin connector on the end is for but understand it's not used on an Acer iDea 500 but is used on an Acer iDea 510.

Once this machine is running reasonably stable upgrading the CPU from a 1.6GHz to something like a 2.0GHz Socket-M CPU. Posts on AVForums reveal various successes on the subject of upgrading this particular HTPC. Interesting stuff. Considering this machine was originally sold from companies such as eBuyer during 2006 this still seems to be quite a reasonable HTPC. Personally failed dismally to get the VFD to work under Windows-8 however will need to try and get to the bottom of this again.