If your USBasp has problems communicating, it may be due to too fast USB speeds. Try this in your avrdude config files for an alternative:

usbaspslow.name=USBasp Slow  
usbaspslow.communication=usb  
usbaspslow.protocol=usbasp  
usbaspslow.program.protocol=usbasp  
usbaspslow.program.tool=avrdude   
usbaspslow.program.extra_params=-Pusb -B5