Thanks for the feedback. tman, the bag (which I'm not using under the mobo) and foam are non-conductive.

The CPU support list claims that all BIOS revs of this mobo support my CPU (E7300 Wolfdale, 2.66 "Core 2 Duo")

I have so much stuff to do today that I'm starting to get overwhelmed. I need to leave this until I can visit the store again and have them test it all on their bench until they find a setup that works and I can leave with a functional set of parts.