Right, I had a stick of RAM die on me and after taking it out it gets to the "Initializing USB Controllers..." part and just hangs - they keyboard is unresponsive and after a while it just turns off.

I've unplugged all USB devices and all USB headers and I still get the same issue.

Nothing is overclocked.

What can I do?

1. unplug everything from the motherboard and leave it unplugged for at least 10 mins
2. re-connect only the motherboard power
3. most of the recent Asus motherboards I've looked at recently, have a switch/button on the board to reset the BIOS to factory defaults, try pressing that
4. if it boots, start adding the other components back in, one at a time

I've reset the CMOS, and removed all USB headers, Firewire header, USB devices etc.

Still won't boot.

Taken the sound card out, too.

Seems like it's dead

Now i'm VERY tempted to go and sell my PC bit-by-bit and make a new PC thats slower, but cheaper.

PS - There is no button on the board - have to take the battery out, THEN move some jumpers over and then move them back

Well, if you've disconnected everything from the motherboard (including ram, drives, etc) and still get nothing, then it's got to be either the motherboard or the power supply that's bust.
With that error though, it's almost certainly the motherboard.

Only thing left I can think of is getting a hold of them and asking them what to do. Maybe they might actually know about their own boards .

Quote from Jakg :

"Initializing USB Controllers..."

Wow that takes me back... I was getting this problem on an ABIT motherboard about 7 years ago for some reason. I wish I could recall what I did to fix it, but I just can't remember. What I do know is that it has nothing to do with any USB devices though, which I know sounds very wierd, but it's just the last line in the POST. It hangs after it initializes USB controllers.

Quote from Dennisjr13 :

Only thing left I can think of is getting a hold of them and asking them what to do. Maybe they might actually know about their own boards .

Today i'm gonna haul it up on my desk and run with a PSU, a Keyboard, a CPU, 1 Stick Of RAM & my GFX card - if it won't boot then (and it wont boot into the BIOS) then i'm SOL and will have to send it back.

Grrrrrrr i hate my PC sometimes!