Ok, it's been a few days now and here's my status. I went out and bought some thermal compound at Best Buy and reseated the cpu. I plug in my cpu fan on mobo, connect my power switch to mobo, connect my 20-pin ATX cable to mobo, connect my 4-pin ATX 12v cable to mobo, install my 1GB stick of memory on mobo, and connect my monitor cable to mobo. My monitor works just fine on another comp and I have also tried my friend's spare monitor. I have my motherboard resting on the anti-static bag it came in, and it is outside of the case.
When I plug in my power cord to the power supply and then flip my psu switch on, my fans start up right away and run fine until I cut power. My power switch on the front of my case works, both to "turn on" my computer as is and to "shut down"/turn off. The only problem is (and a huge one), my monitor doesn't show anything on screen, it just blinks on and off as if on standby...you know what I'm talking about. Also, whenever I try/have tried to plug in my chassis speaker my mobo, no sounds or beeps at all. I have reseated my ram multiple times, reseated my cpu once, checked my connections hundreds of times. Between stabbing my spare mattress with a screwdriver dozens of times, cursing like a lunatic, and wanting to cry (haven't cried since I was no older than 8)...I'm going to lose it soon.
Please help, any suggestions welcome. Time is of the essence, I could easily thrown my motherboard AND cpu into the street before long. And unfortunately, I'm not kidding. Thanks.