Did I kill my NES PPU or CPU?

[lupin3rd]

So I'm beginning to troubleshoot a Nintendo VS arcade board, and part of that requires me to obtain a known-working CPU. I decided that I had a couple of spare NES systems lying about so I decided to up one for the sacrifice.

Well, sacrifice is a nasty term and I'm not a monster -- so I decided to remove them as gently as I am able and reinstall sockets so that I could put the chips back after the troubleshooting was completed and therefore reuse my NES again.

So I fire up my Ungar soldering station and begin to heat the solder and remove it from the pins with a soldapult solder sucker. The PPU was the chip I did first -- now arguably I didn't need to do it all, but I wanted to possibly try some NESRGB action with a PPU from a VS system in the future, so I did it anyway.

The PPU was finally removed and a socket was installed. The CPU was removed easier after figuring out the idiosyncrasies of removing the PPU. I had the most difficulty with the PPU, and if I was a betting man I would guess that I toasted the PPU from all of the trial-and-error. How can I be sure which one is toast (also aware that both could be toast)?

I checked some of the pins with the logic probe, but since I am unable to get a game to boot with the CPU/PPU reinstalled, I'm not sure how much activity or what type I'd be receiving.

When powering on the NES with a game in it, the screen is just black without even the remotest sign of a screen change. Also interesting is that the red power LED does not appear to be coming on (or even blinking) while power is connected with or without a cartridge. I was able to confirm that the CPU and PPU are getting power and there is at least some activity on the pins of both.

Looking for ideas on the best way to identify the culprit, anybody have expertise in identifying what's wrong here?

TIA,
Chris

[the_crayon_king]

I'm like 100 percent sure that the power will turn on as normal without a PPU even inserted.
I have no idea about the CPU.

I'm no expert but I would guess you have did one of the following:
1. Installed ppu/cpu upside down.
2. Bridged a connection with solder or leftover flux.
3. Broke a trace when you pulled the chip.
4. You may have even pulled a through hole slot.

The simplest way to test would be to swap it out with another known working cpu.
You could also test the pins against their test point locations to rule that out.

I have damaged one of the caps near the CPU and it made a console that would not turn off no matter which button was pressed.
Maybe the opposite could happen as well ?
I would also check with a different power/reset connector just to rule that out.