I hadn't thought about a faulty chip. I do have a few more 328s laying around I could try.
I don't have a scope, but I can at least do a test using my voltmeter to see if the pin on the board is getting a good connection to the arduino and power.
I am using a solderless breadboard for testing with awg28 jumpers.
Yeah, I do some troubleshooting on the tech side of things and I still have to ask my friends who are tech savvy if they have whatever it is plugged in properly, lol. Hey, I still do actually make that mistake every so often myself anyway, but I thought I checked all the obvious stuff.
thanks