Chinese ATmega USBasp problem

I have a strange problem.
A week ago I picked up an Arduino nano, old one I have for 1-2 years. I started it, it booted and prompted me with serial communication from my very old project.
I wanted to upload a sketch to it - HVSP fuse reset for ATtiny85.
When I do this, I tend first to burn bootloader using my trusty old chinese USBasp.
I tried, but all of the sudden the bootloader cannot be written and the Arduino no longer replies to serial communication.
I run the avrdude with -F switch and found something strange.
The device signature is reported as 0x886bc7.
As the Atmel signature starts usually with 1E, I wondered what's going on.
So I re-run the program - and the signature came back as 0x888b63 - so different than the first one.
OK. I disconnected the board totally and re-executed the command with no arduino connected to USBasp - again, the signature changed with 0x88 still there, but the rest of the 6 hex numbers changing.
I did not panic at that time - I grabbed different nano (that I was using on a breadboard at that time) and did the same - and this time the bootloader flashed OK and the code loaded.
I thought that some static discharge or something killed my old nano, so I threw it at the corner of the desk and worked with the other one.
However, on Friday I received a post from china - 2 MEGA2560 boards.
I took the first one, burned the bootloader and the code. Everything OK.
But when I tried th do the other one, I received the same error and the device signature is again 0x88db0b and no programming is possible.
Is this a sign of dead board?
Or is there some possibility of loose connection or something?
I don't know where to start - googling for 2 days did not help :frowning:

It is like bad connection. Try to do this with full verbose output (switch on it in preferences) to obtain more detailed info. Do not use -F switch.
Meanwhile, you can use Mega - Arduino as ISP to burn the bootloader to Nano.

Thanks. I tried to test with a different cable yesterday, but I'll also try the Arduino isp tonight and report back.

Well, I tried. The result is all the same - it looks like the chips are totally dead.
I tested the arduino programmer on one Pro board - working OK.
Then I switched to the Nano.
With -F for chip identification output:

avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -cavrisp -P/dev/ttyUSB0 -b19200 -D -Uflash:w:/tmp/build7453036953223351891.tmp/i2c_scanner.cpp.hex:i -F

avrdude: Version 6.0.1, compiled on Apr 14 2015 at 19:04:16
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "/home/sancho/Desktop/esp8266/arduino/arduino-1.6.5/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
         User configuration file is "/home/sancho/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

         Using Port                    : /dev/ttyUSB0
         Using Programmer              : avrisp
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x15
         AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PC2
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : STK500
         Description     : Atmel AVR ISP

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x14

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x02

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x10
         Hardware Version: 4238024
         Firmware Version: 2070885696.32732
         Topcard         : STK502
         Vtarget         : 1.8 V
         Varef           : 0.0 V
         Oscillator      : Off
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: stk500_initialize(): (b) protocol error, expect=0x10, resp=0x01
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0x882b6f
avrdude: Expected signature for ATmega328P is 1E 95 0F
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x10

avrdude done.  Thank you.

And with no -F but 3x -v:

avrdude: Version 6.0.1, compiled on Apr 14 2015 at 19:04:16
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "/home/sancho/Desktop/esp8266/arduino/arduino-1.6.5/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
         User configuration file is "/home/sancho/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

         Using Port                    : usb
         Using Programmer              : usbasp
avrdude: usbasp_open("usb")
avrdude: seen device from vendor ->www.fischl.de<-
avrdude: seen product ->USBasp<-
         AVR Part                      : ATmega2560
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PA0
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65    10     8    0 no       4096    8      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           flash         65    10   256    0 yes    262144  256   1024  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : usbasp
         Description     : USBasp, http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/

avrdude: usbasp_initialize()
avrdude: usbasp_transmit("USBASP_FUNC_GETCAPABILITIES", 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)
avrdude: usbasp_spi_set_sck_period(0)
avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null)
avrdude: usbasp_transmit("USBASP_FUNC_SETISPSCK", 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)
avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update.
avrdude: usbasp_transmit("USBASP_FUNC_CONNECT", 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)
avrdude: usbasp_program_enable()
avrdude: usbasp_transmit("USBASP_FUNC_ENABLEPROG", 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)
         <= [01] 
avrdude: error: programm enable: target doesn't answer. 1 
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

avrdude: usbasp_close()
avrdude: usbasp_transmit("USBASP_FUNC_DISCONNECT", 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00)

avrdude done.  Thank you.