i recently aquired a pc from work since we were upgrading, it contains a "gigabyte ga-6bxe " motherboard. to make a long story short , i was deleting some proprietary software and decided to move everything to a different location, so i shut everything down, disconnected all cables and set up across the room. turn on power,pushed the on button and nothing happens. i've done the following steps:
1. metered input power to power supply ( 110 vac)
2. internal power supply fuse is "ok"
3. metered on/off switch "makes/breaks " ok (appears to be soft start, no positve snap "on".

any new ideas would really be helpful since this was going to be a christmas present ....

Sounds like you've checked the incoming power and inside the PSU but have you checked the power connector to the mobo and the molex connectors to your devices, I beleive they will all be between 3.3 and 12 volts

Does the fan start on the PSU

Do you have a known good PSU you could swap just to prove mobo or psu is brokwn ?

Happy Xmas

:)