BIOS update killed my MS-6728 Neo-2-S mainboard, please help..

Question

1. I successfully booted my system and installed dual boot to Win2k Server and WinXP Pro.
2. In XP Pro, I installed basic drivers and updated the rest through Live Update 3.
3. After installing MSI software I began experiencing lockups whenever I would try to restart (start, shutdown, restart) in XP Pro.
4. I decide to update the BIOS. Original version was AMI 1.1.
5. I update through live update 3 and it creates backup file AMIBIOS.ROM on a floppy diskette, no sweat I should be able to restore right?
6. I download the 1.5x Beta BIOS and the newer update utility ADSFI708.EXE and place them on same floppy diskette as AMIBIOS.ROM (the backup BIOS).
7. I restart computer and boot from Win98 SE boot disk.
8. I insert the floppy with the 1.5x BIOS update and I execute the BIOS update. The update proceeds without incident. I wait an extra 30 seconds after its finished before restarting.
9. I restart and the system BIOS screen comes up and claims there's a misconfiguration in BIOS. I hit F1 to go into setup and it has reset all the options I normally set (boot order, wether numlock is ON or OFF, etc). I set these very simple options and ONLY these options the way I like them. I have NOT tweaked voltage, timings, or anything of the nature. All settings except for simple ones like numlock on/off are set to autodetect or base settings.
10. I exit out of BIOS and get a black screen.
11. I restart the computer and get a black screen again. The fans on the mobo and the colored LEDs are on, but the system isn't booting.
12. I figure no problem I've read about this and I have the AMIBIOS.ROM backup floppy handy with the 1.1 BIOS that Live Update 3 backed up for me.
13. I shut off the computer and remove the memory. I short the CMOS clearing jumper. I turn on the computer. BIOS/CMOS should be cleared now yes?
14. I put just 1 stick of GEIL 512mb PC3700 RAM back in and insert the recovery disk.
15. I start computer and spam CTRL+HOME keys. Floppy drive starts to read. After a while it beeps 4 times.
16 I remove BIOS recovery disk, put both sticks of RAM in, and restart computer.
17. Black screen still.
18. I repeat steps 13-17 several (8+) times. I go so far as to a) Remove video card b) try different slots for RAM and c) remove the CMOS battery, all in an effort to clear whatever the problem is.
It's still not working. The PS powers up. The fans spin. The dancing colored LEDs on the mainboard fan go off. But no BIOS screen. No POST. No beeps.
Can anyone point out anything I missed or is my board dead and I need to RMA it?
System specifications:
Mainboard: MSI NEO-2-S (MSI 6728)
VGA: MSI Geforce 4 TI-4200 64mb
RAM: GeiL 2x512 PC-3700 matched pair
Power Supply: 300 W
CPU: P4-2.4C
No overclocking/overtiming/overvolting - stock settings
Thanks in advance.
Chris

Answer 1

Ok, maybe someone can answer this question on clearing the CMOS.
The wording in the manual was ambiguous. It sounded to me like they didn't want you to move the jumper from open to short or vice versa while the system was powered up. One should never unplug stuff while the system is powered up..
On the other hand, they may have meant to NEVER power the system up with the jumper shorted. Which was what I did.
Is it safe to use this procedure?
1. Power down system.
2. Remove Ram, Video card, CMOS battery
3. Short jumper
4. Turn system on, wait 30 sec
5. Shut system off, unshort jumper and put ram, vga, and cmos battery back in.
Or is this what they meant:
1. Power down system.
2. Remove Ram, Video, CMOS battery.
3. Short jumper, wait x seconds
4. Unshort jumper, put back in Ram, Video, battery
5. Turn system on
I used the first procedure.
I'm worried the mobo may be fried now.