Why does my AVRISP MKII Programmer not work?
Assuming everything is hooked up correctly, target microcontroller is turned on, then...


ISP mkII is running too fast for target device. (shouldn't be a problem out of the box I dont think, but if the target is running slower it can be. The -B flag can be used to slow it down, I'm not sure how it works with the mk2, though.
Target has no clock - fuses have been bungled, crystal isn't installed if it is set to crystal, no external clock if it is set to external clock.
Some peripheral you have it hooked up to it is overloading / driving the SPI lines, causing bus contention. Or your reset circuit won't let reset be pulled low, or low fast enough.(too much capacitance, too stiff of a pull up, etc).
More fuse bungling - ISP can be disabled, as can the reset pin (which also disables ISP). This may have happened in the past. Not on a new one, though. You'll need a high voltage programmer to get around this one.


And lastly, it could be blown. Fairly likely that is miswired, or one of the above, though.