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nickel is a bugger to coil, imho get a pack of horizontal coil Ni200 OCC heads to start off with, they last ages, and when dead you can recoil with a vertical coil as per the how to in the tips n tricks section, as the spaced coil wrapped round a machine screw is easier to coil and wick than a standard rta build imho..
avoid the newer vertical occ coil heads tho as they are not the same 2 part design which complicates the diy recoil.

also depending on the bios, you may be able to overcome the lack of Function buttons by using the tab key to switch focus to options? try ctrl+tab or alt+tab to switch between function screens or menu items..

next thing to look for is a bootable cd/dvd image like a *nix system you can use for h/w diagnostics, to run from a cd/dvd drive


the tools im (was) familiar with are over a decade+ behind the times, google turned up a few solutions
www.howtogeek.com/howto/31804/the-10-cleverest-ways-to-use-linux-to-fix-your-windows-pc/ for starters using
"linux diagnostic tools for windows"
as a google search 

with no drives attached boot up and report if thebios display remains stable without switching itself off..

the above behaviour - booting-halting/crashing may be indicitive of a h/w fault, has the base unit taken any kicks or knocks? if so something may? have been shocked loose???

you could try opening the case, leaving the 240v mains cable plugged in BUT TURNED OFF AT THE SOCKET before grabbing a metal rail of the case in one hand to earth yourself and apply a little pressure to all cards, ram modules, and ribbon cables/disk cables and all the molex power connectors one by one to ensure they are all connected and making good contact.

retry powering up and listen for any beeps.. if you get any note down any pattern ( 1 long rapid on off, etc.. )

then if more than 1 ram module is present , try removing one (populate from bank/slot 0 up)

to eliminate a disk error, you can simply unplug the disks power the puter should boot and hang indicatin a missing disk/boot partition error though you may need to enter the bios to make the boot 'noisy' or not quiet (its been a while ,,)

Think i may buy some to try.. Cheers prr

www.fasttech.com/products/3033/10018327/3784501

thanks for any input