Did I screw up my flight controller? Can I fix it?

[zap2012]

Hello, everyone. This is my first post. I'm building a Gremlin, and everything was going well. My motors were spinning, I was just about getting ready to put the props on. Then I did something--honestly, I can't even remember what. The quad was plugged into the computer and it had a battery, too. And then I unplugged it or something--without disconnecting it from Betaflight, I think--and that's when everything went wrong. When I plug the flight controller in, nothing happens. The computer doesn't do anything with it, and the flight controller doesn't display any lights. Nothing I do changes this at all.

I've got no idea what to do. Reading around online, one suggestion was to reflash the firmware, but I can't get it to boot into DFU mode. It literally does nothing when I plug in the USB cable, regardless of whether the pads are jumped or not.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you.

Edit:
As I continued to mess around with it, I found two interesting things. If I use a different USB port, Windows recognizes that something has been plugged in, but doesn't know what. I can't do anything with it. There are still no lights on the flight controller.

Also, when I plug it into the USB port where Windows recognizes that something's lugged in, one spot on the flight controller gets really hot.

I assume this doesn't bode well.

 

[zap2012]

I found something interesting. One of the signal pads on the flight controller that needs to be soldered to an ESC is shorted out. But I can't find the short. Here are pictures of the front and back of the flight controller:

I don't know if this short is what's causing the flight controller to be completely non-responsive, but it seems like a good place to start. I just can't understand why that pad is shorted, because I can't see anything that would cause the short.

I'd appreciate any help anyone can offer.

 

[PsyBorg]

Check to see if the component next to that pad is a direct short. It looks a tad toasty. There should be some resistance if its a cap or resistor. If it's a diode or led it should only pass current one way using diode check on your meter.

Hard to be sure what it is but you should be able to confirm its status and if that is a possible culprit.