[techtalk] Motherboard repair?

[Eric Richard Turner]

I purchased an Asus P2B-DS motherboard 13 months ago (with a 12 month
warranty) for $413, and built a nice dual-processor system. It has been
working fine for the past year, and I haven't had to do any work on it.  
Last shutdown everything was normal. Now when I power on, it won't POST
(it never even gets to the point of showing anything on the screen) and
it's only one month out of warranty (ugh... this is a consumer's
nightmare!!!!). Strangely, my computer won't shut down when I press the
power switch, so I have to unplug it. When I plug it back in I also don't
have to press the power switch: it just powers up (but still won't POST)
by itself. Now the really strange part: if I clear the CMOS (by shorting
the two solder points as outlined in the owners manual), then plug the
machine back in, it doesn't power up automatically. So I press the switch
to power up, it doesn't POST, won't power down, ad infinitum...

To figure out what the problem is, I removed the hard drives. I also
removed the extra cards (i.e. sound, NIC, etc...). Basically all that is
in the case is the power supply, video card, motherboard, RAM, and
processors. I tested the video card, RAM and processors in another
machine. I tested the power supply with a volt meter, and tested the
switch with an ohm meter. The problem has to be on the motherboard!

I contacted my vendor, but they won't do anything because the board is out
of warranty. Any suggestions? Anyone know if I can get this repaired? I
really cannot afford to buy another board (poor starving student, blah
blah blah).

Thanks,
Eric R. Turner

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