Yes, what happened was that I methodically and painstakingly..threw the board in the trash can. A shame because the board was working fine and I had the bright idea to switch cases from the dingy faded case it was in to a nice shiny newer looking case.
Only thing I can surmise is that the newer case has some "spacers" adhesived under where one end of the motherboard would sit..the end where there are no motherboard screwholes in the case. I put a couple of plastic standoffs in the mobo to make sure it didnt flex downward or short on the case...when I screwed the board down..the plastic standoffs hit the plastic "spacers" and flexed the board slightly upwards (concave from top view). All I can assume at this point is that I somehow damaged the board in this way or perhaps just old fashoined static.
I am going in on my off day in a few minutes to flash the BIOS on 3 of my personal abit mobos so you can bet I will be a little more careful.
(Naturally the boss just happened to wander into the tech area while I was trying to revive the blown board..lol. He (making conversation) says "what computer is this"..lol. Also naturally I hadnt asked him if he wanted me to transfer the board although he did agree that the new case looked better)
Live and learn. JP