ok, good news. after stripping the wire and holding the connection, it turns on again. it still plays music, but i still have the white screen.

The idea with the shorting was to avoid exactly this problem---resoldering the wires.

Alligator clips might help you check it out.

I don't suppose you tried using the reset button once the power was restored to try to turn the unit on the first time? It didn't seem to do anything for me, but after connecting to the PC the screen came online in color, much to my surprise.