Ok, so some progress -
After reflowing a handful of cold solder joints, some of which were some of the early connections on the initial capacitors, the auto power on problem is now resolved. I did not find any solder flakes, bridges, or other shorts, simply reflowing the solder on some of my connections remedied this issue.
?I am however still seeing the black squares on the display and also realize that the backlight is not on. I've been reflowing the joints on the display board as well as their corresponding connections on the main board but havent had luck so far. Still stuck on black squares across the screen with no backlight. I've also tried reflashing the firmware by jumping the connection on the main PCB as described in the assembly manual but the issue persists.
