I was tampering with the i/o ports of my computer (an UMID BZ notebook), specifically with the embedded controller and ACPI, in an attempt to switch some deactivated on-board hardware on. When I rebooted, the computer failed to boot. In fact, there is no sign anymore that it is even reacting to the power button.
Can it really be that by writing the wrong byte to the embedded controller port I destroyed my hardware?