It's a fine distinction, and over time we'll gain many more 3k+ editors than can vote to close and open questions, and this line will shift. There will be many comparable questions that will remain open and many others that will be closed, and it will always be a source of friction. But this website isn't meant to cater to every computer and hardware problem - only those that really only exist in, or can best be solved in, the IT and sysadmin domain.

Hardware and software problems on a single case basis are not particularly sysadmin or IT related. If you had 500 new computers and 500 monitors and they were not compatible but should be, then it might be applicable, but in your case you have hardware that used to work, nothing changed in your setup, and now doesn't work. It's not a question that requires sysadmin or IT expertise - just computer repair expertise. While the skills needed overlap, this site is focused on those questions that are explicitly and wholly within the IT and sysadmin domain.

As soon as someone lists IRC channels that apply to individual categories above, I will. Adding links to IRC software isn't going to resolve someone's problem - if they know so little about IRC that they need help finding software, they will have no idea what to do when they start the program. Links to IRC servers and channels for particular topics above would be appropriate.